Chef David Dides
Respect for the Earth
Ever since I was a child, when my mother served us delicious food at table, I was the first of my siblings to smell the food before starting to eat. As I grew up, I started to understand more about the concept of food and cooking; how ingredients blend together.
My passion for cooking fit well with my connection to nature and the earth. I started gardening and watching my flowers, fruits, and herbs blooming and flourishing throughout all the seasons.
As a former executive chef at the American Colony Hotel in Jerusalem, I was asked to add organic recipes to the menu according to seasonality. As a chef instructor at Notre Dame of Jerusalem Center, I always encouraged young cooks and taught them that the secret of success is to present food with produce picked from the garden and served fresh and colorfully.
We’re lucky that the seasons here in Palestine offer chefs a vast variety of fruits, vegetables, and meats to add to their menu. Summer, for instance, offers refreshing fruits and herbs such as French figs with green za’atar. Winter offers root vegetables such as beetroot, which goes perfectly with a touch of smoked salmon. Green lentils and spinach blend perfectly with citrus fruits.
My dream is to convince and try to teach people to get back to the earth, to protect and respect it. My goal is to open a small gourmet restaurant that seats only 25 people and offer organic products – simple, colorful, and tasty.
