An Israeli Chef Looks to the Landscape

An Israeli Chef Looks to the Landscape
"I came back to Israel to develop a local cuisine." Recipes: Swiss Chard
and Lamb Torte With Fennel-Pomegranate Relish | High Holy Days Collection Follow NYT Food on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest.
8, 2017
MATTAT, Israel — The winding path to the chef Erez Komarovsky’s home, overlooking a village here in the Upper
Galilee in Israel, is lined with a wild mix of pomegranate and olive trees, fennel and chickpea plants.
He grew up in Tel Aviv, accompanying his grandmother on her weekly outings to the Carmel market, and hanging around his Egyptian neighbor’s kitchen — an experience
that led him to develop a taste for ingredients like okra, eggplant and cardamom.
This is what Israeli food is all about." These days, Mr. Komarovsky is concentrating on the cooking of the Upper Galilee, incorporating Lebanese, Druse (a religious
and ethnic group in the region) and hyperlocal ingredients into his recipes.
Janna Gur said that Erez is the prophet of new Israeli cuisine,
Mr. Komarovsky was instrumental in changing that, incorporating techniques he learned
abroad into local recipes at his Lehem Erez bakery-cafe in Herzliya, near Tel Aviv.
This summer, it was a festive torte of tiny fresh grape leaves encasing lamb
and rice, topped with a pomegranate-fennel relish; the dish is just as good with Swiss chard in the fall.