COOKING WITH WINE

I was born and brought up in England and came to live in Israel.  Not a great combination of countries for gastronomy wonks. These were once considered two of the worst possible countries for fine cuisine. English cooking was the butt of jokes, especially by supercilious Frenchmen, and Israel was not much better. Bernard Lewin of The Times of London once visited Israel and he despaired of finding somewhere half normal to eat as he searched for a restaurant. His witty riposte was: “Doesn’t anyone here have a Jewish mother?”