Why there is more to Israeli cuisine than falafal, hummus and shakshuka

Anyone who has not had the chance to visit Israel might be forgiven for thinking its food would be limited and bland. Before my first trip, I thought I would be eating endless combinations of hummus, salat (salad), falafel and shak­shuka, and while I did eat those dishes (which were delicious – except for the salat), there was so much more to try.

The cuisine is diverse because the people are diverse: as well as Jews from Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Africa, people of other religions have settled there.

American cookbook author Joan Nathan made her first visit to Israel when she was 26, and worked as foreign press attaché for Teddy Kollek, then mayor of Jerusalem. In the introduction to The Foods of Israel Today (2001) she writes that Kollek, who died in 2007, showed her “the power of food as a bridge to people [...]

“On many occa­sions, Teddy introduced me to the diverse peoples and foods by taking me with him on visits to his constituents. Jews, Christians and Muslims often opened their kitchens to us. Food became a means of breaking down political and ethnic barriers”.

She explains how modern Israeli food came to be. “An Israeli cuisine? A cuisine is usually defined as cooking which derives from a particular culture. Since the Jewish popula­tion has essentially been dis­persed throughout the world, Jewish food, and by extension the food of Israel, while centred in the Jewish dietary laws which were expounded in the Book of Leviticus, sub­sumes the cuisines of countries throughout most of the world.