Israeli biodiversity is featured in Opa restaurant, One To Watch 2023 restaurant for the Fifty Best Middle East and North Africa. "Being vegan is not enough: it's by buying locally that you fight pollution."
The story
That the Israeli dining scene was vibrant to say the least was common knowledge. Now another piece is added to the picture: Shirel Berger's restaurant in Tel Aviv, just honored by the 50 Best with the One to Watch award for the Middle East and North Africa. It's called Opa and is named after his grandfather, who ran a burger stand.
@Aviv Shkury
"I really love the dissonance between the market, the context and Opa. It blows my mind. You walk down one of the ugliest streets in the city to find yourself in a clean, minimalist world. I didn't want anything to distract from the food experience," Shirel says of his creature, born amid the metropolitan hustle and bustle as a nostalgia for nature.
@Yoav Gurin
The tasting menu consists of ten courses, all centered on a local, seasonal vegetable, such as Jerusalem artichokes with macadamia milk or strawberry and asparagus soup. The dishes vary quickly, but sometimes make it back onto the menu. "When I started this journey seven years ago, cooking only vegetables was something no one had fully explored. Now restaurants like Noma have all-vegetable seasons and many others have made of a fruit the star of the menu, while meats and fish are served as side dishes; it makes a lot of sense to me. This is the 21st century; this is how cooks should cook. I am hopelessly fascinated by the boundless variety of the plant kingdom. As a cook you can always discover new tastes and textures. Cooking only fruits and vegetables has helped me shift the boundaries of my creativity."
Sustainability is the pole star, since everything cooked comes from small farms in the area or is personally harvested from nature, and since Shirel likes to make the most of scraps and offcuts, for example canned melon skins and tomato leaves. "This is why I don't define Opa as a vegan restaurant. You can be vegan and still import abused products like coconut milk. When you choose to source locally, you are really helping the environment to reduce your carbon footprint and pollution."
@Lior Sperandeo
Since opening in 2018, Shirel has never stopped exploring Israel's biodiversity, which is full of undiscovered treasures. "Mushrooms in the north taste completely different from those in the south," she says, for example. Pandemic closures have also been exploited to push research further, turning the rooftop into an urban garden. "During the covid-19 pandemic we were closed for three weeks. We were growing a lot of vegetables and there was a lot of harvest, but no one to feed." Thus was born the pantry of fermented and variously preserved produce, which gave new impetus to the kitchen. "Now when creating a dish, we use many ingredients from the previous season. Right now, for example, there are radishes with fermented lychee."
Source: 50beststories.com
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