Matt and I don't ever watch reality shows. Let's be honest, we don't really watch TV (probably because we don't own one), but we do have a couple shows that we regularly watch on the computer (through my parents' "slingbox"). After Homeland ended, we decided we needed a new show and that it should be in Hebrew so that we can work on our vocabulary and listening comprehension (wow, that sounds nerdy). Since the hot show around these parts these days is the Israeli version of Master Chef (in Hebrew: מאסטר שף), a reality cooking competition, we decided to give it a shot. And now we're hooked.
The basis of the show is a competition between amateur chefs vying to be Israel's next Master Chef. This is accomplished through a series of cooking tasks (משימות) that the chosen team (נבחרת) of competitors (מתמודדים) completes in a set amount of time. Those who don't make meals that please the judges (שופטים) get sent home. What makes this show particularly interesting to us, however, is that it is uniquely Israeli. It is an Israeli show not because of the premise of the show itself (which is copied exactly from the American version), but because of the participants on the show and the food they cook. The competitors represent a microcosm of Israeli society - a kibbutznik, a secular Tel Avivian, a religious settler, a Muslim Israeli-Arab, a hippy vegan, a wounded soldier, a French immigrant and a German convert, among others. They cook traditional Jewish and middle-eastern food with a strong sense of pride in their personal heritage. There are a number of competitors who keep kosher and all the available ingredients are kosher (although that doesn't stop some of the chefs from cooking meat and milk together). Every once and a while you see the kosher observant competitors kashering a pot or a knife so that they'll be able to taste the dishes they are preparing and the judges always assure the competitors that the taste-testing dishes are all kosher as to not discriminate among the tasters. The awareness of Jewish law and tradition, Israeli history and culture and the personal narratives of the characters make this a fun show for us to watch.
Through the "Ptitim" challenge, we learned the history of this uniquely Israeli food. Ptitim, known in the rest of the world as Israeli couscous, was invented soon after the establishment of the state and was commissioned by Israel's first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion. In this austerity period, rice was scarce and Ben-Gurion recognized that he needed to find a suitable substitute for the Mizrahi (middle eastern) immigrants for whom rice was a staple part of their diet. The Prime Minister turned to the Osem food company to devise a wheat-based rice alternative and thus, ptitim was born. Now, ptitim is a staple part of the Israeli diet, especially for school children. Tom, the German convert competitor on the show, recalled the very first time he was served ptitim after making aliyah. Unfamiliar with the food, he asked his hosts what is was. They responded: "It's ptitim." So he asked: "what is ptitim?" and they replied: "it's ptitim." When Matt heard this he exclaimed: "That's exactly what happened to me!" Israelis have become so familiar with this food item, it's hard to describe it any way but to call it by it's name, like asking "what is rice?" "it's rice."
Our favorite competitor is Etti (although we know she doesn't win because, even though we're still in the middle of the season, the actual season ended this week and all the newspapers reported on the winner. Where was our spoiler alert?!). Etti is an adorable, tiny, middle aged, mizrahi woman who got on the show after her daughter invited the judges to dinner at her home for a surprise audition. She makes traditional mizrahi food with an "Etti twist" all of which we think looks delicious. We also love her because she does this funny little dance when she gets excited. Our big discovery of the week was that you can find all the recipes for the dishes prepared on the show online. To us, that meant we were having an "Etti Shabbat" and an "Etti Shabbat" we had! We looked up two of Etti's most delicious looking meals and went out and bought all the ingredients. For Shabbat dinner we made her Kubbe Soup (when we saw how much food it was we decided to save the second dish for Saturday night). Kubbe is a type of dumpling, sort of like a matzah ball filled with meat. I don't even know how to begin to tell you how delicious it was. (Thank you to my mother who taught me how to read a recipe). After Shabbat we invited some friends over for the continuation of our Master Chef inspired dinner, we ate left-over soup and we all cooked the second recipe together - beef cooked in pomegranate molasses and herbs, wrapped in swiss-chard leaves and served on a bed of homemade salsa. While not as amazing as the soup, it was, as the judges often say, מדהים, madheem, stunning! Here are some pics to whet your appetite:
Have a great week!
Stef and Matt
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