Tel Aviv braces for takeover by foreign chefs

Round Tables project pairs Israeli and international cooks in effort to further gastro-diplomacy

By Jessica Steinberg

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28 October 2015, 11:48 pm

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Jessica Steinberg, The Times of Israel's culture and lifestyles editor, covers the Sabra scene from south to north and back to the center

The chefs are arriving. They’re coming to Tel Aviv for the first set of Round Tables, a global culinary initiative of 26 chefs and restauranteurs from eight international restaurants and the same number of local eateries, preparing gastronomical delights for some 10,000 diners over the course of the month of November.

Hailing from New York, London, Barcelona, Rome, Berlin, Amsterdam and Athens, some with a coveted Michelin star, each chef will take over one of Tel Aviv’s best restaurants for an entire week.

Tel Aviv is the first destination of this global program, founded by Israeli entrepreneur and restauranteur Yair Bakair, and sponsored by American Express.

Earlier this week, however, the BDS movement called on the chefs to cancel their participation in Round Tables, sending letters and messages through Twitter and Facebook.

None of the chefs have responded, said Maya Kravat, whose public relations agency helped organize the event.

“We’ve worked incredibly hard to pull this off,” said Kravat, noting that Round Tables is really a culinary project, meant to reinforce Israel’s status in gastro-diplomacy, advocating the role of national cuisine in changing public perception and image.

The chef pairs already spent time together in the visiting chefs’ home restaurants, preparing full menus based on flagship dishes and inspired by Israeli flavors and ingredients for the Tel Aviv sojourn.

The beneficiaries of the culinary event are the diners, who have paid NIS 269 ($70) for a tasting menu (NIS 229 for American Express cardholders, who will also receive a glass of Golan Heights Winery’s Jordan T² 2009).

Most of the dinner reservations are sold out, but there are a few left on the Round Tables website.

The chefs have also made their purchases already, said Kravat, and will do a run through of their meals over the weekend, with the first meals served on Monday night.

The first week of Round Tables will include Michelin-starred Italian restaurant Stazione di Posta at Meir Adoni’s kosher Lumina restaurant, the only kosher restaurant in the project, as well as New York’s The Fat Radish, with its farm-to-table kitchen meeting up with The Blue Rooster, headed by Shaul Ben Aderet.