Contestants of the San Pellegrino Young Chef competition in Croatia (photo: courtesy of S.Pellegrino young chef)
It can be announced that our local cuisine did it again last week when it won an impressive Israeli representation in the regional Young Chef competition - the San Pellegrino Young Chef competition held this year in Croatia.
San Pellegrino, the leading and well-known Italian water brand, has signed in recent years to shape the image of young chefs around the world, with the prestigious competition serving as a stage for the most promising chefs under the age of 30. If you will, the young equivalent of the Fifty Best ranking, San Pellegrino's 50 best restaurants in the world.
The contestants who made it to the semi-finals of the international competition compete against nine other contestants from the same region and the regional winner competes in the world finals in Milan against the other winners of the regional competitions, with the dishes in all competitions being judged by the best chefs in the world.
Quite a few renowned chefs from around the world have been recognized in this competition, including Israeli chefs who have represented Israel in the past and have won international recognition and career leverage thanks to the competition, such as Chef Oral Kimchi (Popina), Chef David Frankel (Pronto), and Chef Shiral Berger (opa).
The young chef Olga Pepperkochen with her mentor Chef Assaf Stern at the San Pellegrino Young Chef competition (photo: courtesy of S.Pellegrino young chef)
We were privileged to join the one who did it this time and filled us with national pride - the young and talented chef Olga Pepperkochen, this is the second time she represents us in the coveted competition.
The first time was in Barcelona in 2019 and like the last time, this time also the one who pushed her to submit the nomination and believed in her all the way is the chef Assaf Stern (now the chef of Mesa restaurant) who even accompanied her as a mentor in both competitions.
"Thanks to participating in my first competition in Barcelona," she says, "chefs of Michelin restaurants in London recognized me when I came to dine at their restaurant."
In Europe, elite culinary people follow the contestants in the competition to find the new talents and attract them to the restaurants, and this is how Peperkochen was also accepted for an internship at a restaurant with three Michelin stars in the city.
Just before she left, she sent a suitcase into the belly of the plane with raw materials that she needed to bring from Israel, such as fine blue and white caviar from Nahal Hadan and spices from Habshush's shop in the Levinsky market.
Next to her she held, without leaving for a second, a white suitcase with a well-wrapped porcelain service inside.
In the unique service that has been passed down for three generations in her family and has already crossed three countries, she will serve her dish in the competition, the one that will tell her story.
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The young chef Olga Pepperkochen with her mentor Chef Assaf Stern at the San Pellegrino Young Chef competition (photo: courtesy of S.Pellegrino young chef)
The place where Ukraine and Israel meet
Pepperkuchen immigrated to Israel at the age of 5 with her family from Ukraine, grew up in Ashdod and was brought up according to all the rules of Soviet education, which included, among other things, studying classical ballet as well as studies for a bachelor's degree in psychology on a direct track after military service.
Contrary to what was expected of her and just before she finished the desired degree, all cards were destroyed, when during her studies she started working in restaurant kitchens as part of supplementing her income, and simply fell in love.
Half a year before graduating, she decided to leave her studies and focus on her new love - the kitchen.
She arrived at the Aberto restaurant in Gadara, which was led by Stern, with relatively little experience, but in a short time the young woman with the fragile appearance was revealed as a patisserie - "a fighter who is not afraid of hard work and brings her punctuality and statement to the kitchen without compromise", says Stern about her.
Unlike many other competitors in the international competition, she did not study at a high institution for culinary studies and gained all her knowledge through hard work, in which she strongly believes.
"As a little girl," she says, "I was told that you don't come home from a competition without a gold medal. Who says such a thing to a girl?!", she is shocked when she remembers it even today, "but my desire to be the best, including just participating in the competition and the drive to win, They also stem from the need to prove to my parents the prestige of the profession, that they would be proud of me and the choice I made."
Where Israel and Ukraine meet.
The Pepperkuchen dish that was served in the competition (photo: courtesy of S.Pellegrino young chef)
This dissonance between the home with Ukrainian roots in which she was born and the Ashdod Mediterranean Israeliness in which she grew up has a significant part in shaping her image as a chef and it is also reflected in the dish she presented to the judges in the competition called
Where Israel and Ukraine meet
- a dish that is her own version of the Russian borscht and includes three pockets with fillings various, slices of bone marrow, trout fish meat in butter confit, beet strings, and beet glace demi gras.
"As a child I felt like I didn't belong anywhere - I wasn't really Ukrainian and I didn't feel really Israeli, I was from the middle of nowhere. I fell in love with the kitchen because that's where I found myself. I could express all my sides and feel that I was creating something new that connects all the parts." .
Borscht, the Eastern European beet soup, she tells me, she learned to appreciate and love only in adulthood and it was important to her to use her mother's original recipe as the basis of the dish that was served in the competition.
Four chefs in the judging panel including the Israeli chef Avivit Friel (photo: courtesy of S.Pellegrino young chef)
Woman, young, chef
Not only did Peperkochen give up her psychology studies when she decided to devote herself to her love of cooking, but also her early marriage that she had to break up.
It is not easy to be a young woman and a chef in a field dominated for years by men with all that implies, hard physical work and endless working hours that often come at the expense of starting a family.
Along with Pepperkuchen, two other young women competed in the regional competition, and although it is less than a third of the participants, it is noteworthy that San Pellegrino chose an impressive representation of four female judges out of five in total, among them the respected Israeli chef Avivit Avihai Friel (Ozria).
Finally, the first place in the competition was won by a young chef from Greece named Grigoris Kikis (GRIGORIS KIKIS), which is his fourth time in the competition, but Peperkochen can register an impressive achievement for its mere participation in the prestigious competition and the doors that will open for it in its wake.
And no less important, about the representation of a young chef from Israel who, through the dish and her personal story, tells the story of our local cuisine.
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