Eleven international celebrity chefs who participated in a recent culinary tour to Israel were feted with several sumptuous especially prepared meals throughout their visit, but what really wowed them were the simple local specialties, such as the rich chocolaty rogalech pastries from the Marzipan bakery at the Jerusalem Mahane Yehuda open market, the traditional Jewish-Iraqi sabich sandwich with fried eggplant and hard-boiled egg, the late-night shawarma at Hakosem in Tel Aviv where customers waited in a line reaching out the door even at 2 a.m. to nab a warm pita stuffed with roasted meat, and always, the ever-present dazzling spices. “What I loved were the condiments,” says Marc Murphy, the owner of the New York restaurant Landmarc and a TV Judge on Food Network's “Chopped” television show. “The burned eggplant with tehina, the preserved lemons, the sabich sandwiches all were phenomenal.” Murphy, whose wife is Jewish, was last in Israel as a 12-year-old when he came on vacation with his family and though he remembers the long drive to float in the Dead Sea, his memory of the food they ate on the trip is close to nonexistent. But when his good friend Herb Karlitz told him about a food tour to Israel he was arranging, Murphy was enthusiastic about joining other American chefs to check out the current culinary scene. With Israeli chefs such as Michael Solomonov, Meir Adoni and Eyal Shani already introducing tastes of Israeli food in the US, Murphy says most American foodies have had some exposure to Israeli cuisine; but coming to Israel to taste the food in its original form was another experience all together. “We saw the herbs and spices in the Old City and experienced and tasted them in their country,” says Murphy. “We got what we were expecting and a lot more. Most impressive were the [outdoor] markets. They were stunning. I couldn't get enough of it. When you go to a market and see four-foot piles of parsley everywhere, you can say to yourself: this is what people cook with. Everything was so vibrant.” Dubbed as the “Celebrity Chef 'Birthright,'” the week-long late winter trip was the brainchild of Karlitz, a Jewish-American entrepreneur and leader in the food festival genre. Two years and three date changes in the making, the trip, which hosted American chefs from popular US culinary television programs, food critics and top restaurant owners, was the culmination of a dogged effort on Karlitz's part to make his vision into a reality. He even invested some of his own money in the trip when outside funding was not forthcoming because he felt so strongly about the importance of bringing over the chefs to highlight Israel's blossoming food scene. Having been behind the production of some of the largest food events in the United States including in New York, Las Vegas, Napa Valley and the Harlem Eat Up, which he co-founded with Marcus Samuelsson, Karlitz had not imagined the hurdles he would have to jump over while trying to set up his food tour, but in the end he preserved thanks to the Paul E. Singer Foundation, which stepped in to close the money gap just as Karlitz was about to give it all up. At one point Martha Stewart had even signed on for the trip but because of date changes which, in the end, had to be made, she unfortunately had to bow out, notes Karlitz. In addition to Murphy, the final roster of participating chefs included chef and television personality Amanda Freitag, a judge on the cooking reality show, “Chopped”; New York's Jams and Barbuto chef and restaurateur, Jonathan Waxman; Pig & Khao restaurant owner Leah Cohen; former food critic of The New York Times, Ruth Reichl; editor of Martha Stewart's “Living” magazine, Sarah Carey; the “No Leftovers” food and travel blogging team of TV personality and restaurateur, Eden Grinshpan – who is also a judge on “Top Chef Canada” – and chef Jenn Louis, who was twice a semifinalist for Best Chef: Northwest at the James Beard Awards and was nominated for a James Beard award for her cookbook, The Book of Greens; chef and restaurateur Nancy Silverton, the co-partner of the Mozza restaurant group; founder of the Jewish Food Society, Naama Shefi and celebrity chef and television personality, Andrew Zimmern. Karlitz embarked on the project after his older daughter, who visited Israel during a study-year abroad in Europe, told him she had loved the food. “She is a very picky eater, so when she said she loved the food I went back to Israel to check it out,” he says. The last time the Brooklyn-born Karlitz had been in Israel was 20 years ago, and he had not been very impressed with the food so he was intrigued by his daughter's observation. “I was schnitzeled-out and did not want to see one more cucumber when I came here 20 years ago,” he says. On his second visit though, he was blown away by the Israeli restaurant and food scene, he says. The celebrity chefs and their Israeli counterparts (credit: Yuval Revach) “I realized after the second trip that I was on to something,” he adds, and though assistance from the tourism ministry and other Israeli organizations was not as available as he was accustomed to when he has worked with other countries to create awareness about the local cuisine, Karlitz is pleased he was finally able to pull off the trip. “I accomplished what I set out to do. I am happy with what we did. I am just not happy that it took me so long and that I had to work so hard to do it. Now everyone is coming out of the woodwork,” says Karlitz. He had more chefs wanting to come on the trip but not enough money to pay their way, he said. In the end he was able to team up with a number of partners including founding sponsor EY, and other sponsors including Burn Advocates Network, StartUp Nation Central, the Paul E. Singer Foundation, the Israel Export Institute, the Israeli-Canadian philanthropist Sylvan Adams, the philanthropic businesswoman and social entrepreneur Raya Strauss Ben-Dror, founder and head of the Galilee Treasures Project, the Kirsh Foundation, Lauren Fried, founder of “Food for Good,” Yitzhak Applbaum, Via Sabra, and Israeli chef Ido Zarmi. Karlitz specifically kept the trip non-political and declined to have the group meet with any politicians, including American ambassador David Friedman. Their packed tour schedule took them from Jerusalem's Old City and Mahane Yehuda to a goat farm outside Jerusalem, the famed Uri Buri fish restaurant in Akko and the thriving culinary scene in Tel Aviv. Still recovering from the strain of organizing the trip, Karlitz says he is not sure if he will go for a second trip, though he has some of the world's best chefs on a waiting list. “The first time is always the hardest,” he acknowledges. Israel has gone from a country with a population of about 800,000 to one with 9 million people who have brought their food traditions with them, he says. “What is Israeli cuisine? It is a cuisine of immigrants. People have come here from everywhere in the world in 70 years. Wine was first made here, and olive oil. Now there are 150 small amazing wineries. Before the only reason to buy an Israel wine was if you wanted something kosher. Now it is good value for the money,” Karlitz says. With Jewish, Arab and influences from other Mediterranean regions readily apparent in the food, Israeli food is truly the result of a melting pot of cultures, agrees Murphy. “When we were eating certain things they would say “this has Arab influence.” There was never a conversation in a negative way but in a way sort of bragging of the inclusion of ingredients and techniques into the dishes,” says Murphy, who back in his home kitchen has been experimenting with his own version of a whole roasted cauliflower with a lemony tehina-yogurt dressing which he tasted in Israel. “I think that is the way of the world. People travel and fall in love with an ingredient and take it back and try to recreate it. I am all for what comes of that. New York chefs, we are a part of a melting pot too.” He has not felt any political backlash for any of his social media postings about the Israel trip or Israeli cuisine, he said. “Everybody loves food. Chefs are neutral. We don't care about conflicts or religion. We care about food,” Murphy says. Chef Eden Grinshpan who spent her childhood summers in Israel with her cousins near the Carmel Market in Tel Aviv and returns on her own almost twice a year now, said even she was amazed by the food scene the tour revealed to her. “I grew up going to the shuk and…it was very exciting and refreshing to see new places,” says Grinshpan, who was raised in Toronto. “It's not just about falafel and shawarma anymore.” She especially got hooked on Yemenite dishes, such as the Yemenite lachuch pita, which she had not paid attention to before, she said, and is now testing out new recipes with the Yemenite spices she brought back home with her, which she hopes to introduce into her menu once she feels confident about the results. “The lachuch looks like a cross between a pancake and a crumpet and you dip it into this incredibly delicious Yemenite soup,” says Grinshpan. “I didn't know anything about Yemenite cuisine growing up so close to all those Yemenite restaurants and it was a real eye-opener for me.” The lively Israeli food scene has experienced a “huge growth and change” and is strategically suited to highlight the excellent quality of Israeli produce and simple cooking techniques of the region, she added. “All Israelis know Israeli cuisine comes from the different cultures that came to Israel. And there are different inspirations and it is Arab and Palestinian influences. There are Iraqi inspirations and Lebanese dishes. Every cuisine brings their traditions and people really make an effort to highlight the different cuisine traditions and make sure people know where the food comes from,” she says. “It is Israeli cuisine because it took its inspiration from Israel and is happening in Israel – just like Italian-American cuisine and Mexican-American cuisine in the United States.” Notably, the Eastern European Jewish food largely served as Jewish food in North America and elsewhere has not had a major impact on Israeli cuisine, she said, likely because those Eastern European dishes are less suited for the Middle East climate. “What the chef's brought back with them from Israel were all the different spices to make new dishes with. That is an experience they all had, which they will remember forever,” says Karlitz. “The dinner at the Tower of David was amazing, each course was something, and the fact that it was all made kosher blew everyone's mind. Israel has a lot of fresh ingredients and the ability [of Israeli chefs] to know what to do with those ingredients is right up there completely on the world stage. These chefs will be new ambassadors for Israeli cuisine.”
