Get Instant Loan up to ₹10 Lakh!
Hungry Planet | Zachi Bukshester
Waves of immigrations have made Israel more accepting of culinary changes
A date with history
Zachi Bukshester, 55, says he is the oldest among a new generation of Israeli chefs. His Halva Parfait made waves when he first combined the West Asian dessert with the French cooking style 30 years ago at his restaurant, The Pink Ladle in Tel Aviv. At the Hyatt Regency Delhi earlier this year, he went a step farther and made the dessert with tahini—a sesame seeds-based paste that is typically used with salads and savoury dishes. The Pink Ladle closed down in 1994; Bukshester now owns two chains of restaurants in Israel—the Black Bar n Burger and Diana in The City.
Bukshester was in the Capital for the Israeli Food Week organized in association with the Embassy of Israel in New Delhi. Edited excerpts from an interview:
How has the long history of immigrations influenced Israeli food?
What comprises Shabbat food?
You know we are Jewish mostly. On Saturday, we observe Shabbat and are not allowed to work or do anything stressful. So if you want to have a hot meal on Saturday for lunch, you must put it in the oven or on stove on Friday. Every Jewish family will have a couple of recipes that can be cooked for up to 24 hours. The most famous (example) worldwide is Cholent, which is a heavy combination of meats, all kinds of beans and wheat. If you are born in Bukhara and you are Jewish, you will have your Bakhsh (rice cooked with meat or chicken and green herbs) made in advance. Religious families will have what they call the Saturday plate so they can keep the food warm. But you don’t want to keep it warm so long that it becomes dry.
What ingredients are important in Israeli cooking? Do you still use the seven species of the Bible—wheat, barley, grape, fig, pomegranates, olive (oil), and dates?
We use a lot of fresh vegetables: tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, string beans and okra. As a restaurateur, I spend more on Spanish lemons perhaps than meat. All Israelis you ask will say, “I love meat,” but actually, Israel is a haven for vegetarians.
Then there are the seven foods of the Bible...all of these are still used. Barley is less common, though, we have wheat—we are a little bit Americanized. We have a holiday called Tu Bishvat. It is a holiday of dried food because Jewish people who lived abroad for many years did not have fresh Israeli food to celebrate with. They ate dried apricots, raisins, all the (Biblical) foods you named, but dried. Now people who have returned from Europe still like dried food.
We also use grapevine leaves. We have had grapes in Israel for thousands of years. Now there’s a big industry with many small boutique wineries. The small leaves are good for salad, and the big ones, you stuff them with a little bit of rice, pine nuts and mild spices. Also, olive oil is important in Israeli cooking—we like the oil from Syrian olives.
What are the popular street foods in Israel?
The strongest base of street food is the pita bread, because you can put things in pita bread and roll it in a piece of paper. Falafel is common. There’s also something called the Jerusalem mixed grilled—it is the offal of chicken with spices and a lot of onions. You fry it and put it in pita. Hummus is another addition from Arab cuisine. You cannot ignore hummus; it’s part of the Israeli diet. It’s morning food, but Israelis will eat it for lunch also. You go to a hummus place, there you’ll take the pita bread and move your wrist deftly around the plate to mop up every last bit of the hummus. You put olive oil on it, of course.
Catch all the Business News, Market News, Breaking News Events and Latest News Updates on Live Mint. Download The Mint News App to get Daily Market Updates.
MoreLess
First Published:24 Aug 2013, 12:03 AM IST
- Top Gainers
- Top Losers
- 52 Week High