Ezra Kedem's Arcadia Studio, Jerusalem/Yaniv Garnot
Ezra Kedem makes his green shake just like Jackson Pollock did his "Painting No. 5, 1948".
I was only present at one of these bursts of creativity, I admit, but nothing will convince me that it is not the exact same art, and the same passion.
True, these works are manifested in a tangible, everyday, slightly different way - one on a huge wooden board, to be seen only, the other in a heavy iron pan, for elimination - but everything else is the same, close enough to compare.
I see Kedem Haga in the kitchen and drip things from above into the bowl and can't help but think of the American painter and his famous technique.
I smell the cigarette smoke, here and there, careful not to disturb the dance and just trying to follow the steps, the steps, the ingredients.
In the end, even the colors drain into the same fan.
A lot of green, a lot of brown, and dots of yellow that will soon turn into volcanic, liquid streaks.
Ezra Kedem makes his shake, and it is a work of art.
green dance
Jackson Pollock's rattle/screenshot, Wikimedia
green dance
Ezra Kedem's Shakshuka/Walla! System, Yaniv Granot
An easy hour - and it is indeed easy, the stories come out of it in a flow, refuting any previous concerns about the need for dubbing and allowing you to relax and let the recording device do the work for you - before that, we sit on two old wooden chairs, decomposing gracefully, in the garden of "Arcadia", and enjoying The rays of the sun are a little unusual for this Jerusalem period of the year.
All around is all the green you can ask for from the earth at this time, on the margins only the almost complete silence of Ein Kerem threatens and beyond the immediate line of sight mountains and their slopes, paths to walk on and people who got up in the morning with the goal of doing just that.
This is the life worth living, right here.
Here and there you can recognize and hear light movements - a happy wagging tail, a shaking of branches, a slow car crossing the neighborhood - only, but there is nothing beyond them.
Laziness and nothing else, and all in a shell, highlight the flavors of the story.
And the story is prequel.
Huge in his backyard.
Mobbing to Pantheon
A new house of food, with all the space to breathe, and smile
To the full article
The silence beyond.
The path to Studio Arcadia/Walla! system, Yaniv Garnot
"They gave me two lines, some tomatoes, and that's how I started. We met, I went to television, I came back from television, we established a community school, and here we are, 14 years later"
"I always had a thought and a desire to cook in the Judean Mountains," he described the chain of events and experiences that ultimately led him to establish "Studio Arcadia" right here, "There is no corner here that I almost didn't sign, and in the end I was lucky enough to meet the people of Beit HaGat."
The area would then function as the agricultural farm of the nearby monastery, and the association itself dealt, and is dealing, with a cultural approximation of Judaism and Christianity, so Kedem asked to get involved "and grow some vegetables", as he defined it.
"They gave me two rows, some tomatoes, and that's how I started. We met, I went to television, I came back from television, we established a community school, and here we are, 14 years later."
He points to Basher, who currently runs his kitchen, and tells how he came here as a 7th grade student, and how he now teaches other students.
"I see him as my son," he misleads, and later tells the culinary son about the biological son, Nori ("Delayed fatherhood, for all that is implied. Yes, yes, yes, yes").
You have to be emotionally arid not to connect the dots yourself.
Luckily for us, the ground is wet and the soil is fertile.
Still.
Huge in his kitchen.
Kedem/Wala system!, Yaniv Granot
In Kedem's case, all the clichés are true and all the images work.
He's been there, and there, and there, and there, and if you'll just let him, he'll be happy to share
The conversation with Kedem is full of jumps and weaves together stories from then and now in a way that makes the chronicle difficult, but makes the clock hands much easier.
In his case, all the clichés are true and all the images work.
He's been there, and there, and there, and there, and if you'll just let him, he'll be happy to share.
True, sometimes there is some "it's between us, yes?"
Right at the climactic moment of the act, but this play is so rich that the barriers are breached anyway from another direction.
He made a reality show ("The Kitchen", Channel 2) back in 2008, during which to define him as "ahead of his time" would be almost lazy, and removed enough cooks and chefs from his kitchens to turn his tree branches into a thick forest.
He advised many and continues to advise many more, studied in New York and San Francisco, saw the world and continues to receive offers to this day in a quantity that would make even Kylian Mbappe laugh.
In the end, he came back here, to the garden.
"Thank God", he points and laughs at his tiny Fiat Punto, which is still recovering from the climb up the path, "I have a staff parking here".
"Why did you come?".
In the kitchen of Kedem/Walla! system, Yaniv Granot
"Even before that, in '95, I thought everything would collapse here. It was sad, terrible and terrible. Then there was this and this and that, and the attacks and the helicopters"
He spent, like all of us in fact, October and November in front of the television, and tried to keep the place in order to continue trying to "do good to people".
The corona was at the forefront, but also the bloody past of Jerusalem and much beyond it.
"We are living in a difficult time, but I am an older person and I have already seen Israel get out of difficult situations," he repeated, "'Arcadia' in the intifada became an outpost with sandbags, literally, because most of the individual hazards then roamed the center of the city, and Savaro was right next to us . It was surreal, but we held on.
"Even before that, in '95, I thought everything would collapse here.
It was sad, terrible and terrible.
Then there was this and this and this, and the attacks and the helicopters, and suddenly Ben Gvir starts walking down Agrippa Street in the city with his friend, well, Itamar Merzel, and here is a yellow T-shirt, and he gives him falafel to eat, and whoop you see the buds of fascism starting to go out".
"Creating out of sorrow".
Studio Arcadia/Walla! system, Yaniv Garnot
"It's one big piece of shit, there's nothing to be done. So now they want Itbah El Yehud? Okay, slowly. The wheel turns"
This time too the blood flowed close, touching him as it has touched countless families across the country.
Friends who went to a massacre that came back from the reserves "and something was wrong with him", accomplices like the good news who only talked to him about winter planting and soldiers who insisted on sharing with him their conclusions about Ehud Barak's involvement in the massacre.
"It's one big piece of shit, there's nothing to be done. So now they want Itbah al Yehud? Okay, slowly. The wheel is turning," he described, "Israel is fighting. All the positions are occupied, everything is active, we even bought shells from Germany. It's lovely . Do you understand? Everything is poetic here."
He directs his perspective to optimism, even if artificial.
"Look, wherever you throw a stone in Israel, you will end up hitting someone creative, and in this country we often create out of sorrow, throughout history. So the banks and the income tax, and Smotrich and Zabotrich and Bibi and Zibi - you have to take it in proportion. Live life and help who We need help. People have been scratched, but we are not persecuted. We have been attacked, but we really are not persecuted.
"When I was studying in New York, I heard directly from an Alsatian chef what racism and anti-Semitism feels like.
It's also an attack, so what?
In every crisis I knew one thing - I know how to cook.
That's what helps me in the story, and that's what I focus on.
Also coming to Nori's garden and spending a few minutes on weeds, it's good for the children."
"In every crisis I knew one thing."
Kedem/Wala system!, Yaniv Granot
"Three citizens who work for the IDF, from Netanya, came.
They asked me: 'Soldier, have the supplies arrived?'
I shook my head at them and they said to me: 'Bring black bread and come.'"
The roots of his shakshuka go back far, at least four decades, to his days as a paratrooper rookie who closed another Sabbath while confined to the base.
"I've been staying there for two and a half months, in which he was right," he unfolds the memo with great pleasure, "it was Sunday, the guys are starting to arrive by bus, but they still have time.
In the morning, three civilians who worked for the IDF, from Netanya, came. They asked me: 'Soldier, have the supplies arrived?'
Few soldiers would refuse such an order.
Hell, few humans would refuse.
The pre-soldier went with them of course.
"They lit a geziya and made a simply amazing shake. The three of them stand around the geziya with coffee, and at a certain point, when it was ready, the three of them together lift here, Bhan Tzedek, the pocket of the shirt of the uniform, where the pens are, and take out hot pepper that they had."
His theatrics are tearing, the play even more so.
"They were organized, jugglers. I ate with them, then coffee and a cigarette, and the guys came back. I got energy for the whole week after that, as much as I wouldn't shut down. Then I realized that this is what I like."
Memoirs of the jugglers.
The rattle of Kedem/Wala! system, Yaniv Granot
He tells about another Shakshuka, just 15 years back, in Istanbul.
"I was there with friends, Haim Tibi and Yron Kastenbaum, and our return flight was only at noon, so I went out to have breakfast in front of the hotel," he explained.
"They went to do some shopping, and came back stressed that we'd miss the flight, but I called them anyway to come and taste something. Green shake with eggs and yogurt and bread. Breakfast. Nothing special, and available everywhere, but still real food, And now I found it appropriate to make one of my own as well."
One of his - that green pan from above - will be part of an incredibly impressive team that created "Shokshuka", a food fair that will bring together chefs and cooks, farmers and the hungry, into a colorful and boiling pan in Tel Aviv's port market.
Gevso will be there, of course, and Aner Ben Raphael from the wonderful "Triser" restaurant and also an Acre version of the equally wonderful Almarsa.
And also preceded, with a "Jerusalem shakshuka" that is now placed in front of me, with wild spinach, Israeli loofah and hobiza leaves, onion (yes, onion, he knows it goes against all convention, and yet) and some tomatoes, at least two types of olive oil (one from Nablus, one of the mountains nearby) and finally everything you can put your hand on (the right, because the left is holding a cigarette) within a reasonable radius, eggs with intense flavor and color and a heaping spoonful of thick yogurt.
Oh, and also "proper bread that will take the shake", as he defined it, "not sick and not sure that it tempted".
And at the end, like those Netanyats, spicy.
"Come on," Ezra Kedem says to me over a pan he's been working on and is now sending steam up into the kitchen sky, "why did you come here if you don't want to eat?"
Studio Arcadia/Studio Arcadia
"So Kusaomo is a picker off the street. Come on, my partner now also wants seven kilos of lemons a day for 'Sambation', so go ahead. It's a vibe and energy, if you do good and people come, it's great."
This decline of Kedem Tel Aviv is relatively unusual, but he makes sure to stay up-to-date, and demonstrates a good orientation in developments, both culinary and barangay.
"Tomer Tal is excellent, I've heard a lot of good things about Guy Arish from Meshya and the Doctor brothers do a beautiful and moving job. They have no cynicism, they are very genuine, so Kusaumo is picking scumbags off the street. Come on, my partner now also wants seven kilos of lemons a day for 'Sambation' , so go ahead. It's a vibe and energy, if you do good and people come, that's fine."
"Sambation", an urban cocktail bar, is his next adventure, and eyes light up on both sides of the conversation when he starts talking about gin and "proper Bloody Marys", while praising the partner who harnessed him to this gallop.
"Look, I'm still influential," he says jokingly and seriously, almost mocking the contemporary jargon and farm-to-table talk, for example, which were his practical everyday life decades ago already.
"I see evolution, yes, but mostly I see a few individuals who are engaged in something that is very real, sometimes better and sometimes worse, but without posing."
"I will adjust my dreams".
Kedem/Studio Arcadia
"Arcadia Studio" holds meals in the format of a closed menu at predetermined times, something like twice a week, but this rigidity is nothing more than a starched white chef's apron that in the past was happy to take off and wrinkle its folds and rules.
"We work here calmly and without interruptions, according to the rules of Arcadia," he explained, "we host many from abroad and feel the situation well according to the American travel warnings.
Now they hardly come and I understand the situation, so I adjust my dreams.
No problem.
If you want, I can enter any dream.
what will I do?
there's a choice?
Israelis are also coming.
They're driving the rabbi crazy, but that's okay."
He talks about the rabbi, and the phone rings in sync. Somewhere there is a universe where you can talk directly to Ezra Kedem, ask him what they eat and how much it costs, when you can come and what he will prepare for those who don't like meat This universe is Ein Kerem, apparently. How not.
"Keep planting".
Studio Arcadia/Walla! system, Yaniv Garnot
"We don't treat our trees, and as soon as you treat your trees you are more present. Instead, we are busy cutting someone else's trees"
Getting here is winding and full of scenery, the alleys are narrow and the entrance is not pampered with a sign, but he refuses to call this complex a refuge and does not recognize isolation as a value.
On the contrary, the connection pulsates in it, to the land and the people, to what was and what can still be.
Yes, even now.
"I remember we came down from Lebanon," he once again goes back to the army and the paratroopers and the commander who promised him to conduct the training "like a dog", in a kennel that is a rangers' tent, "we passed through Jerusalem, and I convinced the MP that we would stop at the Nablus gate, to Shalab.
Think what it is, two buses of paratroopers stop and disperse - these go to the pretzel, those after me to the orchid.
If you and I stop there now, there's a good chance something will happen to us."
He calls it sloppiness, but not the obvious kind. "We don't treat our trees, and once you treat your trees, you're more present.
Instead, we are busy cutting someone else's trees.
This is what I believe.
It's human beings."
"Until the storm passes."
Kedem/Wala system!, Yaniv Granot
Kedem leans back and lights another cigarette, almost completely confusing my counting of differences and raising questions about the "maybe one pack a day" he stated earlier.
"I understand that This Is It. I've always understood that this is it and therefore I also understood that everything is fine. Now it's really not fine, but there's no other choice in situations like this but to keep planting, to start over, from the beginning. All the clichés are working right now, really."
On the way to the kitchen, he shows me "mustard sticking out there, like gold" and points to an olive tree that he once brought here, as wire.
"They know how to bend down, don't they? Until the storm passes. So do we. To cook is to pluck on a string of emotion, and that's what I know how to do. Cook, and pluck."
"Shukshuka", the shaker tasting fair of the farmer's market at the port in Tel Aviv, will be held for two consecutive Fridays (February 23 and March 1, 9:00-14:00), and will also offer an intriguing renewal of deliveries of the "Meshluha" application, which will be added to the celebration Also the residents of Ramat Gan, Givatayim and Tel Aviv.
Here you can find, among others, Bino Gebso (classic Tripolitan shakshuka), Aner Ben Raphael (tomato stuffed with shakshuka with fresh coriander leaf sauce), Avivit Friel (white Galilean shakshuka with homemade Circassian cheese and za'atar), Alon Peled ( Spanish sofrito shakshuka with smoked paprika and chicken stock and saffron, chorizo and fried potatoes), Almarsa restaurant (Akkoian fisherman shakshuka with zucchini, yellow beans, hot pepper and pieces of locust fish), Farah Raslan (Akko shakshuka) and Rotem Ben Moyal (cooked shakshuka with Margez and poached eggs in challah).
More on the same topic:
Ezra Kedem
Jerusalem
a rustle
The port market
Arcadia