Sea cucumbers on yogurt, tomato seeds and blush cracker.
Hillel Gardi's final dish at the Mitzpe HaHaimim (Photo: Yigal Friedman)
In the coming weeks, the winner of the 10th season of Master Chef, Hillel Gardi, will serve the final dish that earned him the victory alongside other dishes at the Mitzpe HaHaim Hotel restaurant, as part of a series of six one-time meals.
Gerdy, a shepherd and therapist using goats, came to the program after the goat farm where he worked was closed and friends who enjoyed his food, registered him as a contestant.
With extraordinary dishes from raw materials he collected from nature and no less important, with captivating sincerity and a romantic personality that is somewhat difficult to achieve these days, he won not only to reach the finals and win, but also to be one of the most interesting and intriguing contestants who came out of the show in recent years.
So what about the shepherd who tells how he learned the essence of the taste of leaves and plants together with the goats in the pasture for the kitchen of a hotel?
In the case of the Mitzpe Hayim hotel, this connection is almost required.
Hillel Gardi at the organic farm of the Mitzpe Himim hotel (Photo: Yigal Friedman)
The Mitzpe HaHaim Hotel, located at the foot of Mount Canaan and overlooking Rosh Pina, the Sea of Galilee and the Hermon, has always been different in the Israeli hotel landscape.
Besides the strategic location and the mesmerizing view, it sits inside an agricultural farm that includes 72 dunams of organic crops where most of the vegetables and fruits served to the hotel guests are grown and also a dairy farm that currently has about 50 cows and a barn with 200 goats.
From the milk that is milked every morning on the farm grounds, the hotel dairy produces all the wonderful cheeses served in the hotel restaurant, including even the milk in the individual coffee corners in each room.
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The farm has 72 dunams of organic crops where the raw materials served to hotel guests are grown (Photo: Assaf Pinchuk)
Agriturismo made in the country
It is not certain that Dr. Jacob Yaros knew the concept of Farm to Table, from the farm to the table or from the farm to the plate, which today lives on the lips of many restaurateurs and chefs, when he first dreamed of the hotel in 1926, nor when he finally opened it some 40 years later More like a convalescent home. But without a shadow of a doubt he understood the importance of the connection between man and the earth as part of the need to heal and uplift his soul and body.
In various parts of the world, and in Europe in particular, you can find accommodation in agricultural farms, sometimes also known as Agriturismo, agricultural tourism that provides One roof is a complete hospitality experience - from lodging in a rural and pastoral place away from the hustle and bustle of the city to meals made from fresh ingredients on the pure produce of the farm. In Israel, the Mitzpe Himim Hotel was and remains a pioneer in the field of unique hospitality.
The cheeses for the hotel are made from the milk that is milked every morning.
Gerdi in a tomato at the Mitzvah HaHaim (Photo: Yigal Friedman)
In 1982 Sami Hazan purchased the farm and hotel areas.
As a graduate of Mikveh Israel School, Hazan believed in the path of Dr. Yaros and continued to cultivate the farm's grounds in the belief that the close relationship between local organic agricultural produce and haute cuisine should continue. At the same time, he also made the modest stone rooms more luxurious and suitable for boutique hospitality, including adding of a swimming pool and spa, which places the hotel as one of the most prestigious hotels in Israel.
About six years ago, the Isrotel chain purchased the hotel building as part of the Exclusive Collection hotels, and although the area of the agricultural farm remains owned by Sami Hazan, the symbiotic relationship between the farm and the hotel continues to exist as before.
Ronen Waldman, who stepped into the shoes of the hotel chef upon the arrival of the Isrotel chain, admits that he has an experience that few chefs, certainly from the hotel industry in Israel, can only fantasize about.
He changes and adapts the dishes at breakfast and dinner almost every day according to the produce that the farm provides.
"Soon," he says, "the banks of the small stream that flows through the farm will be filled with mint (river mint) and watercress, and they will also star in the various dishes like every year at this season."
Chef Ronan Waldman and Hillel Gardi cook together at the Mitzpe HaHaim Hotel (Photo: Yigal Friedman)
After he was forced to leave the Seltzer family's farm that was closed in the Judean Mountains and won the Master Chef final, Gerdi found his home in a new goat farm, the old Ein Kemonim farm, located in Mark 30 minutes drive from Mitzpe HaHaimim.
The collaboration between him and the hotel is also the shepherd's first time in a professional kitchen, and not just any kitchen, but one that holds a large team and feeds a large number of people at the same time.
Still, the hotel's connection to the land and the relationship with Wedelman, the hotel's chef, felt right to him and also teaches him a lot, he says.
If you are quick enough and manage to reserve a place for one of the five remaining meals in the coming month, you will have the chance to taste Gerdi's final dish alongside the dishes of the hotel's restaurant - sea bass cobagne on yogurt with tomato seeds and a blush cracker and his other dishes such as tabon bread with tomato salsa, zitra and feta from the farm burned in the fire;
A bud salad consisting of a variety of sprouts such as radish sprouts and broccoli with crunchy collard greens, pomegranate seeds and saatar leaves and a dish of fish in olive oil confit for the first harvest that has been seared in a tabon leaving it soft and juicy with a crispy skin on top.
Lamb confit in tabon with za'atar, pita shreds and confit garlic.
Another portion of Hillel Gardi (Photo: Yigal Friedman)
If you didn't manage to get a place, you can coordinate a tour of the farm in Ein Kemonim where Gerdi will host you and invite you to pick with him according to the season Hobiza leaves, Yehuda's ear mushrooms, to taste the fruits of buckthorn, ala and ezar and also finish with a field meal where he roasts the meat and vegetables in the belly of the earth.
The following meals at Mitzpe Hayam will be held on the following dates:
11/23, 11/28, 11/12, 12/13, 12/18.
The cost of accommodation on a half-board basis at Mitzpe HaHaimim, which includes a rich buffet-style dinner by Hillel Gardi together with chef Ronan Waldman, starts at NIS 1463.
For those who want to order a meal without accommodation, it can be arranged in advance only at a cost of NIS 220 per person.
For more details and coordination.
For a picking tour and a meal with Hillel Gardi, by prior arrangement in front of Havat Ein Kemonim.
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