I'll start with a compliment: the column in front of you does not claim that "The Next Restaurant" is not a good plan, on the contrary, in my opinion it is definitely good, both in terms of production itself and in terms of the welcome idea to put a restaurant and not chefs.
Ruthie Russo (hope you follow her on Twitter, she's awesome) entered the role of judge quite naturally.
There does not seem to be a matter of forcibly looking for a "female judge" so that interviewers stop harassing (like me, here in an interview with Yossi Sheetrit), the chemistry of the granite-Sheetrit-Roth triangle is something that cannot be faked and it stands out here just as it stood out in "Chef Games" .
My main problem with this show came precisely in the dilemma raised by Granite towards the end of the episode, when the winners were debating between the Thai and Italian restaurant.
"Ten minutes from the moment we announce which of them is auditioning - this restaurant will be invited for a week, sold out."
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This sentence illustrates the concern (which I assume is true because in the end there is also the reputation of the judges that rests on the money), but also the fact that there is really no chance that Israel's next restaurant will come from Israel's next restaurant, and if it does, it will probably be due to lots of luck .
It is impossible to know how long it will survive, but it is possible to talk about statistics, and it is, as is well known, not optimistic.
This is exactly what you had to apply
I do not criticize television (you can read our review here), and it is no coincidence that the article in front of you is actually on the site's food channel.
I also understand commercial considerations and I do not mind that in every second frame there was a logo of Bush, Brown or San Pellegrino.
What bothers me and touches my heart is that the world of restaurants, and the four judges know this better than I do, is much more complex than the imagined legitimacy of deciding within an hour and two dishes who deserves to open a restaurant and who less.
It's no secret that all reality shows in Israel, of all kinds and without exception, from "Master Chef" and "Chef Games", through "Survival" to "Big Brother", are all accused by viewers of over-applying, an hour-long episode in the US " B translated into two episodes of an hour and a half in Israel - we have long been accustomed to this.
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But precisely in this case, the case is reversed.
Instead of showing us the whole story, how really complicated and difficult it is to pick up and operate a restaurant at a time like this, it is precisely here that we get the condensed summary.
For two years now, restaurateurs have been complaining about the enormous difficulties during this period and the economic losses they are suffering.
As a result, the world of restaurants is at the peak of rising prices, which is of course obtained by a lack of sympathy among the average consumer.
People who do not know what it means to open and maintain a restaurant refuse to accept the evil of the decree.
This reality could have been the one that would give the justified pain of the restaurateurs a real voice, and maybe even identify with it.
Referring to the TV product itself aside, right now, as a viewer interested in culinary, I would like to see more of the behind the scenes of the restaurants.
I do not expect, of course, to talk in prime time about quarrels with municipal inspectors, about the ease with which fines are obtained if a chair and table cross the check line, about the irrational difficulty in recruiting workers, about the frustrating bureaucracy in front of any relevant body, about long trial and run periods. Even before we mentioned regular operation and not cheap at all.
There are so many more things to show that are related to setting up restaurants, ones that I'm sure the "regular" audience should know and I sure want too, but the show doesn't even mention them.
Entire struggles for the coveted goal are silenced and a situation is created in which a plan that is supposed to support the industry, may, without intention of course, even harm it.
What exactly do you want?
Even if we ignore all of this for a moment, it is still unclear what the judges or creators of the program are looking for in the winner.
I mean - restaurant, Sabba, I understand.
But which restaurant?
After all, if each of the four contestants in the episode that aired last night had been given an endless budget and an option to open, each would have brought a completely different product.
Lee Malili is a gracious chef and has been preparing excellent food for a long time even at private chef meals she holds, regardless of her father's successful restaurant, so her winning of the episode is, most likely, justified.
What seems to have decided on the part of the judges the choice of her is that the chef of the Italian restaurant, however talented he may be, will not be able to keep service alone, but who said he wants to?
Maybe his big dream is not a big restaurant that feeds 150 mouths in an evening service, but a small and intimate Italian with four tables and checkered tablecloths, as he saw in the alleys of Brescia where he lived?
Who said a locksmith (proper disclosure, writes here in the section) and his associates could not open a small Florentine diner with a little proper tuning of food and menu?
And Aviva Avidan, maybe she too does not dream of a fancy restaurant, but would love her own place for the purity of her home-cooked food (and delicious, the judges also said), something modest that is open from ten to four, in Nahalat Yitzhak or Montefiore?
Four dealers, with different dreams, in different categories, and all of them have been reduced to one general category of "restaurant", when in practice this world is much more complex and each such restaurant requires attentive, accurate and specific care.
And all this just at the tip of the fork.
If you are looking for the next chef of Israel, it is okay that your main parameter for winning will be if the chef "holds service" alone.
But if you are squinting towards Israel's next restaurant, it is interesting to know not only the chef up front, good and successful as he may be, but also his partners, quiet or noisy, whose influence on the business is often greater than that of the chef himself.
The complex and sometimes exhausting tangle that leads to opening a new restaurant, holds much more than one chef soup that makes food.
But it missed the premiere episode of Reality, and hugely.
Were we wrong?
Fixed!
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