Several hundred people gathered in the back courtyard of the Eucalyptus restaurant opposite the walls of Jerusalem’s Old City on September 14 for the launch of The Eucalyptus Cookbook, which presents stories of food and life in the capital, in conjunction with recipes and beautifully photographed dishes.
Basson, always dressed in spotless chef’s whites and with a trademark thin ponytail, has been a fixture of the Jerusalem culinary scene for decades. His restaurant, which started as a hut built around a eucalyptus tree that Basson planted more than 60 years ago on Tu Bishvat, has moved several times before settling in its current location at the top of Chutzot Hayotzer.
For more than 30 years, Eucalyptus has offered a unique style of cooking Basson calls “biblical cuisine.” It includes herbs and plants mentioned in the Bible, many of which he forages in the hills around Jerusalem. The dishes are heavy on vegetables; if you eat at the restaurant, the chef may stop by your table to tell you the story of the dish you are eating.
Now, thanks to The Eucalyptus Cookbook, even those far from Jerusalem can enjoy the restaurant’s famous dishes and learn about both Basson and food in Israel. The cookbook is dedicated to Basson’s Iraqi-born mother, “Spirons Basson, with love and adoration. Thank you for the love seasoned with curiosity and knowledge of food that you have instilled in me from infancy to the present day.”
Although elderly, his mother cooks often, especially bamya (okra), “when she wants to spoil me,” says the chef.
Cooks: Trust your instincts
In the opening chapter called “Of Salt and Precision,” Basson urges home cooks to trust their instincts when it comes to cooking. He writes about his mother’s tomato-mint soup and how she makes it without even tasting it.
“When I cook, I need to taste the soup again and again. At the fine-tuning stage, I add some lemon and I taste, I add a pinch of salt and taste again. And again, I add lemon juice, salt or sugar and taste.”
But, he says, it is important to learn to cook without tasting, just relying on your sense of smell.
“I believe that a good cook has a good memory. I believe that my mother’s way of cooking is primarily about the memory of scents, and the comparison is done by the feedback mechanism….I encourage you to trust your instinct or, to be precise, your nose, when you cook. Allow your own sense of taste and smell to guide you through the process.”
The cookbook is divided into sections: Vegetables; Soups (including his mother’s Tomato-Mint Soup); Grains and Beans; Meat and Chicken; Fish; Sweets; Cocktails; and Condiments and Basics.
Each recipe is accompanied by stunning photos and the story of the dish. The text alongside each recipe tells a story; for example, of the Vegan Steak made from eggplant.
“The eggplant steak and the grilled wild mushrooms are there to provide the carnivore experience of roasted juicy flesh, with smoky aromas and sizzling sound. Both the eggplant and mushrooms have a rich texture which makes them great candidates for meat substitutes that appeal to our other senses of sight and touch and, of course, taste…These dishes are the hedonistic objects of desire into which you want to sink your teeth, yet they work as well as health-conscious choices. Meat lovers are welcome to broaden their horizons and try something new.”
I’ve been trying to eat more plant-based foods for health reasons, and my daughter offered to make me the Jacob and Esau Lentil Stew, based on the stew that Jacob gave Esau in exchange for his birthright. But, Basson says, there is a problem with the biblical account. Red lentils lose their color when cooked, so why did Esau refer to the stew as “that red stuff”?
Basson says that “Halacha (Jewish law) scholar Ben Ish Chai explains the conflict by questioning Esau’s use of the word ‘please.’ Esau came tired and famished from the field; he was a hunter and wanted to eat. Did he ask politely and wait for the stew to be cooked, or was he really using a different meaning of the original word in Hebrew, na, which means ‘rare’ or ‘raw’?”
One of the most famous dishes at Eucalyptus is the makloubeh, an Arab dish which Basson learned from one of his sous chefs, Abu Abedaia, from the Palestinian village of Battir. Every night at Eucalyptus there is a makloubeh ceremony, which started as a way to make the dish more visually pleasing.
“That was the birth of the makloubeh ceremony. A large round stainless-steel tray was placed as a cover of the large makloubeh pot, and then turned upside down on a central presentation table. ‘Upside down’ is actually the meaning of makloubeh, so it was perfectly fitting that the ceremony would include that dramatic touch.
“As the years passed, we added the ceremonial countdown from seven to zero, to commemorate the walls of Jericho falling down after the Israelites marched around them for the seventh time on the seventh day. The whole crowd in the restaurant joins and gathers together around the makloubeh, eliminating the metaphoric walls between them.
“The makloubeh manages to create its beautiful magic of bringing people together as in a traditional village – to be fed and comforted and to rejoice.”
Basson has also worked to break down walls in his own life. He is an active member of Chefs for Peace, which aims to bring Jews, Muslims, and Christians together through food.
“Moshe is a friend and a brother,” said Palestinian chef Ibrahim Abu Seir, the owner of Patisserie Abu Seir in the Old City of Jerusalem. “It’s amazing to see people from three religions in the kitchen. We don’t talk about religion or politics. We talk about food.”
Another good friend and chef, Michael Katz, the owner of the Atilio cooking school, mentioned Basson’s stories.
“Food is a wonderful tool for Moshe to tell stories of the trees and earth and hope,” he said. “Now many generations to come will hear your stories.”
For Basson, the book launch was clearly an emotional moment that he compared to the circumcision ceremonies of his two sons.
“I was really thrilled and so excited just like when I was a young inexperienced man at the brit of my son Lior, and then Ronny,” he told The Report.
At the launch he also thanked his daughter Sharon, who helped him write the text.
“Whenever I was stuck on something, she would go to the Talmud or the Bible and write what I was supposed to write,” he said. ■
- The Eucalyptus Cookbook
- By Moshe Basson with Sharon Fradis
- Levin Press, 2023
- 244 pages; $45