“In Search of Israeli Cuisine” — It’s nothing like what your grandmother cooked.

By Jesse Kornbluth
Published: Mar 31, 2017

Israeli cuisine — is that an oxymoron, like, say, Kosher fish? But as the American-born Israeli chef and restaurateur Michael Solomonov tours Israel in “In Search of Israeli Cuisine,” a feature-length documentary just opening somewhere near you (click for cities and theaters), we get a lot more than a Food Network make-them-hungry travelogue. Roger Sherman, the director: “I wanted to make a film about the Israeli people told through food that was neither a travelogue or polemic about failed government policies, which is all the media discusses. Yet, the conflict is ever present, even when discussing food, and could not be ignored. That every chef told me, ‘You cannot be my enemy when you’re sitting at my table’ resonated.” So you get restaurants and kitchens, beaches, deserts and olive groves — but you also get a debate about hummus (who knew?) and the larger culture. And, fair warning: you also get hungry.