I'm Guy. In kitchens since I was 14.
At 18 I left Israel to study and to work in kitchens that demanded more of me.
The road went through culinary school at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, the kitchen of Amador in Vienna and then Asador Etxebarri in the Basque Country, where I rose to sous chef.
I learned discipline, precision and respect for raw ingredients. I learned how much work hides inside a bite that looks simple, and how much listening fire demands: the distance from the embers, the heat, the time and the moment to take it off.
Later I came back to Israel, ran kitchens, built menus and guided restaurateurs in opening and running their places.
Over the years the wish to open my own place sharpened. To cook there in the most personal way, to serve myself and to meet the people I do all this for.
That is how PORTAL was born.
- ParisCulinary school at Le Cordon Bleu
- ViennaThe kitchen of Amador
- Basque CountryAsador Etxebarri, up to sous chef
- IsraelRunning kitchens, building menus, guiding restaurateurs
- PORTAL, JaffaCooking in the most personal way, and serving myself
France, the Basque Country, Japan. And in the end, a reason to wipe the plate.
My cooking moves between places, techniques and memories.
French precision, work with charcoal, the depth of Asian kitchens and the flavours we grew up on here all meet at my table.
I can be moved by a stock I worked on for hours, a cut of meat grilled at exactly the right moment, or a matbucha that takes me back to my grandmother's kitchen.
In each of them I look for the same thing: good raw material, an understanding of what it needs and real feeling inside the food.
Kashrut is part of my kitchen and of the craft inside it. Flavour is built through grilling, stocks, fat, seasoning and time. Through attention to everything that goes on the plate.
And with all the places I have been and the techniques I learned, something very Israeli stayed with me:
In the end there has to be a good reason to tear off one more piece of bread and wipe the plate.