From Tel Aviv to Uhm el Fahm and from Jerusalem to Metulla, the great majority of local food writers and chefs agree that Israel has not developed a national cuisine. According to American chef Roseanne Gold, however, we are all wrong and a uniquely Israeli cuisine is thriving not only here but in the best restaurants of the United States. In the cover article of the "New York Times Living Section" of 20 July, 1997 Gold became so poetically enthusiastic about her discovery of the true Israeli cuisine, that she wrote "it's as if some mystical wind from Israel were rustling through the collective unconscious of America's chefs".

In support of her thesis, Gold points out how she and several other American-based chefs, many of whom visited Israel in recent years are now adding "Israeli dishes" to their menus. What seems to have escaped the attention of Gold and her chef colleagues is that although she and her colleagues sampled these dishes here, that none of them have their roots in Israel. Lamb and cucumber sauce is a traditional Syrian combination; harissa sauce originated in Tunisia; merguez sausage and couscous are from the nations of the North African Maghreb; and felaffel was probably first made in Egypt. The closest that any of these chefs have come to anything really Israeli is the halvah parfait and even though halvah itself has its roots in Turkey, credit for the parfait must go to chef Tsachi Buchshester who invented it during his tenure at Tel Aviv's "Pink Ladle" restaurant.

Nor is the phenomenon quite as new to America as Gold now writes. More than a year before her visit to Israel Gold herself predicted in the magazine "Cheers" that olives and olive oil would soon be seen "everywhere" in the United States; that spices such as cumin, za'atar and sumac would play a far more important role in American cuisine; and that "upscale ethnic foods" would definitely be a trend in better American restaurants. Long before they even thought of visiting Israel, Todd English's menu already listed such dishes as Mediterranean lamb on a bed of black olives; Anne Rosenzweig had become renowned for her sophisticated couscous dishes; and Jean-Louis Palladin had created several exquisite dishes based on stuffed eggplant.

As Columbus was wrong in 1492 when he was convinced that he had arrived in India, Gold is wrong today. What Gold, who is the consulting chef to "Windows on the World" and "The Rainbow Room", two of New York's most prestigious restaurants, actually discovered during her two week visit to Israel was not so much Israeli cuisine as it was the cooking styles and the ingredients of the Middle East and North Africa. All of which will be fine, because this is the kind of input needed by increasingly restless American restaurant chefs who are constantly searching for new ways to express their own concept of contemporary cultures. With a bit of luck, some of these flavors may even make their way to Israel.

© Daniel Rogov