The Naked Chef gets inspired by Old City spices and vegan TLV
‘This is a cook or chef’s heaven,’ says British celebratory chef Jamie Oliver during his Channel 4 show filmed in Israel
Jessica Steinberg, The Times of Israel's culture and lifestyles editor, covers the Sabra scene from south to north and back to the center
Remember when celebrity chef Jamie Oliver visited Israel last January?
Now we get to find out what he did when he was here. The Naked Chef filmed segments for his UK Channel 4 show, “Jamie’s Meat-Free Meals,” which aired earlier this month.
In the show, he first heads to a spice shop in the Old City market, where he chats about the wonders of zaatar and baharat and a pyramid of spices created by the shop owner.
“This is a cook or chef’s heaven,” declares Oliver, who is enthralled by the possibilities of flavor.
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From there, it was to Tel Aviv to experience the vegan food scene. Oliver went to the Sultana vegan shwarma joint, and after a hug from owner and renowned vegan chef Harel Zakim, he examined the mushroom and soy shwarma.
“This is a kebab house but not with meat,” he declared, finding out that it takes about four hours to build the carefully layered spit of mushrooms, soy and onions.
“This is love and care with your humble kind of mushrooms,” said Oliver. “The lead actor here is the mushroom.”
After a bite of the mushroom shwarma rolled in a laffa bread piled with fresh salad, Oliver declared, “Mamma Mia!”
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“It’s very clever, it’s not the normal kind of fast food,” he said.
To which Zakaim replied, “It’s slow fast food.”
Finally, Oliver wraps up the episode with a plan to notice these “little techniques that we can embrace and take back home.”
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