Ran Shmueli and the Claro restaurant returned from Jerusalem without talking about politics. Almost - voila! Food

The dream still exists.

Claro (Photo: Afik Gabai)

It's 8:42 in the morning, I looked a few times, and Ran Shmueli is harvesting branches from a rose tree that has been growing for nine years in a huge pot outside the "Claro" restaurant.

The sleeves are rolled up and fall, adjusting themselves to the working angle of the hand, and the clothes all humbly accept the power of the Israeli February sun, and absorb more sweat than raindrops.

This is not the position in favor of the journalist who is supposed to arrive, nor is it an intentional paparazzi digemon.

I know this because he has his back to me, and because he must have been vehemently opposed to the pirated documentation.

No, it's just his morning, or therapy, as he calls it.

"Lately I like plants more," he tells me when we enter, pausing the punch until the last moment right before the door, "they just don't answer you."

therapy time.

Shmueli outside Claro (photo: Walla! system, Yaniv Granot)

"I'm not doing this to look for another client, I'm doing it so that the client who already comes here will be interesting"

We meet to talk about the "Jerusalem Mountain Month" that has taken over the restaurant in recent weeks, and is quickly and consistently approaching its peak, but Shmuel makes it clear in his first words that he is not promoting anything.

Or rather, it is true, that he wants to promote something else.

I think straight about the winding road to the capital, and assume we'll get there eventually, so I let him drive.

"Look, Claro is full, so I'm not doing this to look for another clientora," he explained, "I'm doing it so that the clientora who already come here will be interesting. Therefore, we rely on our regular dishes, of course, but the periphery of the menu all the time Changes. This is our essence, this is the heart of the restaurant."

the road

The man who saw everything, and cooked everything

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Claro (Photo: Noam Frisman)

A Jerusalem season.

Claro (Photo: Noam Frisman)

"There are clichés, and there are pitfalls that you need to know how to avoid, as well as Arab food and non-Arab food. We are not politicians"

His dream - an Israeli map that divides the country into culinary regions - still exists, still drives him, but he knows what dreams are about here, and what you should really do with them after you wake up.

"I wanted it very much, and I got it all the way to the government, but at the rate that ministers change here it's impossible. Instead, we decided to start here, at our mother's door."

Winter, "a season that has a lot to tell", as he defined it, started off weak and finally gathered in agreement in the kitchen, and the menu arose, although after quite a few difficult decisions made between him and the executive chef Tal Feigenbaum.

"There are clichés, and there are pitfalls that you need to know how to avoid, as well as Arab food and non-Arab food," he explained, "We are not politicians. We do not engage in politics here, and we have not set out on a left-wing or right-wing mission. It is not there at all. There is no agenda here, but You have to be very careful, otherwise it's not intelligent."

In other words, there is no Jerusalem mix here and there are no fuses here, even though Shmuel thought "that there should be some kind of fuse, and that there should be something with a mixed people".

He remembers for a moment the pasta that starred in the early days of the restaurant, wonders out loud "what's going on with the goats" and finally lands on the ground, holding the edge of the cloak of possibilities.

"The menu is big and you have to choose, and the hardest part is deciding what not to do."

travel song

Claro

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What was finally done was a delicious topographic-geographic packaging of the mountains and alleys, and a gentle and thoughtful transport of the backpack into the Sharona complex.

Shmueli and Feigenbaum, if you will, are only the guides of this trip.

But why wouldn't you actually want to follow them?

There are vegetables from "Easy Rider", collections from Omri Magid, crops from the Boyar School's agriculture trend, fresh goat cheeses from "Iza Paziza" and inspirations from the Mea Shearim kitchens and the stalls of the Old City alike.

All of this is reflected not only in the periphery of the menu, but also in the dishes themselves, which do not slap you with "wine-clear mountain air", but let you really breathe.

A large ravioli stuffed with chicken and parmesan cheese, for example, in a brown chicken stock and root vegetables from the mountains, a masbah made of lima beans and homemade labneh balls, great bak choy in tempura with Jerusalem zaatar aioli and a fried jiveni with a salad of tangerines and khovez that stood firm against the softness of the cheese.

What more?

Calf almonds with kegel and lamb stock, Jerusalem pretzels from the tabon that is opened only to receive brown egg salad and hot smoked trout on top, as well as strawberry and thyme hearts, nut kataif with tahini-honey sauce, wines from the region and cocktails that somehow know how to mix gin washed down with olive water or "mountain whiskey" Moria", and not to get carried away with the gimmick without providing receipts when the tall glass is emptied.

The new Zionism.

Claro (Photo: Noam Frisman)

"It really moves me. People who make cheese are also people who ultimately protect this country"

"Jerusalem has aromas, and there is energy. You feel it," Shmueli described, "but as you get older and travel, you look more and more for the authentic. In this case, these are the producers, the base. It's very exciting to me. People who make cheese are also people in the end Of course, they are guarding this country."

According to him, "The more we research and dig deeper, we discover that each region has its own characteristics. Even in Israel, really. You don't go to eat a beet cube in the Negev, and you eat Jerusalem pretzels in Jerusalem and berries in the Golan. That's how it starts. You have to start somewhere. Not only to fight all the time. It's a world.

"A culinary district is not just a title.

It permeates.

This is the new Zionism, and it strengthens the connection to the land, and to agriculture.

Agriculture is much more than tomatoes in a box.

If there is no agriculture here, there will be nothing here."

to give something in return.

Claro (photo: Walla! system, Yaniv Granot)

see ahead

Claro (photo: Walla! system, Yaniv Granot)

Shmueli tells about one of his last trips to Italy, and how he wanted to bury himself a second after he finished formulating a question to the owners of a local winery.

"We took a tour there, and he showed us the visitor center that was carved out of the mountain with a huge investment. Then we stand, and I, like the last of the stupid Israelis, ask him: 'Tell me, how long will it take to return all this money?'. As I finished the sentence I realized that it was A mistake. He looked at me with disdain, and said of course that they don't make investments to pay them back, but for future generations."

This experience translates to Claro with direct simplicity.

"I look ahead, and when we invest in a restaurant what guides us is the principle that if a customer chooses to come back to you, you have to give him something in return. Part of that is the way, the way. And that's what I lack in the country. A way. To see ahead."

The story of the country.

Shmueli (Photo: Gil Hayon)

"The demonstrations should be non-political. When I came the last time, I heard shouts of 'Bibi to Maasyayo prison'. I will not come again with such statements"

We gather towards the end just as the office workers in Sharona Tower are manning the elevators down, on their way to a short protest strike, and I wonder what all of this seeps in, into the restaurant.

"By chance, we feel it because we are right next to the demonstrations on Mochash, but that is not the problem, of course," explained Shmueli, "Yes, we are creating some kind of bubble here, but we are also telling the country's story through the food.

This is our job as chefs, and the job of the demonstrations is to fight for our sanity, but I will say this - the demonstrations should be apolitical.

When I came the last time, I heard shouts of 'Bibi to the Maasiyahu prison'.

I will not come again with such statements.

"Look, I'm very hurt by what's happening here, but I'm trying to concentrate on what is positive, the farmers, the amazing people, the fact that 152 people work here. We look south and consider options overseas as well. And yes, I would very much like there to be some kind of leadership here that doesn't shout About me from the TV 'them' and 'you'. I'm not 'them', I'm 'us'."

On the way out, you can see the cooks finishing the first preparations for lunch, gathering for the team dinner, and washing all this work with gallons of soap and water on the floor.

For a moment, the frenetic cooking choreography is replaced by a relatively happy and equally frenetic sponge dance.

Shmueli responds with a slightly different, more mischievous smile, and tells one of the workers loudly that he "remembered to bring him the surprise this morning."

He goes to his backpack, unzips it and takes out a small pair of scissors with twinkling eyes.

The plants that don't answer are waiting, it's time to go back to therapy.

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