Chef Nir Zook and A Wider Bridge

A Melting Pot of Miracles – Celebrating Hanukkah with Israeli Celebrity Chef Nir Zook
Wednesday December 9 | Sponsored by A Wider Bridge

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​Every smell has an idea that at the end will transform into design or into food or just a smile or belief in God. Because living life and being open to what you see on the way and what you feel on the way and what you smell on the way makes you realize that you’re just something small in a huge complex that God created for us

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Before attending this Zoom cooking event, I had never heard of Israeli Celebrity Chef Nir Zook. Where have I been? To be fair, most of his presence is in Israel, although he has a hand in some projects here in the States too. Like all celebrity chefs he is involved in restaurants, writing, and television. During the Corona pandemic, he has been hosting small dinner parties in his beautiful Jaffa home.
 
Last week, the night before Hanukkah, he did an online cooking demonstration on behalf of one of my favorite organizations, A Wider Bridge. Chef Nir shared and demonstrated his recipe for latkes with a variety of toppings, including an Eggplant and Yogurt Topping, Jaffa Ceviche, and Horseradish Cream. Here is a link to the recipes.
 
For me, more inspiring than his recipes, which I love, was the way he shares his passion and love, not only for good food, but for Israel, for Judaism, and for diversity. He is a masterful storyteller and a poet. Chef Nir speaks at least three languages – Hebrew, French, and English. I wish I could be as eloquent in my native language as he is in his third. I know just enough Hebrew to get myself in trouble. When I hear Israelis speak English, often I hear the Hebrew grammar and phraseology, the flavor of the Hebrew coming through and I love it. So maybe I’m biased, but I fell in love with Chef Nir’s language.

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A Wider Bridge
 
A Wider Bridge is one of my favorite organizations, because it tics so many of my boxes at the same time. Although it was born mostly as a way to connect LGBTQ American Jews to their counterparts in Israel, it quickly realized its broader potential as an agent to support LGBTQ equality in Israel, fairness for Israel in the States, and to use the commonality among LGBTQ people across all ethnicities, religions, levels of religiosity, cultures, and countries of origin both in Israel and here to create A Wider Bridge for connection, conversation, and engagement. They operate with a small staff and a very impressive Board of Directors. ​

Mission Statement from A Wider Bridge Website
A Wider Bridge is the North American organization working through education, advocacy, relationship-building and grant-making to create equality in Israel by expanding LGBTQ inclusion in Israel, and equality for Israel by cultivating constructive engagement with Israel.
Equality In Israel: With the support of North American LGBTQ people and allies, Israel’s LGBTQ community will be better positioned to advance social, political and cultural change. LGBTQ equality will strengthen Israel as a society where all people labeled “the other” are welcomed and celebrated throughout the country.
Equality For Israel: Israel should be included and treated with fairness in our LGBTQ communities, by our local and national institutions, and within the community of nations. We believe our communities are strengthened when people move from demonizing and delegitimizing Israel to a place of understanding, empathy, and engagement. We work to increase equality for Israel on the global stage so that it too may be supported with the same aspirational hope we hold for our own countries. We celebrate progress and mourn injustice.

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On Latkes
The last few years it’s been very trendy in Israel to do latkes from all kinds of vegetables, even put fruit inside. But I like the traditional onion and potato latke; I think it’s the best . . . . At the end of the day, on a holiday, you want to have something traditional, because tradition makes you feel a part of something.
 
On Grating
Always, when I’m grating I have to be careful. I have the tendency of cutting my finger, when I grate things - hardly ever happens with a knife, but when you’re grating your mind can go elsewhere, so please be careful.
 
On What Makes Ceviche so Popular in Tel Aviv
Ceviche came from Peru. Something in the way it’s seasoned – the lemon, the chili, the cilantro, the olive oil - is very appealing to the Israeli taste. And we have the Mediterranean which has amazing fish so . . . .
Because it seemed like it was born here, it’s so suitable for the Israeli taste.

On Adding Chopped Citrus Peel to his Ceviche
[I am] using the mandarin for the ceviche, so now I will use a little bit of mandarin peel as well, because I chose to give it space and then I want to give it a wider space for my guest not to have to look where it came from.

About Celebrating Hanukkah
I think it’s a great holiday - to get together, light candles, and talk about miracles.

Is there any Arab influence or local influence on your cooking?
A lot. Just walking here in the streets of Jaffa and going into the local stores - all the time you see new things that you didn’t know from before. Even fava beans. My knowledge of fava beans comes from French cuisine, which normally uses fresh fava beans. And then you go to a humous place and you taste fava beans, you know the Egyptian kind, dark brown heavy and you say hmmm that’s interesting, but it’s not my style. And then you walk by the humous shop day after day and you get used to the smell and then one day you say, "Oh I’m gonna try and make this at home." And then you fall in love. And then suddenly you start making fava beans for your own breakfast . . . . and then it starts showing up on your dishes, maybe with fish or maybe accompanying some lamb kabob.
 
So, you know local food  - when you eat somewhere, even if you don’t feel it or you don’t see it, slowly, slowly  . . . . it’s becoming a part of your life and then it’s becoming part of your creation. Because anything that is part of your life - at the end - will be part of your creation, if you notice it or not. The only special thing about food is that it’s very easy to see the influences because it’s our everyday life. So, one day you serve fava beans with your fish and then the neighbor says, “Hey, since when are you serving fava beans? Normally we eat it at the humous place.” So easy to see.

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What's your source of creativity; where do you get your inspiration?
It’s very difficult to answer that because basically the source of what we do is in every minute of our life. So, it can be just walking here in Jaffa. Now it’s the beginning of winter, at least in Israel . . . . You walk on the same road every day and then it rains and then 3 days later it’s all starting to have weeds, you know very, very small weeds that have beautiful colors in the sun and then you say this is inspiration for life.
 
Explain, in your eyes, what is Israeli cuisine? 
Israeli cuisine is the combination of anywhere in the world that Jews lived. Because then Jews came to Israel and they all lived in the same building. In the beginning they didn’t really like each other because the smells that came out of the kitchens were very awkward to each other. But then they had kids and kids started moving between apartments and fell in love with the neighbor’s food . . . . 

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