A whale shark in the Gulf of Eilat, March 2023 (Photo: Mark Beznov, Beacon Company and Anbar Dahan, Tel Aviv University)
Early-mid March, probably the best climate time that Eilat can offer throughout the year, but David Gill's desserts are smarter than any forecast, and well protected behind tempered glass.
It was a wise decision, considering that this sweet pop-up was placed ahead of time on the open terrace of the Royal Beach Hotel, and especially considering that "the best climate time Eilat can offer throughout the year" is still, no matter what, almost sunny time Total.
"I found myself thinking mainly about your desert," Gil told me a few days before he landed in Israel, "and about how I bring it to expression in my dishes."
Well, even before a big spoon sweeps genius into the mouth, it is clear that there is a winner.
There is a winner.
David Gil's dessert (photo: Walla! system, Yaniv Granot)
Happy launch.
David Gil's dessert (photo: Walla! system, Yaniv Granot)
The results of the experiment have not yet been published, probably because the look in her eyes led me to action, a sales question I've known too well for years - nimble inventory elimination into a large backpack, while looking innocently in the eyes
The reception that opened the Yam Festival of the Yisrotel hotel chain in the southern city did the most requested thing, leveraging Gil's creative sugar storm into a particularly happy launch.
There were chocolate "corks", cake "candles" (which were even lit and provided fire, it really works), "eggs in the nest" with caramel and passion fruit, and also a small but disgusting cheese cake, based on Camembert and cream, almost devoid of sweetness and probably the most un-Israeli dessert which can be served in the most Israeli city there is.
A journalist colleague who shared the first dessert with me (and immediately agreed with me at the end that we don't share anything anymore and thank you very much) decided that the great test of age is actually small butter cookies, packed in a very simple bag.
"It's like ice cream parlor vanilla," she declared while trying the first one.
The results of the experiment have not yet been published, probably because the look in her eyes led me to an action I've known all too well for years - nimbly stuffing inventory into a large backpack, while looking innocently in the eye.
The whole world saw
They led millions of followers to Israel.
This is what happened *after* the hummus
To the full article
On, of course it's on.
David Gil's "candle".
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Gil ends his fashion show with what he calls "baklava", but it's actually *baklava*.
You sit skeptical, wondering what a Spaniard can do for you with this, and see him go back, and prepare one by one on the spot, only after you ordered.
The result is a hot, very thin and very crispy pocket, inside which is a delicate pistachio cream.
The crumbs only bother you when the first teeth come through.
After that nothing matters.
"We wanted a guest chef who would not compete with the excellent Israeli food we have here, but would provide added value from the world of desserts," explained Bishrotel, who hosted us over the weekend.
In such moments of baklava and Camembert cake, it is evident that this desire has been fully fulfilled.
Dessert added value.
David Gil's baklava (photo: Walla! system, Yaniv Granot)
In Eilat, as in Eilat, you can't really tell, and that's all you need to know
I wonder how formal this reception is supposed to be, and feel a little underdressed when I see hotel managers' suits at the entrance, but very quickly I assimilate into what is the familiar Israeli version of "Dress Code Shekut" - put something on and come, it will be fine.
From the back bar, which overlooks the spectacular sea at a winding angle, you can see almost all of them.
Parliament tables of coffee and cake who didn't know what luck fell on them with this particular cake, shop window reviewers who don't know what to choose and then simply choose one of everything, and also a couple who probably just left the spa, or just came down from the room in a robe to see what the fuss was about.
In Eilat, as in Eilat, you can't really tell, and that's all you need to know.
The flagship meal.
Raz Rahav in Eilat (photo: Walla! system, Yaniv Garnot)
"People can accept me in all kinds of forms, here they simply accept the version that wants to make the tastiest food available"
A few hours later, we show up at the entrance of the hotel's smaller restaurant, for dinner by Raz Rahav from OCD.
I'll come back a second time, and that probably won't help either - a hotel.
Eilat.
Raz.
arrogance.
This dissonance - a chef who feeds a maximum of 46 people in his Tel Aviv flagship restaurant in the evening is stationed in an Eilat hotel kitchen - is amazing from the start, and certainly something that the organizers of the festival aspired to, while branding the event, and rightly so, as an achievement.
Rahav himself is aware of all this, but prefers to approach the event a little differently.
"There's a six-story kitchen here and at least 250 people to feed tonight, so at some point I realized I can't act like I'm OCD here," he explained, "People can accept me in all kinds of ways, here they just accept the version that wants to make the food The most delicious there is."
achievement
Raz Rahav's carpaccio (photo: Walla! system, Yaniv Garnot)
If it's first gear for this ride, it's first gear in Marty McFly's DeLorean
This sentence translates into a closed menu, consisting of 14 dishes, which is served in full to each diner.
His famous Parker House rolls are served alongside fresh sourdough bread, and Ethan is spread on the table with a stunning appetizer, which includes olive oil jam, spicy and colorful pinches, freaky stuffed lettuce, "root tacos", bruschetta from bread that was heavily shaded by the Rahab team and topped with fish and miso, and also Cabbage Kataif.
If it's first gear for this ride, it's first gear in Marty McFly's DeLorean.
Then there is a colorful carpaccio in a sauce that is both egg yolk and almonds, a small plate of fresh sashimi and shifka and also two larger dishes, for those who somehow got here and want more, in the form of entrecote and demi-glace sauce with roast beef, and also "New Orleans", a local version of something which is between fried chicken and crispy schnitzel, inside a multi-story tower of a soft bun, pungent coleslaw and a sauce that finally closes the possibility that you will leave here with clean fingers, and with self-respect.
The dessert is a kind of lemon sorbet (with seaweed and thyme) and a deep plate of chocolate and pecan and rose affairs.
We'll mention it again, because it hasn't sunk in yet - dinner at a hotel in Eilat, yes?
The company of abundance.
The Royal Beach breakfast (photo: Walla! system, Yaniv Garnot)
Of course it's a lie.
The Royal Beach breakfast (photo: Walla! system, Yaniv Garnot)
When I ask, begging, one of the cooks to make me only half a challah with meatballs and not a whole sandwich, he almost laughs at me, then laughs almost without
Rahab's host is Nissim Levy, the chef of "Royal Beach" who is responsible for no less than a dozen active food points.
I have no idea how he does it, so I just ask and get an answer.
"Sports. I do sports every day at half past five in the morning, and only then come here with the right energy," he explains, "otherwise it won't work."
Levy admonishes us not to miss breakfast tomorrow, and certainly not to dare to miss his Friday dinner, which is an all-Israeli all-purpose show that starts excellently and climbs very quickly into the excellent areas.
There are enough staples in there for all the Fridays left on the 2023 calendar, and each one individually is a giant plate of guilt-freeness and caloric accounting.
When I ask, almost begging, one of the cooks to make me only half a challah with meatballs and not a whole sandwich, he almost laughs at me, then laughs almost without.
Thursday was almost entirely Rahab's, and Friday was almost entirely Levi's, but the click between the two was evident, igniting a relational system based on mutual respect and appreciation, between the ends of the culinary scale of this tough profession.
They're already plotting next year's festival, and you should too.
An all-Israeli purpose display.
Dinner in Eilat
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"We wanted to add content to our guests' vacation," Bishrotel explained the move, "to connect chefs for a somewhat special experience and create a weekend that is mostly fun."
This statement is backed up by actions.
Apart from Rahab, Avi Biton, Yossi Shatrit and Nof Atmana also cooked here, and the Shabbat street-food reception also connected the city to Nadav and Daniel, Hillel Gardi and Ohad Levy, its current senior food ambassador.
There were also performances by Ran Denkar, Dalit Rochester and Pablo Rosenberg, and above all a good feeling of starting on the right foot.
With faults, true, and natural opening creaks, but with a desire to learn, and do more.
"This festival will be perfected over the years", it was promised, "this is a very big vision of ours".
Mostly fun.
Friday dinner at Royal Beach (photo: Walla! system, Yaniv Garnot)
"Our big vision".
Friday dinner at Royal Beach (photo: Walla! system, Yaniv Garnot)
For a moment, right before turning right into the terminal, I felt like yelling at the driver to keep going, and not stop until the entire register is filled with these pearls
The way back to the Ramon airport combined jet-lag almost abroad and the hangover (cocktails at Jasper 08 of Hotel Agami at prices that Gush Dan has long forgotten will probably do that to you) very local, but also one of the entertaining blue-and-white shows At its peak, Rahab recorded himself having a fascinating discussion with the minibus driver about the correct way to load luggage, while Atmana brings up memories of other taxis she traveled in, which were no less loaded. When we finally set off, all that was left was
to open our ears and remember. There were underground conversations about honey from Yemen , things from Iran that can be found in Dubai, a *meaty* dessert in Bahrain, Jordanian recommendations, kitchen secrets, the next trend to take over Tel Aviv, directions for milk powder, uses of opium, and what not. For a moment, right before turning right into the terminal, I felt like yelling at the driver to keep
going to travel, and not stop until the entire notebook is filled with these pearls.
"Next week," Nissim promised at one of the meals with a look that had already seen everything, "you will sit at home on Friday night and miss me, no matter what is on the table."
At first I laughed.
Then I pushed.
On Sunday I remembered, and I already missed it.
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Yossi Sheetrit
Nof Atamana Esmail
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