The Israeli culinary world has made a leap in recent decades to the point where it’s not at all rare to find Israeli restaurants and chefs starring in prestigious lists worldwide. In certain restaurants, which star in those lists and win a variety of titles and awards, they’ve turned the culinary profession into a precise science. Like OCD restaurant, for example.
Chef Raz Rahav’s luxury restaurant (also a Forbes 30 Under 30 alumnus) was ranked this year – for the second consecutive year – among the 10 best restaurants in the MENA’s 50 Best Restaurants list (50 best restaurants in the Middle East and North Africa).
Shalom-Simcha Elbert, OCD’s research and development chef, is considered one of the pillars of the restaurant, co-signing with the other partners on its success story in recent years.
The young chef’s title sounds as if it was taken from the worlds of high-tech, research or science — and it’s actually not that far off. As a partner and head of fermentation and sustainability in the OCD restaurant group, Albert is the expert behind almost every component in the prestigious restaurant’s exquisite menu of dishes. He is responsible for all fermentation processes (the biological and chemical processes in food formation) – a field that is taking an increasingly large part in the worlds of sustainability and modern gastronomy.
Degree in Gastronomic Sciences
Elbert completed a degree in gastronomic sciences in northern Italy – where he meticulously studied like a medical student the microbiological processes behind the foundations of food. “Not bad for someone who barely got a high school diploma”, he smiles. “But that’s the power of food. It simply gave me a place to express myself, a place I need to be in, to influence and bring to expression its power”.
After completing his studies in Italy, he joined the OCD group as a partner along with Raz Rahav, Erez Zoaretz and Idan Blumenthal, out of an inner desire “to be part of the formation of Israeli culinary and culture”, as he describes. “They gave me the backing to lead the boat and engrave on its flag values of sustainability and food reduction that have become my DNA and ours”.
As the restaurant’s research and development chef, Elbert has turned OCD into a zero-waste restaurant, optimally utilizing all raw materials at its disposal and producing minimum waste. “Fermentation is a natural microbiological process, just like the fermentation process that occurs in the creation of yeast or wine, for example”, he explains. “The idea is to take waste, something that is usually thrown away, and through a very precise process turn it into another raw material. This way I actually produce a whole pantry that gives me raw materials and flavors that no one else has. Along the way, the process also leads to reduced food waste”, he emphasizes, “and so we do ‘upscaling’ to everything that was supposed to be thrown away. There’s 100% ideology here”.
Recruiting Investors
Alongside his role at OCD, Albert is also the founder and CEO of Tenne, a FoodTech company, focusing on reducing waste in the food industry and returning it to the food supply chain while creating a profitable business model. “Currently we are in the stages of recruiting investors”, he updates, “with our goal in the company being to change the supply chain, raise awareness and put the reduction of waste in the industry at the center”.
Immediately after October 7, he volunteered for philanthropic activity and was on the establishment team of “Brothers for Food” – the large food command center project that united more than 100 restaurants across the country and large food producers, through which more than 200,000 hot meals were supplied to security forces on the front and to evacuee families.
“My dream since high school is to open a youth village that will be a three-star Michelin restaurant with at-risk youth operating everything — from agriculture to the plate. To show them the power of perseverance, the power of food, and that there are people who will be willing to pay good money for what they do”.
