1. MOSHAV NEHUSHA
Chef Natalie Abu-Fontana, a pastry chef with over 30 years of culinary experience, is offering a seven-course Tuscany-style meal at her home in Moshav Nehusha during the Mateh Yehuda Food Festival. Natalie prepares risotto, salmon with orange glaze, gnocchi with choux pastry and handmade petit fours, all served with locally sourced wine.Natalie, who made aliyah from France and studied at Le Cordon Bleu, built up a successful catering business in Israel. On the balcony of her home in Nehusha that overlooks Adulam Park, Natalie hosts up to 40 people for meals filled with dishes that hail from French cuisine, but with flavors borrowed from Italy, too. All year long, Natalie offers her famous brunch, as well as customized picnic baskets prepared for take-out.Price: NIS 450 per couple.Pre-registration required: 055-667-07492. BRADLEY BAKERY, MOSHAV SRIGIM (LI ON)
Mateh Yehuda is an area with a plethora of exceptional boutique culinary enterprises. One such place is Oren Shmueli’s bakery. A psychotherapist by profession, Shmueli found his way to the world of bread baking purely by accident when he met a German baker and asked to learn his technique. What began as a hobby slowly turned into a genuine business, and five years ago, Shmueli traveled to the Netherlands to learn organic baking. Many of us changed our eating habits during this past year during the pandemic, and as a result, Shmueli’s business really took off. On offer currently at Bradley Bakery, you will find sourdough, spelt, whole grain, French baguette and even Greek bread. Every Thursday, Shmueli bakes Neapolitan pizza.On Thursday and Friday nights during the festival, Shmueli will be preparing Turkish Focaccia, and guests are welcome to participate in pizza and focaccia workshops, that will be followed by luxurious and massive carb-loaded meals.Price of workshop: NIS 175.Location: 9 Kramim, Srigim.Pre-registration required: 050-575-3548
3. YAEL’S KITCHEN
Near Bradley Bakery you will find Yael’s Kitchen, which offers an assortment of goat cheeses, cakes, jams, spreads and crackers. On weekends, Yael makes sourdough bread and holds wine tastings. Guests are welcome to partake in the good foods, which are offered by self-service, and payment is carried out on a trust method, where customers leave payment at the checkout station for the items they’ve purchased.There are picnic baskets imported from Morocco, which you can fill with all the items you’re planning on purchasing.Yael’s Kitchen is open 24/7.Location: 6 Hagfanim, Srigim.Details: 054-598-72314. BRUNCH AT MOSHAV AMINADAV
At Moshav Aminadav, among breathtaking views of the Judean Hills, you’ll find the home of Livnat and Avi Ohayon. For years, this lovely couple had been active in the textile business, but recently they decided to shift their energy to the hospitality industry. Nowadays, the Ohayons are happy to open their charming garden to guests who come to enjoy Turkish brunch-style meals. Every Thursday and Friday evening during the festival, the Ohayons will be hosting visitors from the late afternoon on with brunch-style meals that include a variety of handmade (by Livnat) pastries, salads, Skordalia garlic dip, Turkish salad, Swiss chard salad, roasted peppers, eggplant in cream sauce and cabbage steaks, to name a few. At the end of each meal, guests will be served cheese and orange semolina cakes, coffee and tea. Alcohol lovers will be happy to taste the watermelon, arak and refreshing mint cocktails.Price: NIS 280 per couple. Picnic baskets NIS 200.Pre-registration required: 054-286-8162 /054-288-6816