What do we eat at Lee Malili's next restaurant, and why the hell do we need another restaurant?

The "next restaurant" of the chain takes the instant stars of reality refugees eating one step further, no longer needs a successful whole season, one good dish is enough and let's open a restaurant for you, so what if there is a whole industry here that still licks the corona wounds?

Yael Laor

25/01/2022

Tuesday, 25 January 2022, 10:00 Updated: 10:31

• Share on Facebook

• Share on WhatsApp

• Share on Twitter

• Share on Email

• Share on general

• Comments

  Comments

The judges of the next restaurant, sanctify the instant culture (Photo: Micha Loveton)

In 2015 I interviewed Assaf Granit, it was at the height of the success of "Revolution in the Kitchen" the program in which he comes to failed restaurants, and tries to rehabilitate them. When I asked him what he thought about the state of the culinary industry in Israel, he replied: "This is a very problematic industry, with high risk, also abroad, but in Israel much more, because of the security and economic situation. "There are crazy break-ins in the field, there is not too much enforcement, there are almost no cooking schools, anyone who has an extra NIS 400,000 takes out a loan of another 400 and opens a restaurant and then after two years loses his life without having a clue in restaurants." We are talking about 2015, yes ? Long before the corona era, all this is now a thousand times true, but I actually remembered last night, when I watched the "next restaurant" on the net, in the continuation of things "and every one that was developed, people come to it instead of good restaurants that work right, and it hurts too Well done. The situation of this industry in Israel is not easy. "

I did not even have to open that article to remember, this sentence was engraved in my head, no matter how relevant it is now. For those who happened to miss (or preferred to watch Ninja Israel instead) we will explain - the concept of the next restaurant, is four contestants in the evening, each contestant cooks two dishes, and the judging panel decides which of the four, opens the next day for a week. There was also some murmur that is not entirely clear, that the winner of the show will get a restaurant that will also stay forever, it seems that they themselves are not so closed on the concept yet.

But let's go back for a moment to the same quote from Granite.

Do not be blinded by restaurants that are two months ahead, from those that take 450 shekels per diner, not at the expense of this strange venture of the next restaurant coming.

But at the expense of the restaurateurs who struggle every day, who still lick the wounds of the closures and the corona, the ones who are begging for customers.

And filled customers, who are the waiters who work there?

Where did they manage to recruit cooks all of a sudden?

When it became such a rare and sought-after commodity in Tel Aviv?

Many people have been talking in recent years about the whole matter of instant, reality refugees in general, and food in particular, who make a successful whole season and feel ready to open a restaurant. Now guess what? Successful, (you can also settle for one in the case of the show that aired yesterday) - and hop, you have a restaurant. Have you worked all your life to open a restaurant? Have you gone through the entire Sisyphean route?

More on Walla!

Food

NIS 450 per diner: What do you eat at Chef Yossi Sheetrit's new restaurant?

To the full article

Miang Pela in Kab Kam, not particularly original (Photo: Dror Einav, Dror Einav)

And if we focus for a moment on the food that was yesterday, we did not get to see too much of it either.

On the eve of the launch of the next restaurant on the network, it provided us with two serious contenders and two gimmicks.

We already got one gimmick to chew on, rapper Lukech who has already made a guest appearance at the Chef's Games.

Someone on the net for some reason felt that the joke was not exhausted, and decided to bounce it off again, and more on the opening night.

Lukacs, along with Matan Sharon, and Brazilian Oren opened an American diner called Sucker, with a very clear concept - fried things.

They served a dish called the "oil can miracle" consisting of sliders of donuts, fried chicken, coleslaw and maple-barbecue sauce.

What can we say, a miracle was not there, a tin indeed was.

The lack of effort was evident there, and somewhat made us feel sorry for a Brazilian, who was supposed to be a serious cook, and seemed a bit caught up in a reluctant situation there.

The second gimmick was Aviva Restaurant, a kind of tavern of the legendary singer Aviva Avidan, whose corona, like the rest of us, apparently discovered her hidden cooking talent. The judges gave her a lot of respect, but the dishes she served - prasa patties and hamajon, are not really dishes that are hard to find here in the country, and the execution and serving did not seem to take the dishes to heights we did not know.

And now, one can really move on to talking about food.

David Shoshan, an Israeli who has lived in Italy for the past nine years, returned to Israel under unfortunate circumstances.

Lily, presented two Italian dishes that looked insane, so non-banal, so creative and different - a mystical antipasti made up of zucchini flowers stuffed with ricotta and anchovies, Sicilian fries made from chickpea flour and roasted figs, Starkino cheese, honey and gnocchi.

It was only one dish, which was enough for Assaf Granit, to take him to the next stage and declare that for him he needs to open a restaurant at the moment.

The second course was of pasta candies filled with pumpkin and amaretti cookies, which also managed to stimulate our taste buds through the screen.

The judges flew over him and the win seemed certain.

Finally of the two, they actually went for Malili as the winner of the evening.

Malili is given the honor, and not to say the win was addictive, but the surprise that was on the judges' faces when she revealed 20 seconds into the audition, that she is the daughter of the man and legend rival Malili, (and probably the chefs favorite restaurant in Israel), could have played a little better .

It's a little hard to believe they did not know.

And about the food?

The first course did look great, only this time we did not have to imagine its taste, simply because we ate it, countless times, at the Cub Kam restaurant, which also belongs to the father Lily.

Although it is served a little differently, from the daughter Lily the dish is served disassembled, and at Cub Kam it arrives complex in boats of lettuce, but come on,

.

A perfect dish yes?

But we did not buy the judges' show that there is no such thing in the country, or that Malili really manages to break away from her father's shadow.

The second dose was not clear at all.

Malili shelved the patties that failed her and served a curry dish with noodles that looked just not good.

To say that a green curry with Thai eggplant and noodles is a dish that escapes the banality of Thai dishes?

No, not really.

So okay, there is no Pad Thai in this restaurant, as it was important for her to point out, but we have not seen anything out of the ordinary here either.

And the choice of Malili who messed up in one of the dishes, over Shoshan, who presented a perfect performance was a bit puzzling.

And that's what Walla Culture thought

The "next restaurant" fails to reconcile its fun side with the ridiculous and chewy side

To the full article

Lee Malili, the first winner of the next restaurant, does she really need it? (Photo: Micha Loveton)

Anyway, curiosity overcame us, and at the end of the program we went to the site to book a place at Mali's daughter's Thai restaurant. ), and a week as promised in the program, this morning has been presented a statement on the place was full. what is true, we were able to peek at the menu, guess what? even here there are many similarities restaurant is, in this case the father - Thai House.

Although the menu is published, per meal It's not exactly famous, since the resemblance to the menu in Lee's father's restaurants is too great. , Canned and grilled noodles wrapped in banana leaves.As mentioned, a very very similar dish to the one served in her father's restaurant.

Another entree is a som tam pele tray alongside all sorts of toppings, we do not know what that means "all sorts of toppings" description is a little too general, but even here it ends up being a papaya salad in different versions, again a dish served at a Thai house and at Kab Kam.

And guess what?

The third dish on the menu - a nice nam tuk - spiced sheitel spiced with mint, coriander, purple onion, dried chili served with sticky rice, served one by one in Malili's father's restaurants.

For mains, Malili - Tom Sef handsome - boiled rustic meat soup with extracts of roots and herbs with white rice, and the second audition dish - canned noodles topped with green coconut curry stew with chicken wings, fish patties, Thai eggplant and basil, which we hope will be real Better, and a third course of Pad Firk Gang Fe Gong - a sautéed crystal shrimp with beans, young white pepper and a mixture of hot crushed roots in a mortar and pestle, served with white rice.

For dessert, two desserts are served - Cao Neo Muang - sticky rice cooked in sweet coconut milk topped with mango

, salted coconut milk cream and sesame, again a dish served one by one in a Thai house restaurant, as well as rustic Thai ice cream - made from coconut milk only. Sugared peanuts salted black beans and salted mash beans.

True, Malili is not from today in the field, she has been cooking private Thai meals for a long time, and has participated in various culinary projects, she looks very talented and very cute, and may well deserve to succeed.

But what does she need this plan for?

To set up another branch of a Thai house?

Her father could have opened it for her, too.

• Food

• Food News

Tags

• Restaurant

• Malili opponent

• Assaf Granit