Date: samedi 5 novembre 2011
Location: 30 Yefet Street
Jaffa (Tel Aviv), Israel
Telephone: +972 3 518 4668
http://www.cordelia.co.il/?ID_Ctg=20
Comparison to:
http://www.tacobell.com/
I was enthusiastic to try this "Modern French" restaurant in Tel Aviv (Jaffa neighborhood). The online description read "dark, gothic, candleabras, warm, romantic..." The food descriptions also made Chef Nir Zook sound like a trained artisan, a seemingly respected chef in Israel. Using fresh ingredients, turning "simple" dishes (eggplant dill soup) into conversation-stopping edible works of art.
Sounded good to me. I am always down for simple, leaning on the pure quality of freshest available ingredients to develop truly memorable and savory dishes. Quality is key. Keep reading. Because it pretty much goes downhill from here.
I arrived by taxi in a charming, quaint location in the Jaffa port neighborhood of Tel Aviv, where the restaurant is nestled in a small stone cobbled street of old Crusader-era building. Wrought-iron gating lined the windows, romantic and dark simultaneously. Only a few patrons inside, which for me can sometimes be great because I like dining without the din of a thousand people shouting over each other.
I was seated by a well mannered young man. Dining for one, he gave me the best seat in the house giving me a bird's eye view of entire restaurant. He disappeared and quickly reappeared with a small side table for me to set my expensive French handbag on. Lovely service, I like this kind of pampering and details. I perused the short wine list and asked to see the wider list. I immediately noticed that the wine glasses were not crystal; instead, thy were big, thick, restaurant style wine glasses for throwing into industrial strength dishwashers. Alright, a bit alarming, yet I will continue keeping an open mind. When in Rome, do as Romans do, and I was determined to give Israeli wines a fair shake. Having done limited research by Rogov's wine books, I came to know that Cabernet and Merlot grapes do well in Israel's climate. Though I am an old world Pinot fan (Burgundy), though I am always open to breaking down my personal preferences. So, I ordered a bottle of the
2008 Yatir Forest, 100% Cabernet Sauvignon and a glass of the
2010 Carmel Winery Chardonnay, since that was the only Chardonnay by the glass available. My server was surprised and said "Excellent choice, did you choose it or did the Manager?" Soledad's pick! He opened the bottle professionally with finesse. I was surprised and made a comment about that since most Israel culture is not so keen on wine appreciation yet; many places are unaware of proper wine serving etiquette. He joked that the rest of Israel might not be pro at twisting opening wine, but that they are very good at turning the shakshuka. :-D
2008 Yatir Forest 100% Cabernet Sauvignon 2010 Carmel Winery Chardonnay
But (and we usually do not like to use the word "but" - we use "yet" or "and" - however I will use the word "but" here as s sign of disrespect), I only like pampering if the underpinning quality of the rest of the delivery can stand up to its initial perception. I felt conflicted about publishing this blog since it is rare that I publicize my less than positive food experiences. But (again!), this evening made very angry. Shame, bloody shame on Chef Nir Zook.
A lot of people ask me, how did I come to develop my passion for food and wine? I have a few versions of that same truth... I have always loved food. However, the intensity of my passion developed proportionately related to how inversely proportionate my work-life balance is. In recent years, my jet-setting, road-warrior international lifestyle gained momentum. I embraced these opportunities to travel via working very hard during the week (70 hours is normal, travel time not included), and therefore on the short 48 hours of "free" time I had on weekends, I maximized to the full extreme. I fed and pampered myself well in order to replenish my body and spirit of how depleted it became by the end of every week. Typically during the week we are grabbing scraps to eat in hotel executive lounges because we really don't have time for anything else.
This above is why - it is so critically important for Chefs of so called "fine dining" establishments, to truly present honest to good, passionate dishes. Or else, just stay home. Really. Most people who enjoy fine dining are seeking not only an experience of being served and treated well after working a long and hard arduous work week in multiple time zones, traveling through many airports. They are also looking for a truly soul-satisfying meal, that which will help replenish all the energy and nutrients depleted during their previous days' working and traveling. Naturally, we will have reasonably high expectations of food quality, color harmony and placement presentation. That is, unless you can be taken for a dupe.
Chef Nir came to greet me himself personally. I shook his hand. He was not working that day it seemed, as he showed up in grungy jeans (that's okay) and an old sweater. He asked me, if I am a foodie or a wine person? I proudly told him both, that I am coming from San Francisco and New York City (dropping hints to him that I am not a dummy when it comes to food so he better make this worthwhile for me) and that I am so happy to be in Israel on project, looking forward to experiencing all the gastronomy it has to offer these next months. Alright, and then he made some recommendations as I requested him to pair some dishes to my 2008 Yatir Cabernet Sauvignon. Since he personalized my experience, I further expected my dishes to be just a little special. Great quality, and maybe a smidgen of detail to show their kitchen staff cares. You know, placing an herb or flower in a delicate manner on the plate with a tweezer. Placing the ingredients in a geometrically balanced approach. None of that was happening in Chef Nir's Cordelia kitchen, it was visually obvious.
Below pictures is what came out. I am pretty appalled, as I wrote to my friend in Hong Kong... "Does this Chef think he can cheat me? Serving
*explitive* awful ugly
*explitive* food and prancing around being proud of it?
*explitive" using taco bell lettuce under Yellow Tail Carpaccio???" It is absolutely horrifying, that a Chef can be proud of such dishes being served to honest patrons seeking great food based on the marketing as seen on his creative websites. Add to that - the fact that I was blatantly taking so many photos, anyone with half a brain might just have guessed I was an international food critic or an enthusiastic food blogger. But no, no, they didn't care. Same crappy food served out.
My fellow international jet-setting girlfriend from Hong Kong (who studied at the Cordon in France), was also traveling through the Middle East and visited Cordelia this week. Her sentiments: "Loved the decor. Food was so so. Too salty." Echo on that! Wayyyy too salty on all the dishes, not sure what was going on back there with the heavy handed super big, giant sea salt particles.
The next day during lunch with a table of work colleagues, more than half the table who had visited Cordelia in the past also shook their head in disgust. They seemed to think Chef Nir was a cheat.
What I can gather is that, with the growing number of Chef Nir's restaurants in Israel, it seems he is a Chef who might have once been great, and has lost the passion and drive to continually re-invent. A true challenge which only genius chefs can maintain that stamina. Instead, Chef Nir has now focused on quantity and not quality of both his cuisine and business. To the average food person just looking to be pampered in an empty manner without focused food quality, then Cordelia might be for you. But - why even bother dropping the cash here? You can have a casual much better meal at any of the cafes in Jaffa and be really happy with the food and service as well. Perhaps because tonight was a Saturday night in Israel (our Sunday), so the Chef and staff were less sharp. But that's not an excuse. As most things are in life, you get just one opportunity to prove yourself. For me, that was the Saturday night I had saved for me, to pamper myself after a long week of work and not eating right. And frankly, that evening left me very mad. I should thank Chef Nir however, since because of that evening, I am now determined with a frenzy passion to redeem myself by experiencing as many restaurants as I can in Israel, every week, from now on. And sharing it with the world.
In short. Sloppy. Ingredients not fresh. Need to invest in much better knives so the food appears finer. Poor presentation, I liken it to refined buffet style. Service by that one boy was very good -which at least I can say helped to make my evening nice. Definitely won't return and neither should you. TOTAL PRICETAG: $250USD/one person.
Small appetizers. Service was "very good" by Israel standards (a-hem!), however one girl asked me am I done when I had not even tried one of my appetizers. She swooped in (the usual abrupt, pushy way waiters do it here) and asked "Are you done with your dish?" I quipped in return, "No dear, I am not done yet as you can see I have not yet touched one of my appetizers." They had barely just set the dish down.
Nice touch, adding olive oil to butter, with a twig of dried hyssop herb on it. "Our mix of butter with the Mediterranean," the server said. Not sure this does anything to flavors though.
Yellow Tail Fish Carpaccio in Oranges and Hyssop. This dish was appalling. The yellow tail looked dull and rubbery. It had a slight days old "fishy" smell - not the kind of fresh-fishy-scent that superb raw fish should smell like. There was also a very heavy douse of large flakes of cracked sea salt on this dish. Entirely too salty, all I remember of this dish is the fishy smell, rubbery texture, oranges to off set both of that, and huge crunchy sea salts. The three sad oranges plopped on the dish only further added to the sad state of this presentation.
And even more appalling... guess what was underneath the fishy, rubbery Yellow Tail? TACO BELL SHREDDED LETTUCE!!!!! Are you serious?
Looks can be so deceiving. Look at those big glass glasses, biting into glass instead of tasting wine. Chef Nir should invest in proper crystal wine glasses, if he is going to have Israel's top tier wines on his menu. Who is he trying to joke?
Potatoes and Goose Liver Foie.
Horrible quality of foie. Not sure how long this has been sitting in their storage refrigerator. The coagulated fat looks disgusting. It was served on a bed of spinach or arugula, which I don't think was even washed/rinsed. The mashed potatoe was actually okay.
For what some very casual and delicious foie should look like - please view my escargot, foie gras, and chablis on the sidewalk in Paris breakfast:
Chef Special of the Evening: Shrimp and Gnocci and Oxtail, with Taco Bell Lettuce plopped on top. This dish looked very sloppy and the sauce tasted like Cantonese style late night fast food. The gnocchi was ok, however just like all the other dishes, really could have used a great deal more of finesse and detail.
I ordered two desserts in hopes that Cordelia might redeem itself. FAIL. RIGHT: Some sloppy Arabic dessert that lacked taste, other than floury cake and a sour-like cream on top with a fig dropped in it. LEFT: 5 small desserts, which had all been frozen and also tasted very bland (cheap quality ingredients). Feedback here on one of my pet peeves - each of the bite-sized desserts were inconsistently spaced apart. Something my good friend Top Chef Hosea Rosenberg
http://chefhosea.com/ taught me is that all food presentation should take care to ensure consistency and balance in spacing. It does not take any more time to do this, and really shows the dedication and passionate detail of a Chef and his team.
Un espresso. I think this was better than rest of the meal.
Notes copy/pasted scribbled from my iPhone:
Cordelia
Need real wine glasses of crystal, not glass.
Service very good by Israel standards, one girl asked me am I done when I had not even tried one of my apps.
Server boy was pro w wine opening, impressed. He joked that Israel is great at turning the shakshuska
Chef Nir came to greet me himself
Yellow tail capriccio bland
Foie - intersting but can't compare w cafe george v paris champs elysee street foie (STREET foie!!)
Ox tail gnocchi dish - from Taiwanese perspective we perfected the ox tail. Shrimp was good tasty but tasted Asian. Gnocchi was okay. Had better in sf
Sigh. Another one bites the dust.
One of the things I love about life is diversity - food, people, culture. People and cultures can be so different and vast - however food always brings the two together, surpassing the language barriers or cultural challenges. Through food and wine is how I prefer to explore new countries and cultures. 
