{"id":14640,"date":"2015-09-11T00:25:28","date_gmt":"2015-09-11T07:25:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=14640"},"modified":"2015-09-21T13:37:50","modified_gmt":"2015-09-21T20:37:50","slug":"more-than-just-a-foodie-film","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2015\/09\/11\/more-than-just-a-foodie-film\/","title":{"rendered":"More than just a foodie film"},"content":{"rendered":"

Roger Sherman\u2019s Florentine Films crew chows down at El Babor restaurant in the Haifa area. (photo from Florentine Films)<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

It might seem absurd that an American filmmaker, who, until five years ago, thought that falafel and hummus were the only ingredients of Israeli cuisine, would introduce the world to the Israeli food and culture scene. But documentarian Roger Sherman \u2013 who has won an Emmy, a Peabody and two Academy Award nominations \u2013 seems to be the right guy to whet the world\u2019s appetite for Israel\u2019s diverse and innovative dishes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reason I\u2019m doing the film is because I found a food culture that no one in the world knows about. This is the best-kept secret,\u201d Sherman told Israel21C during a quick interview in the lobby of a Tel Aviv hotel before setting out to film final pickup shots for his documentary, The Search for Israeli Cuisine<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Sherman discovered Israeli cuisine five years ago when he made an introductory visit to the country he\u2019d heard so much about in the news.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was knocked out by what I saw, what I ate and how gorgeous the country is. Who knew that there was a gorgeous beach that runs the whole length of the country? Israel has incredible mountains and desert,\u201d said Sherman, who finally came for a visit at the behest of a foodie tour-guide friend.<\/p>\n

Sherman, married to the founder of influential gourmet food and wine magazine Saveur<\/em>, said the country\u2019s culinary revolution is unknown to many because most foreigners only associate Israel with \u201cpolitical drama and biblical history.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey don\u2019t realize it\u2019s so much more,\u201d he said. \u201cIsrael has a food scene that I had no clue about, a restaurant scene that rivals New York, London and Paris. I think people are going to be shocked, surprised and very pleased with what they learn from watching this film.\u201d<\/p>\n

The two-hour PBS special is to be completed by October. Sherman admitted that he has enough material for a six-hour miniseries but prefers to pack the choice shots into 120 minutes, leaving the remaining 150 hours of footage on the editing floor.<\/p>\n

Private backers as well as a successful Kickstarter campaign have helped support Sherman in the two-year researching and filming process. He interacts with interested would-be viewers via Facebook, Twitter, a blog and Instagram almost daily.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe primary audience is American public television but it will be shown around the world. American public television is a fairly high demographic of people who like to travel, and a lot of people that like to travel like to eat, and they like to see new things and explore the world,\u201d said Sherman. \u201cIt\u2019s also for people who like to open their minds even if they don\u2019t travel or are interested in surreptitiously going on adventures. And I think this is going to be an adventure.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Florentine Films documentary tries to answer the question \u201cWhat is Israeli cuisine?\u201d To do this, Sherman\u2019s team crisscrossed the country, filming at more than 100 locations.<\/p>\n

While the question is simple enough, the answer is not clear cut.<\/p>\n

The film introduces audiences to the country\u2019s leading chefs, innovative farmers, home cooks, boutique winemakers, craft beer brewers, world-class chocolatiers, cheese artisans, restaurateurs, food journalists, street foodies and traditional bakers. Some of them believe Israeli cuisine can be defined as a hodgepodge of traditions, while others say it\u2019s too early to brand the delicious concoctions being created at local eateries.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we have here is confusion food. It\u2019s all mixed together beautifully: traditional spices, techniques, dishes that intermingle with all the influences. After [service in] the army, we Israelis go to study abroad or [travel] to the Far East, India or South America. We get to know Thai and Vietnamese food, Mexican flavors. Some [return] and open restaurants. It all becomes Israeli food,\u201d chef\/baker Erez Komarovsky says in the documentary.<\/p>\n

Chef Maoz Alonim of HaBasta restaurant is one of those against labeling Israeli cuisine as such.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, what is Israeli food? Domestic food. We have our inspirations from ingredients that used to be cooked here for hundreds, thousands of years. I really do not think that I serve Israeli food,\u201d Alonim says. \u201cI serve domestic food again and again and again. And what makes it Israeli? Sure, I take fresh ingredients from Israel and I can import the fresh oysters from France, but does this make it Israeli? No, that just makes it oysters that I really like.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Sherman, the American looking in, there is definitely a \u201csomething\u201d that makes gastronomy in Israel different from elsewhere.<\/p>\n

He shows Israeli-American chef Michael Solomonov, a James Beard Award winner and guide for the film, stopping at a Yemenite grill in Tel Aviv, where he is served 17 salads as an appetizer. The salads are an international sampling of Arab, Iraqi, Arabian, Moroccan, Russian, Eastern European, Italian, Turkish, Moroccan and Greek dishes \u2013 obviously, all made in Israel.<\/p>\n

\"photo<\/a>
Michael Solomonov being filmed in the kitchen of Krav Sakinim<\/em> (Israel\u2019s Iron Chef<\/em>) judge Ruthie Rousso. (photo from Florentine Films)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cIn America, it\u2019s identifiable. But here, people say it\u2019s too soon to have a cuisine. There are people that love the idea of a melting pot, everybody coming together. But there are also people who do not like this idea; they want to keep cultures separate,\u201d Sherman said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIsraeli cuisine is the amalgamation of dozens of cultures that are taking remarkable local ingredients and either trying to stay true as much as they can to their traditions or updating and upgrading.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sherman contends that Israeli cuisine only came into existence in the 1980s. \u201cYou have a country that began with no kitchens in private homes because, if you lived on a kibbutz, and many people did, you ate communally. And, if you talked about enjoying food, people would slap you. \u2018We\u2019re here to survive, we\u2019re trying to create a country,\u2019 they\u2019d say,\u201d Sherman explained. \u201cUntil at least the mid- to late-\u201980s, \u2018cuisine\u2019 was a four-letter word. You didn\u2019t mention it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today, of course, Israeli cuisine is simmering in pots around the country \u2013 and even beyond. He pointed out that three of the best new U.S. restaurants as chosen by Bon App\u00e9tit<\/em> magazine are dedicated to Israeli cuisine. \u201cIsraeli cuisine is now proliferating, accelerating \u2026 in the past year, Israeli cuisine places have opened all over the world. Israeli cuisine is a force,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The Search for Israeli Cuisine<\/em> is not only focused on the kitchens of Israel. Sherman spotlights Israeli agri-tech and how Israeli farmers and engineers are changing the way the world eats.<\/p>\n

\"photo<\/a>
Michael Solomonov dines with Israeli celebrity chef Meir Adoni in Tel Aviv. (photo from Florentine Films)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThis is another reason I\u2019m doing the film. If you go back, Israel was a Third World country for most of its existence. Now, it\u2019s not just a First World country, but it is leading the world in many ways,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t think many people know that Israel\u2019s high-tech agriculture has changed the way the world eats, beginning with drip-irrigation methods and going to seedless watermelons, cherry tomatoes, soon-to-be seedless lemons. Israelis know all this stuff but people around the world don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sherman said viewers will be flabbergasted to hear that \u201cfarm to table\u201d and \u201clocally sourced\u201d are standard practice in Israel. \u201cPeople will think that\u2019s fantastic because it\u2019s such a big deal in the U.S. right now, what is your carbon footprint,\u201d he explained. \u201cHere, the whole country is accessible in two hours.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eating is a sensory experience, and a food-focused documentary has to instil the enjoyment of cuisine through the big screen. \u201cPeople who watch our teaser, which is five minutes long, say, \u2018Oh my God, that made me so hungry,\u2019\u201d Sherman said. \u201cSo, if I can do that in five minutes, imagine what I can do in two hours. We\u2019re telling really interesting stories about people who are passionate about what they do. The people I have found have been wonderful in sharing their passion to the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Israeli-American chef Solomonov takes viewers into the lives of everyone \u2013 Jews, Christians, Arabs, Druze and Bedouins \u2013 changing the food landscape of Israel.<\/p>\n

\u201cIsraeli cuisine reflects humanity at its best. People need to know that, regardless of what they see on TV, regardless of their political stance, the best way to relate to Israel is through its food and culture,\u201d Solomonov says in the film.<\/p>\n

Sherman admitted that, prior to his visit, he realized that he\u2019d \u201cnever thought much about the Israeli people. It became clear that most people I meet don\u2019t know much about the Israeli people either, and they\u2019re surprised at what I reveal.\u201d<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s why he doesn\u2019t see The Search for Israeli Cuisine<\/em> as simply a foodie movie.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m calling this a portrait of the Israeli people told through food,\u201d said the same filmmaker who profiled preeminent restaurant owner Danny Meyer in The Restaurateur<\/em>. \u201cIt\u2019s not a cooking show, it\u2019s not recipes; the food is at the heart of it but it\u2019s really about these amazing people doing these dynamic things.\u201d<\/p>\n

Israel21C<\/strong> is a nonprofit educational foundation with a mission to focus media and public attention on the 21st-century Israel that exists beyond the conflict. For more, or to donate, visit israel21c.org<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Roger Sherman\u2019s Florentine Films crew chows down at El Babor restaurant in the Haifa area. (photo from Florentine Films) It might seem absurd that an American filmmaker, who, until five years ago, thought that falafel and hummus were the only ingredients of Israeli cuisine, would introduce the world to the Israeli food and culture scene. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14508,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4329],"tags":[4546,4544,4330,4545,4543,4542],"class_list":["post-14640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-israel","tag-florentine-films","tag-gourmet-food","tag-israel","tag-michael-solomonov","tag-roger-sherman","tag-search-for-israeli-cuisine"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14640"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14640\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}