Pastry chef Idan Hadad creates a world of gastronomic art every day
By MIRIAM KRESHPastry chef Idan Hadad(photo credit: MICHAL REVIVO)
In his well-organized kitchen, himself at the top of the chain of command, with mixers whirring and timers pinging, Idan Hadad’s team works in quiet harmony. Trays of exquisite cakes and tarts are set down carefully for the final, individual touches of flair. Like Bach creating musical beauty from the fugue’s measured structure, pastry chef Hadad invents gastronomic wonders from precisely measured ingredients and time.There are no shortcuts in Hadad’s kitchen. Everything is made fresh and from scratch, as befits a graduate of France’s Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Pâtisserie. Only 27, Hadad has already worked his way through an impressive list of high-quality kitchens. But he began, at age 15, washing dishes at a local eatery in Nahariya, where he grew up.“I was always attracted to cooking,” recalls Hadad. “The only way I could get into a professional kitchen at that age was washing dishes, so I did that. The owner liked my work. After a while he told me, ‘Come cook,’ which was what I wanted. I cooked there until my army service.”After the army, Hadad studied at the Dan Gourmet School in Haifa (now in Tel Aviv). His mentor there was chef Eitan Ben-Tsaadon, “My mentor then and today,” he says. Hadad went on to work at the Hotel Dan Eilat, and from there to France.“It was an intensive course for international students,” he says. “I took a private tutor, to learn French kitchen and pastry vocabulary.” He graduated to the professional level, and having gained his certificate, he returned to Israel. He gained experience working at Herzliya’s Ritz-Carlton Hotel, Elma in Zichron Ya’acov, and Herbert Samuel in Tel Aviv. He was a guest chef on the Channel 2 MasterChef reality show.Always in pursuit of perfection, Hadad traveled abroad to garner deeper experience in London, New York, France again, Ukraine and Hong Kong. And this driven young chef keeps kosher. “There were many times when I would watch, cook, learn and not taste,” he says. “I’d recreate the recipes later.” He now manages the bakery at the Dan Hilton Hotel in Tel Aviv, with a dozen sub chefs under him.“Among the important things I took away from working in foreign kitchens was this: treat your team well. I worked with the best, also the worst of chefs, men who degraded their staff and destroyed their self-esteem. This is absolutely not the way to work.“In my kitchen, we’re like family. I encourage my cooks to think freely, to reinvent recipes as they see them. I take responsibility for any errors that occur. My standards with ingredients and the finished products are high. My cooks know it, and it motivates them. They strive to reach and to overtake those standards.”Recipes, Hadad says, go in and out of fashion. “A pastry chef must always be thinking forward to the next beautiful presentation, the innovative dessert that customers haven’t seen or tasted before. Otherwise, you get stuck in tired recipes, old ways of thinking.”Asked what advice he has for aspiring pastry cooks, Hadad says, “Study basic theory at a professional school. Learn what each ingredient gives and how to handle it. Read a lot about the art. Work in restaurants. Seek the best teachers and learn from them.“Experiment and develop your skills. A pastry cook should get up in the morning with ideas in his head about how he’s going to work the best ingredients with his own hands. It’s very hard work,” he adds.“I’ve made my mistakes. When I first started working, I burnt a batch of strudel; forgot to set the timer. I’m not ashamed to say I cried. But I learned from it. A young cook can rise through the phases of learning and make the hard work worth it.”Hadad looks forward to the time when the Israeli public will seek out fine pastry and be willing to pay for it. “My ingredients are expensive, and the labor is specialized,” he says. “It can’t come cheap. In France, people routinely pay NIS 80 or NIS 100 for a fine eclair with a cup of coffee at a cafe. Israelis prefer to buy one large cake for NIS 30 or NIS 40 at the supermarket.“True, the French earn higher salaries and have smaller families. And while Israel is young, just starting to define its cuisine, the French have a very old gastronomic culture. But little by little, gastronomic awareness is rising here. Already Israelis are turning away from industrial cheesecake and seeking artisanal baked goods.”Asked what his dreams are, Hadad answers simply, “I’m happy where I am. Here at the Tel Aviv Hilton, I have 11 or 12 cooks in my team. We produce crazy quantities of cakes and desserts every day. We teach seminars and hold events.“As for the future? I’d like to become the best pastry chef in Israel. I want to continue traveling and meeting professionals in my field. I love the exactitude of baking; the precise steps which, at the same time, free my imagination.“The reward for the hard work isn’t only a good salary.It’s the compliments from customers and colleagues. It’s when a person looks at my pastries and says, ‘Wow!’”In his well-organized kitchen, himself at the top of the chain of command, with mixers whirring and timers pinging, Idan Hadad’s team works in quiet harmony. Trays of exquisite cakes and tarts are set down carefully for the final, individual touches of flair.Like Bach creating musical beauty from the fugue’s measured structure, pastry chef Hadad invents gastronomic wonders from precisely measured ingredients and time.There are no shortcuts in Hadad’s kitchen. Everything is made fresh and from scratch, as befits a graduate of France’s Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Pâtisserie.Only 27, Hadad has already worked his way through an impressive list of high-quality kitchens. But he began, at age 15, washing dishes at a local eatery in Nahariya, where he grew up.“I was always attracted to cooking,” recalls Hadad.“The only way I could get into a professional kitchen at that age was washing dishes, so I did that. The owner liked my work. After a while he told me, ‘Come cook,’ which was what I wanted. I cooked there until my army service.”After the army, Hadad studied at the Dan Gourmet School in Haifa (now in Tel Aviv). His mentor there was chef Eitan Ben-Tsaadon, “My mentor then and today,” he says. Hadad went on to work at the Hotel Dan Eilat, and from there to France.“It was an intensive course for international students,” he says. “I took a private tutor, to learn French kitchen and pastry vocabulary.” He graduated to the professional level, and having gained his certificate, he returned to Israel.He gained experience working at Herzliya’s Ritz-Carlton Hotel, Elma in Zichron Ya’acov, and Herbert Samuel in Tel Aviv. He was a guest chef on the Channel 2 MasterChef reality show.Always in pursuit of perfection, Hadad traveled abroad to garner deeper experience in London, New York, France again, Ukraine and Hong Kong. And this driven young chef keeps kosher. “There were many times when I would watch, cook, learn and not taste,” he says. “I’d recreate the recipes later.” He now manages the bakery at the Dan Hilton Hotel in Tel Aviv, with a dozen sub chefs under him.“Among the important things I took away from working in foreign kitchens was this: treat your team well. I worked with the best, also the worst of chefs, men who degraded their staff and destroyed their self-esteem. This is absolutely not the way to work.“In my kitchen, we’re like family. I encourage my cooks to think freely, to reinvent recipes as they see them. I take responsibility for any errors that occur. My standards with ingredients and the finished products are high.My cooks know it, and it motivates them. They strive to reach and to overtake those standards.”Recipes, Hadad says, go in and out of fashion. “A pastry chef must always be thinking forward to the next beautiful presentation, the innovative dessert that customers haven’t seen or tasted before. Otherwise, you get stuck in tired recipes, old ways of thinking.”Asked what advice he has for aspiring pastry cooks, Hadad says, “Study basic theory at a professional school.Learn what each ingredient gives and how to handle it.Read a lot about the art. Work in restaurants. Seek the best teachers and learn from them.“Experiment and develop your skills. A pastry cook should get up in the morning with ideas in his head about how he’s going to work the best ingredients with his own hands. It’s very hard work,” he adds.“I’ve made my mistakes. When I first started working, I burnt a batch of strudel; forgot to set the timer. I’m not ashamed to say I cried. But I learned from it. A young cook can rise through the phases of learning and make the hard work worth it.”Hadad looks forward to the time when the Israeli public will seek out fine pastry and be willing to pay for it.“My ingredients are expensive, and the labor is specialized,” he says. “It can’t come cheap. In France, people routinely pay NIS 80 or NIS 100 for a fine eclair with a cup of coffee at a cafe. Israelis prefer to buy one large cake for NIS 30 or NIS 40 at the supermarket.“True, the French earn higher salaries and have smaller families. And while Israel is young, just starting to define its cuisine, the French have a very old gastronomic culture.But little by little, gastronomic awareness is rising here. Already Israelis are turning away from industrial cheesecake and seeking artisanal baked goods.”Asked what his dreams are, Hadad answers simply, “I’m happy where I am. Here at the Tel Aviv Hilton, I have 11 or 12 cooks in my team. We produce crazy quantities of cakes and desserts every day. We teach seminars and hold events.“As for the future? I’d like to become the best pastry chef in Israel. I want to continue traveling and meeting professionals in my field. I love the exactitude of baking; the precise steps which, at the same time, free my imagination.“The reward for the hard work isn’t only a good salary.It’s the compliments from customers and colleagues. It’s when a person looks at my pastries and says, ‘Wow!’” \Lemon Tart Makes two 23-cm. tarts or three to five 10-cm. tartletsShort crust:• 150 gr. (²⁄3 cup) unsalted butter• 100 gr. (1 cup) powdered sugar• 2 eggs• ½ tsp. salt• 75 gr. (¹⁄3 cup) ground almonds• 250 gr. (1 cup) white flourMix the butter and powdered sugar until they form a uniform mass.Add the eggs and mix briefly.Add the salt, ground almonds and flour.Mix to obtain a uniform dough.Wrap in plastic film. Chill the dough for 30 minutes.Roll dough on lightly floured surface. Place into tart or tartlet pans.Freeze ½ hour.Bake in a pre-heated oven at 170º for 15-20 minutes. The crusts should be a golden color, not brown.Cool the baked crustsLemon cream:• 160 gr. (²⁄3 cup) lemon juice• 230 gr. (1 cup) sugar• 4 eggsPlace all ingredients in the top of a double boiler and whisk until thick. Strain the cream into a clean bowl. Let it cool.Fill the cooled tart crusts with lemon cream.Freeze the cream-filled tarts 1 hour.Italian meringue: • 4 egg whites• 200 gr. sugar• 50 gr. water• Zest of 1 lemon or limeBoil the water and sugar over medium heat.When the syrup forms a thread, remove from heat.Whip the egg whites.Slowly beat the syrup into the whipped whites. Continue beating until the whites are firm.Top the filled tarts with the meringue. You can either pipe several “clouds” of meringue, as in the photograph, or spread it evenly over the tart.Sprinkle ½ to all of the lemon or lime zest over the meringue to add a little color and aroma. Serve.
Related Tagscookingrecipe
if(catID != 151){
var cont = `Take Israel home with the new Jerusalem Post Store