January 18, 2016, Updated January 24, 2016

The gastronomy world is taking cues from Israeli chefs on food trends for 2016.

Most recently, Israeli celebrity chef Eyal Shani was credited by the New York Times with bringing cauliflower back onto fashionable tables.

“The whole roasted cauliflower (along with the single giant beet and the overgrown carrot) recently surfaced as a favorite chef’s trick. It is the centerpiece of menus at restaurants … [Shani’s] ‘baby cauliflower,’ now famous, blanched in salted water and then oiled and charred in a wood-fired oven, started the craze, which has been picked up by the likes of Jamie Oliver, Rachael Ray and Giada De Laurentiis,” according to the NYT report.  “It has also become one of the defining dishes of modern Israeli cooking.”

Israeli celebrity chef Eyal Shani. Photo by Yonatan Sindel/FLASH90
Israeli celebrity chef Eyal Shani. Photo by Yonatan Sindel/FLASH90

 

Speaking of modern Israeli cooking, Emmy Award-winner Roger Sherman’s tantalizing documentary, The Search for Israeli Cuisine, is now being screened to sold-out audiences at film festivals across the United States. It shows a scrumptious portrait of Israel’s chefs, the Israeli people and, of course, Israeli food.

Israeli-American chef Michael Solomonov, a James Beard Award winner, is the guide for Sherman’s film. He is also hailed as one of the trendsetters of the “No Waste Kitchen” movement now popular in US restaurants.

“Leftover recipes are on the rise … Chefs across the nation, including local restaurateur and chef, Michael Solomonov, are committing to zero-waste cooking, a method that utilizes the whole animal as well as vegetable scraps,” according to a report on food trends in Philly.com.

You can also see Israeli chefs making their marks in accordance with the National Restaurant Association annual survey that shows the top menu trends for 2016 according to members of the American Culinary Federation.

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The list includes chef-driven fast-casual concepts (Miznon by Shani is a great example); ethnic condiments/spices and authentic ethnic cuisine (USA Today‘s pick for best new restaurant – Timna, by Israeli chef Nir Mesika); new cuts of meat (Food & Wine magazine’s 10 Best New Chefs includes Israeli-raised meat maestro Ori Menashe); ethnic-inspired breakfast items (Einat Admony, one of the busiest Israeli chefs in New York City, has four ethnic-inspired restaurants); food waste reduction/management (Solomonov, above); and street food/food trucks (the Shuka Team), among many others.

Will 2016 be the year of Israeli cuisine abroad?

Watch out for our story on Thursday January 21, on the top 18 Israeli chefs now storming the international restaurant scene worldwide.

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