Even the most famous TV chefs have never experienced the annual challenge of creating a series of kosher for Passover menus at high-end Israeli hotels.

 Sheraton Tel Aviv & Towers, Executive Chef, Charley Fadida at work in the kitchen.

The meals must titillate the palates of thousands of visiting guests, while having access to only a limited number of ingredients based on kashrut and halachic considerations. In this respect, Israel’s top hotel chefs could be construed as the most innovative culinary artists in the food business!

During the eight-day Passover holiday, thousands of Jewish tourists from the United States, United Kingdom and France flock to elite Israeli hotels to imbibe the fresh springtime air, as well as the pungent aroma of inventive Pesach cooking. There was a time in the not too distant past when Israeli chefs were forced to limit their culinary savoir faire due to the dearth of premium kosher for Passover ingredients.

“New food technologies, which have helped create many quality kosher for Passover products that have been approved by the Tel Aviv Chief Rabbinate (under the stewardship of Rabbi Yisroel Meir Lau), have grown by leaps and bounds since I started working in Israel nearly 13 years ago,” said John Donnelly, executive operations chef at Tel Aviv’s David InterContinental Hotel.

Donnelly, who had previously worked as a top chef, serving up non-kosher dishes at the five-star luxury InterContinental Mark Hopkins Hotel in San Francisco, Calif., as well as the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Boston, Mass., has relished the opportunity to create premium kosher cuisine year-round, as well as during Passover.

He added, “The guests who come to our hotel from the United States, United Kingdom, France, etc. for Passover, are so culinary savvy they could go anywhere, because they absolutely know what they like. As our guests have such high expectations when it comes to prime cuisine, we are always trying to go to another culinary level. And today, it is absolutely possible to create unique and delicious dishes during Passover.”

Donnelly and his kitchen staff will serve up more than 15,000 individual meals to nearly 1,000 guests during the course of the holiday, including the swanky seder soirees. What are the most popular dishes?

“First of all, I build menus that feature a variety of flavours and tastes. Also, the growing number of high-quality kosher for Passover wines that I can cook with has given us more culinary options,” said Donnelly.

“I’m proud to say that the meat products we order from Argentina are phenomenal. We’ve had guests from the United States and United Kingdom who’ve asked us where we get such quality meat. The [meat] is as good as anything you’ll ever find in the top restaurants in New York or London. Our chicken soup, I think, is absolutely the best. I have a talented Iraqi-Jewish sous chef who makes sure that the soup and other dishes have a consistency of quality.”

Across town, Sheraton Tel Aviv Hotel & Towers executive chef, Charley Fadida, has garnered a reputation for spearheading a kosher culinary revolution in metro Tel Aviv. The Sheraton Tel Aviv Hotel & Towers Olive Restaurant, which was created to showcase Fadida’s talents, has been consistently voted as one of the top five kosher restaurants in Israel by TimeOut Magazine.

“Today, where the hotel’s staff is much more personally connected to the customer, it is important for the chef to create a true culinary experience for the guests. In my dining room and restaurant, the orientation on the plate is more a work of art, with lots of colours, which gives you a real appetite,” Fadida said.

“In reality, creating menus for Pesach for hundreds of guests is literally like planning the opening of a new restaurant. You have to plan ahead and order products three months in advance, and there is no room for error since suppliers don’t stock extra products for the eight days of Pesach. There is no such thing as telling guests, ‘we don’t have this dish, because it’s Pesach.’ Today, there’s a whole range of new ingredients available, so you can put pastas and tortillas on the menu. I can guarantee that guests who come from the USA and UK this year will be able to eat, and eat , and eat…My specialties include the traditional chicken soup,  gefilte fish and tangy North African-style fish dishes.”

In Jerusalem, David Citadel Hotel, executive chef, Eric Attias, is tasked with tailoring mouth-watering glatt kosher, non-gebrochts (no matzah meal), non-kitniyot (no legumes) cuisine for the hotel’s upscale tourists.  

“Based on my 13 years of experience at the David Citadel, I have always been able to find new ways to offer delicious gourmet dishes during Pesach, even though I am limited in the types of ingredients I can use,” Attias said.

“Of course, we are serving great lamb and veal dishes etc. But we have found a real niche with our breakfast and dessert menus. We have been able to create amazing Pesach breakfast pancakes, which are based on crushed almonds. The crushed almonds make the pancakes richer and more tasty. Most importantly, we are renowned for catering to the personal traditions of families who stay with us during Pesach. So if a family requests that their seder table must highlight a certain type of food, we honour those traditions.”

A growing number of Israeli hotel chefs are also mindful of guests who like to watch their calories, without feeling the need to compromise on sampling the enticing dishes on the holiday menu.

At the Daniel Hotel in picturesque Herzliya (Tamares Hotels), where most of the visiting Passover clientele also hail from the United Kingdom and United States, executive chef, Dudu Cohen said that he likes to surprise his guests with a variety of European and Mediterranean-style fish entrees, as well as quiches and even pizzas.

“Even though we, of course, serve a selection of meat dishes during the holiday, we realize that our guests don’t always like to eat heavy meals all the time,” Cohen said. “The fact that we can also offer pizza, pastas, quiches and yes, Passover bagels, because of the new kosher for Passover ingredients that are now available, allows us to make our menus that much more interesting.”

Up in northern Israel, at the posh Rimonim Galei Kinneret Hotel, located along the banks of the Sea of Galilee, executive chef Meir Rosenberg tailors a variety of succulent Mehadrin (Glatt Kosher) dishes for guests.

“Years ago it was hard to find a high standard of glatt kosher veal and duck, as well as soup mixes and sauces. Today, it’s possible to achieve new culinary peaks during Passover,” said Rosenberg.

“The technological advances in Kosher for Passover ingredients also allow us to address the growing number of requests from guests who want a healthier menu featuring gluten-free products, as well as low-sugar pastries. Unfortunately more and more people are suffering from diabetes and celiac disease. With the large variety of gluten-free kosher for Passover products that are now available, I’m able to offer premium culinary solutions for people who have health issues including breads, pastas etc. We have a great interaction with our guests, so we are always prepared to create high quality cuisine based on their dietary desires.”

Hearty Yom Tov appetite!

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