Traiteur Gourmet, 26 - The pareve patisserie with an exotic touch
If you feel like a night off from the constant cooking and a light supper that is slightly different, contact Traiteur Gourmet.
By GLORIA DEUTSCHTraiteur Gourmet, 26(photo credit: LEVE)
Sarah and Geoffrey Bedoucha made aliyah from Paris two years ago; their families are originally from Algeria. Four months ago they set up shop in Netanya with their Traiteur Gourmet, 26 (Gourmet Catering), and they will deliver their goodies to anywhere in the surrounding area.If you get Sarah on the phone, it’s slightly easier because she knows Hebrew and a little English. For the moment, Geoffrey speaks only French so you have to dredge up some long-buried classroom French if you speak with him.When I saw their flyer sitting on the concierge’s desk recently, I thought their offerings sounded very tempting.It’s essentially a sandwich and cake emporium with a large variety of very exotic pastries. Everything is made by Geoffrey who studied catering in Paris and worked in a famous patisserie not far from the Opera.The curious thing about Traiteur Gourmet is that everything is pareve – eclairs, religieuses – yes, I had to look it up too – they are made from choux pastry cases, one smaller than the other and stuck together with crème patissiere, sandwiches, pizzas, navettes (boat-shaped cakes) and everything in between.It’s basically a modest catering business which provides buffet plateaux for bar and bat mitzvahs, weddings and other happy occasions. But it’s also possible to order individual items – sandwiches and cakes – with a minimum order of NIS 200.Geoffrey dropped off a box of rolls and a beautiful chocolate gâteau recently, just in time for tea.The British-style bridge rolls, which he makes himself, were soft and fresh, glazed and sprinkled with sesame seeds. They were filled with generous amounts of egg salad and chives, smoked salmon and tuna salad. Since everything is pareve, the bread is spread with homemade mayonnaise, not butter.Cake can be bought by the piece and includes such old favorites as mille-feuilles, lemon meringue pie and fruit pies in season.The chocolate cake was nothing like what one has come to expect from the usual version. This consisted of two large crispy chocolate nutty biscuits, sandwiched together with a rich chocolate cream which might have had some liqueur lurking in its chocolaty richness. It was both aesthetic and very moreish – i.e. you must have more.
They also make galette des roi (King’s Cake) a traditional puff pastry cake, petits fours and almond macaroons, challot for Shabbat and mini-pizza.If you feel like a night off from the constant cooking and a light supper that is slightly different, contact Traiteur Gourmet. The 26 of its full title is the numerical equivalent in gematria of the English word for Hashem (God), attesting to its glatt kosher credentials.Traiteur Gourmet, 26KosherGeoffrey: 053-274-860Sarah: 054-941-888The writer was a guest of the restaurant.
