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Hila Korach, Internal: This is not a restaurant, this is a food show Israel today

2021-10-10T07:21:10.442Z


After a long wait and a perfect meal at Raz Rahav's OCD, Raz Israeli has only one question: "Why does everyone bother with whether it is worth the money and not how tasty it is and how do you get there again without waiting half a year?"


In a rare article about the OCD restaurant by young chef Raz Rahav (30), reporter and presenter of "News 13" Hila Korach, did not understand, or did not really try to understand, how it happens that a restaurant that requires 420 shekels per person, whose dishes are selected for you in advance Of nine months in order to eat in it, so successful.

She repeated the same questions over and over, tasting bites that blew her mind - and kept wondering why people pay so much for food they do not know in advance what it is.

Without exaggerating, she repeated the same three questions at least five times.

Instead of going into the depths of the experience, the reporter preferred to keep wondering the same questions over and over and over again.

Instead of wondering why people are willing to pay and wait, it was right to check whether OCD, which has long been a household name in Israel and is testified to by any true culinary enthusiast, still manages to maintain the high standards it has set for itself.

Well, from a real inspection of full diners, not only have the standards been maintained - but the bar has also been constantly raised.

OCD Restaurant, Photo: Haim Yosef

After Meir Adoni closed the legendary "cult", a vacuum was created of quality restaurants that give the diner added value, greater than the sum of parts of the culinary experience itself.

OCD entered this huge pit.

There is no better way to describe the OCD restaurant experience as a food show.

For those unfamiliar, for two hours Rahav conducts an orchestra of courteous cooks, in the form of a delicious meal with a twist - an explanation of each and every dish, which sometimes also comes with a special story, its various ingredients and the thought behind it.

All preparations take place in the center of the restaurant in front of the amazed diners.

It is also important to note, for those who do not know the restaurant and are afraid of what might come to the plate, that a few days before arrival, the restaurant representative contacts to make sure the base of different dishes (menu changes and updated from time to time) is suitable for each diner.

The chef will adapt the menu to everyone according to the different restrictions (no fish, no duck, only vegetarian, etc.).

Don't worry - the story behind the dish will remain the same, only with different ingredients.

OCD Restaurant, Photo: Haim Yosef

From the moment you enter the restaurant at 17 Tirza Street, the show begins.

Sit around the stone bar that surrounds the exposed kitchen and you are immediately offered a bottle of San Pellegrino (plain or carbonated to choose from).

why is it important?

Because the restaurant does not hold and probably also does not serve soft drinks, because it destroys the sensitivity of the palate and on the way also impairs the experience itself.

There is of course liquor (to our delight) and it comes next to a professional sommelier who accompanies you throughout the evening.

Beginners.

A grape and pepper tartlet on which is placed a beef tartare in grape mustard and herbs, grapes compressed with shiso oil and fried hyssop.

In other words, Rahav combined grapes in three different ways with beef tartare.

The result - an explosion of flavors in the mouth, which starts sweet, continues salty and ends with lots of ummi.

Rahav has a great talent for taking seasonal raw material, manipulating it differently, and actually serving the same ingredient in a variety of ways and textures.

The grapes are repeated in the fried banana dish with basil and yoghurt stone, and already in the first bites of the long meal the chef leaves a very big impression on the audience due to endless creativity that is enhanced by combining original and special flavors.

Chef Raz Rahav, Photo: Haim Yosef

And if we are dealing with an original and special combination of flavors, the dish that most impressed us on this visit consists of zucchini, lime and macadamia nuts.

This.

Three small ingredients that create great flavor.

Zucchini slices are placed in a deep bowl, topped with pieces of fried zucchini.

The zucchini swim in macadamia milk with macadamia nuts and lime oil.

The intensity of this defeat is impossible to convey in words.

After a short break, you arrive at the main courses (just do not expect a huge bowl of pasta because the main courses are also minimalist, for the reader Hila Korach's knowledge). Rahav serves the audience soup from personal kettles collected by his deceased mother. Joining the personal and touching story is Rahav's fine dining interpretation, in this case about the Polish chicken soup we all know and love. In Rahav's interpretation, the soup is actually grilled chicken stock, which is accompanied by pearl rings and thin pieces of tomato stuffed with egg yolk cream. The aroma - a fresh chicken soup of Friday. The taste - small fireworks of exploding vegetables, wrapped in a nostalgic taste.

Rahav's "American barbecue" dish is also reminiscent of what its name implies, but the flavors take you to extreme places.

These are duck breast, roasted eggplant cream with a duck belly and a takeoff on coleslaw with aged corn and white corn.

Such food makes you not only taste, but also think - what made the chef put together the dish as he put it together, how do the different textures fit in the mouth, and if we make the chef eyes, will we get extra?

OCD Restaurant, Photo: Haim Yosef

The desserts are also prepared in the restaurant itself and they also challenge the palate and the mind at the same time.

The dessert that impressed us the most consisted of white asparagus mousse sticks with Louisa and raspberry consomme in two ways.

The sourness balances the sweetness, the Louisa adds a strong aroma of tea, and the head continues to engage in the fascinating mix of flavors long after the defeat is over.

At the end of the meal, Dana approached us and handed us copies of the menu that was served to us with our names, each according to his preferences - a nice souvenir from a meal full of surprises.

Leaving the restaurant, we spoke with three diners, two of them tourists, who expressed great enthusiasm for Rahav's culinary show.

None of them wondered if it was worth 420 shekels or why the portions were small, but they all announced that the waiting list would be as long as it was - this is not their (or ours) last time at an OCD restaurant.

Source: israelhayom

All news articles on 2021-10-10

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