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Israeli foodie serves up a hearty earful of native cuisine

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Message: If you are having trouble reading this email, you may view this article online at: http://www.jweekly.com/57863/full/57863/israeli-foodie-serves-up-a-hearty-earful-of-native-cuisine/ Israeli foodie serves up a hearty earful of native cuisine Thursday, April 22, 2010 | by stacey palevsky The Rachael Ray of Israel is coming to a JCC near you. <div class="capDivLeft" style="width: 126px;"><img alt="BAchef Gur, Janna" class="left" height="139" src="/images/uploads/y_photos_2010/zi04_23_10/BAchef Gur, Janna.jpg" title="Janna Gur" width="126" /> <div class="caption">Janna Gur</div> </div> Janna Gur, beloved Israeli food journalist and cookbook author, will be in the Bay Area for three days next week and will be speaking at Jewish Community Centers in Walnut Creek, Palo Alto and Foster City. She’ll also do a cooking demo for chefs at Google headquarters in Mountain View. “It frightens me a little because I’ve heard so much about the amazing food there,” Gur said. “I want to do something they don’t already know. I’ll probably teach them to work with tahini. It’s an amazing ingredient; great things can be done with it.” Gur devotes nine recipes to tahini — and includes a historical explanation and a close-up photograph of the gooey sauce — in her 2008 cookbook “The Book of New Israeli Food: A Culinary Journey.” That dietary journey, from biblical times to the cosmopolitan sheen of contemporary Israel, will be a cornerstone in all three of her local JCC talks, including one in Hebrew at the Oshman Family JCC in Palo Alto. <div class="capDivLeft" style="width: 216px;"><img alt="BAchef1" class="left" height="304" src="/images/uploads/y_photos_2010/zi04_23_10/BAchef1.jpg" title="Janna Gur’s “The Book of New Israeli Food” shows off the culinary diversity of Israel’s restaurants, streets and home kitchens. photos/eilon paz" width="216" /> <div class="caption">Janna Gur’s “The Book of New Israeli Food” shows off the culinary diversity of Israel’s restaurants, streets and home kitchens. photos/eilon paz</div> </div> Gur is the co-founder and editor of Israel’s gourmet food and wine magazine, Al Hashulchan (On the Table). During a phone interview from her Tel Aviv home, she explained that the modern Israeli food movement took off in the 1990s, when the country’s economy boomed and everyone was optimistic about peace. “People suddenly felt that it was legitimate to enjoy life’s creature comforts,” Gur said. “Israelis had a desire to be like the rest of world, to lead the good life.” Israelis started to travel more. When they returned, they were more interested in cuisines from around the world. Chefs became more adventurous as their clientele became more exploratory and discriminating. “It was like a snowball,” Gur said. An increased interest in food meant a heightened awareness of wine, olive oil and artisan bread. What followed: an increasing pride in people’s own ethnic and cultural cuisines. “I always say Israeli cuisine began when local chefs stopped trying to create French or Italian or Asian food — when they started to take their own cooking heritage and the local traditions and created modern, relevant versions,” Gur said. <img alt="***BAchef3" class="left" height="425" src="/images/uploads/y_photos_2010/zi04_23_10/***BAchef3.jpg" title="***BAchef3" width="216" />“To use a metaphor: When immigrants came [to Israel] in the ’50s, it was suggested they change their names to something more Hebrew-sounding, but not today,” Gur added. “Today you are entitled to retain your heritage, and this includes your culinary heritage as well.” Gur wasn’t always a foodie. She was born in Latvia and immigrated to Israel in 1974 with her family. She studied English literature and art history at the Hebrew University, and after her military service, she earned a graduate degree in translation and literary theory at Tel Aviv University. She then worked as a flight attendant and a Russian-English literary translator. In 1984, she met her husband, Ilan Gur, a journalist and independent publisher. They launched Al Hashulchan in 1991 as a trade publication for chefs. It quickly became a hit among home cooks, as well. “I would never have dreamed one day I’d end up [working with food] professionally,” Gur said. “I’m still not a chef. I write about food and love food.” For years, Gur had dreamed about writing a love letter to Jewish and Israeli cuisines. Published two years ago, “The Book of New Israeli Food” is exactly that. At 304 pages and coffee-table size, it’s chock-full of some 200 recipes from a dozen star Israeli chefs, along with many of Gur’s own creations. The book also dives into Israeli culture through its explanations of Jewish holidays, kibbutz life, Israeli agriculture and street food. <img alt="BAchef2" class="left" height="299" src="http://www.jweekly.com/images/uploads/y_photos_2010/zi04_23_10/BAchef2.jpg" title="BAchef2" width="216" />“I wanted to make a book that would tell the world the story of Israeli food,” Gur said. “I wanted to try to explain: What is Israeli food? It turns out it’s a long answer. It’s a fusion of so many cultures, it’s so dynamic and it changes all the time.” Janna Gur is scheduled to give the following lectures: • “Tel Aviv: 100 Years of Culinary History,” 7:30 p.m., Tuesday, April 27, Contra Costa JCC, 2071 Tice Valley Blvd., Walnut Creek. $35. (925) 938-7800. • “The Culinary Big-Bang in Israel” (in Hebrew), 8 p.m. Wednesday, April 28, Oshman Family JCC, 3921 Fabian Way, Palo Alto. $18. (650) 223-8600. • “The Story of Israeli Food from Biblical to Modern Times,” 7 p.m. Thursday, April 29, Peninsula JCC, 800 Foster City Blvd., Foster City. $7. (650) 212-7522.

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