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Stephanie Freid

When Israel's 300 or so Asian restaurants refused to serve spring rolls last week as a protest against government measures to reduce the number of Asian chefs working in the country, it was treated as something of a joke.
'This is crazy,' said consumer Ari Weiss of Tel Aviv. 'What's next?'
Apparently noodles, sushi and other key items, say restaurateurs who are threatening to remove them from menus if government restrictions are not eased.
At the heart of the controversy, which has caused fury  among restaurateurs, staff and consumers is a recent government proposal to almost halve the number of Asian chefs working in Israel in 2008  - from 900 to 500.
'If the government sends all of the foreign workers home within the year, we'll have to shut restaurants. We simply don't have the people to fill the jobs,' says Arnon Volosky, head of the Israeli Ethnic Restaurant Organisation.
The organisation  went to the Supreme Court last month to appeal against the policy. It is awaiting a decision.
According to government sources, the proposed cuts are aimed at bolstering Israel's workforce and reducing the number of five-year work permits issued to foreigners.  The government also plans  to train more Israelis to become specialist chefs.
Mr Volosky says the  government has no idea about what  an Asian chef does. 'Authentic Asian cuisine is prepared by people of East Asian descent, not Jewish people,'  he says.
Also, Asian chefs elsewhere in the world migrate as legal emigres but in Israel the only legal immigrants are Jewish. And because  Jews are scant in Thailand, Japan or China, the know-how of the tradition can't be imported to Israeli as it can with French, Arab or Spanish cuisine.
'We have to hire these people,' Mr Volosky says.
Industry and Trade Ministry lawyer Shoshana Strauss, however, showed little appreciation of Mr Volosky complaints. Although she declined to comment on the case pending a Supreme Court ruling, she did say: 'Everyone can make Chinese food; it's not impossible to learn.'
'That's simply disrespectful,' responds Mr Volosky. 'If we want people to respect our culture and traditions, then we need to do the same.'
Asian food has gained popularity in Israel during the past decade as increasing numbers of Israelis travel to Asia and experience the region's cuisines.
According to food and beverage experts, Asian cuisine is the fastest growing sector within the country's 10 billion shekel (HK$21.5 billion) restaurant industry, representing 8 per cent of the market.
Restaurateur Don Tran opened his first Chinese restaurant in Israel 25 years ago - at the time his was just the second Asian restaurant in the country. The 47-year-old Chinese-Vietnamese spends his time between Israel and Asia and owns Yin Yang, a well-known upscale eatery in Tel Aviv serving traditional Sichuan and Cantonese fare.
Mr Tran's kitchen is manned by six chefs from China, Vietnam and Thailand. Although they all declined to speak to the press, Mr Tran relayed that they all fear cuts.
'They are taking it personally and think it's because they're Asian,' Mr Tran says. 'Because if the government is trying to cut foreign workers, why not go after construction workers or kibbutz volunteers? We're a very small industry.'
Mr Volosky suspects economic reforms launched in 2001 as a prelude to Israel entering  the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the EU are driving job-cut proposals. To qualify for OECD inclusion, milestones must be reached including achieving currency and taxation-related indicator levels linked with foreign workers and social compensation. Ten years ago, foreign workers made up 12.5 per cent of Israel's workforce. The aim is to cut that number back to 5.5 per cent by 2010.
That is small compensation for restaurant owners and employees who face losing their jobs.
'Economically it makes no sense,' says Mr Tran. 'We pay higher taxes to keep foreign chefs, and the industry is thriving. Are they really going to do something that might shut it down? Because the trickle down will affect everyone from consumers to restaurant owners to chefs to waiting staff on down.'
Proposals to train Israelis in Asian food preparation are viewed with scepticism.  'The hallmark of any Asian restaurant is the people making the food in the kitchen, the Asians,' says Oren Mordechai, the  manager at trendy Chinese eatery Dim Sum in Tel Aviv.
'We hired an Israeli chef a few weeks ago and there was absolutely no comparison. He was able to perform about 50 per cent of what the Asian chefs in my kitchen are capable of.
'Sure, you can teach him technically how to make the food - heck, I can  toss noodles in a wok if I have to. But some things are innate - secret ingredients; knowing what works with what; growing up with it. You can't teach that.'
Says Mr Tran: 'It's something that comes from the inside. Working with a wok is hard - it takes about seven Israelis to do the work of one Chinese chef. And I'm not really sure the Israelis even want to do this kind of work. Most important is that when you have dozens of on-demand order tickets in front of you, there's no time to measure. You just have to know what to put in.'
Liza Rosenberg, a Tel Aviv technical writer and lover of Asian food, concurs. 'When I go out for sushi, I'm more likely to patronise a restaurant where I know the chefs are authentic and have been properly trained,' she says.



Plan to cut chefs rocks the boat at Israel's Asian eateries