Get your Crave on!

“Have you tried the Fish Tacos?”

This was the response of Todd Aarons – Executive Chef and co-owner of Crave, a funky gourmet street-food restaurant just off the Shuk – when I asked him what I should order. This is especially telling, considering the restaurant is more known for pulled-beef bbq, pastrami, smoked lamb bacon and other meaty delights.

But I guess it goes to the roots of both Todd and the restaurant. This is California at its best! Crave is what you get when you take a classically trained and experienced Californian chef and turn him into a religious Jerusalemite. And it works.

Todd grew up in Los Angeles, trained in San Francisco and is wholly inspired by Californian cuisine. All of it. The Korean BBQ, the Mexican tacos and burritos, the Japanese fish and the seafood. And he seamlessly fuses it all together within the limits of Kashrut. More than that – he embraces the strictures of Kashrut and uses it to create new combinations and flavors that evoke the treif flavors of meat and cheese together.

But Crave is the culmination of a journey – and the journey is worth telling.

As I’ve written, Todd grew up and was formally educated in culinary arts in California. But he soon found himself in New York – working at such places as The Savoy, under Peter Hoffman. About 20 years ago, he became more interested in his Jewish roots. And that brought him to Israel – living and studying at places such as Eish HaTorah and Or Sameach – finally spending about 6 months at Matisdorf. This was a spiritual crossroad for Todd; and he began keeping Shabbat and Kashrut, davening, etc. But food and restaurants were not the focus of this period of his life. But the Yemenite influences in Jerusalem were not lost on him. And it merged well with the Mediterranean flavors that he was so familiar with from New York. After marrying a religious Yemenite Israeli – they moved back to New Jersey; where he eventually opened Mosaica in a Vauxhall, NJ strip mall. This restaurant brought those Mediterranean flavors and Savoy-quality to the Kosher crowd. It was favorably reviewed by the NYTimes (http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/11/nyregion/restaurants-kosher-with-a-kick.html).

And all of this is build-up to Crave. Crave is a brain-child of Todd, Tzvi Maller, James Oppenheim and Yoni Van Leeuwen. The word crave evokes a feeling of self-indulgence. And that is what this is all about. Not only for the customers – but for Todd as well. This is his place to play and explore those flavors and culinary influences that so spoke to him as a child. But he can’t help but to elevate it to the standards drilled into him at The Savoy and Zuni Café.

Question – Is this Jerusalem cuisine? Answer – Yes and no. The ingredients are all here. There are Mexican, Japanese, Korean ingredients all available in the Shuk. And Israelis are exposed to these foods when they travel after the Army. So how can we add to this conversation? We’re not Darna. We’re not Eucalyptus. And we don’t want to be. We’re the shuk. And the shuk is all street-food. And it’s a mish-mash of all of these ingredients from all these different cultures. And that’s Crave.

Question – What’s next? Answer – This is a “test the waters” restaurant. We plan on something bigger. Think Kosher Pink’s or Shake Shack.

Question – How often is the menu revisited / changed? Answer – We’re just now where we think we’re at a plateau. Where we feel that we have a base core for the things that we want to be doing. So now we’re focusing on quality and consistency. So we spend a lot of time with our cooks, training. We’re now at the 11th month – so our goal is more stability. We’ve recently challenged our cooks for each of them to come up with their own slider. Not necessarily a Hamburger – but any sort of slider or “sandwich of the month”. This may not make it to the menu; but it’s a great activity to engage our chefs and keep them thinking on ways to evolve the concept.

Question – Walk me through a typical day for you. Answer – Most of what I’m doing now is training and delegating. Building a staff to be more independent. Yotam Cohen, my sous, has been with me since the beginning. And it’s due to him that I’m able to delegate so much. Our prep cooks are becoming line cooks. And our line cooks also do prep. Now I’m concentrating on building a management staff. So my typical day is coming in and overseeing quality – maybe some recipe reviews to make tweaks. But what I’m really doing is looking to see how we can replicate this – get this ready to take on the road. The timings, the temperatures, etc. So that this can be consistently replicated elsewhere.

Question – When is the cookbook coming out? Answer – Good question.

Question – Talk to me about the no-tipping policy Answer – James is our marketing guy. This was his idea. And this is an extension of where the market – at least in the US – is moving. And we wanted to revolutionize the dining market here. This is the trend in the US and in Europe. We wanted to build a team – not a staff. And we wanted all members of our team to feel like an equal member of the team. We truly want to build a large Crave family which allows our team members to feel a part of the corporation as well.

Now the dumb questions part – 1. Favorite ingredient to work with? - Well, not really an ingredient per say. But my favorite style or thing to do would be charcuterie (the art of curing meats)

2. Favorite restaurant (not Crave) in Jerusalem? - I don’t really get out much. So you need to take this with a grain of salt. But where would I recommend for people to go? Argento – amazing empanadas – you have to try the lamb and date empanada; Flora pizza – first time I’ve had a Napolitano pizza in Israel. I love the directness of their menu. And their pizza quality. And the third place would be that Sabich place over on Agrippas. There’s a sense of poetry and simplicity of something – and that’s the inspiration here too – to take something small and humble and just do it well. I must say that the best Kosher meal I’ve had was at Lumina, in Tel Aviv.

3. Last word? - “Keep Craving!”