This is surely a date night to remember! Incredible wines, specially selected from Israel’s wineries matched with creative and tasty dishes in one of Israel’s best hotels – and hopefully with lovely company too!
If you haven’t heard, The Ritz Carlton, Herzliya’s impressive Herbert Samuel Restaurant has teemed up with Israel’s leading wineries to highlight Israel’s culinary achievements in a special 70th Anniversary Tribute Series.
After two successful events, there are just two more – don’t miss it!
Each evening is composed of a five-course meal with a menu carefully designed by the restaurant’s chef Mor Cohen, in tandem with the sommelier of the winery. The construction of each dish is carefully guided by the features of the wine chosen, working to best highlight that region and flavor.
We were invited to “The Tastes of the Judean Hills” and thoroughly enjoyed the evening.
After wetting our palettes with a white wine from the Castel winery we were seated in the modern atmospheric restaurant. The chef met us and explained how they first selected the wines. He said that the Judean hills are renowned for flavors that are derived from the regions herbs, spices and mushrooms that thrive in the cool and mineral rich mountains that surround the Jerusalem area, and the dishes we received certainly reflected this, offering a range of interesting flavors and traditional dishes such as ballotine and navarin (which I personally needed to look up to understand what they were).
Each course was preceded by different wines, from Flam, Castel and Tzora wineries. Even a novice wine drinker like me, could appreciate how the wines complimented the dish served with it. Used to eating in less fancy restaurants, this was a really special experience for us, tasting new flavors together, and appreciating the wines in a new way.
So far they have also already featured the “Wonders of The Golan Heights” and the next evening will focus on “The Carmel Heights and Valleys” on June 20, 2018. The flavors of the Carmel region are heavily influenced by the rich traditions of the Druze population that live along the mountain ridge and in the surrounding valleys. The cuisine unique to this region has been heavily influenced by the presence of large flocks of sheep and access to the fish of the Mediterranean that have been feeding this area for centuries. Modern agriculture of the nearby Hefer Valley contributes some of the country’s best vegetables and flavors. All will be combined with accompanying wine selections from the selected wineries of Tulip, Maya and Bat Shlomo.
If you can’t make that one, don’t miss the final evening – “Revealing the Negev Mountains” which will take place on October 10, 2018. The final culinary exploration for the series will take you to the heights of the Negev mountains, a region that despite its classification as a desert gives remarkable produce that utilize the dry conditions combined with the salt of the earth and vegetation to present a myriad of flavors. The meal will also introduce fish from the Red Sea further south and utilize food preparation techniques that the native Bedouin population have been perfecting in this area since ancient times. The Yatir and Midbar Wineries will serve as the culinary partners for this special completion to the series.
The evenings have sold out fast so be sure to book in for a unique culinary experience! As Yakir Tamam, culinary director of Herbert Samuel said, “Wine and food lovers will really enjoy this fresh and flavor-filled concept and indulge in an evening that they will be speaking of for a long time to come.”
You can find out more at the restaurant’s Facebook Page!
For more information and reservations, call The Ritz-Carlton, Herzliya at +972 373 5555 or visit on Facebook, or http://www.ritzcarlton.com/ Herbert Samuel Restaurant
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