July 14, 2011, Updated January 6, 2013

Stopping to whip up a charity meal in sister city Rosh HaAyin, four celebrity chefs wined and dined their way across Israel.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhvoszOquE4

About 5,000 people turned out for a kosher Friday night dinner cooked by delegates of the New Orleans Chef Tour to Rosh HaAyin in central Israel this summer. Four world-renowned chefs were on a weeklong visit as part of the Jewish Agency’s Partnership 2000 Project pairing the two cities.

Celebrity chef

“We are wining and dining and cooking our way across Israel,” says Michael Weil, executive director of the Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans. The evening’s proceeds went to programs for youth at risk in this ethnically diverse city.

For Alon Shaya of Restaurant Domenica, the experience was a homecoming – he was born in Israel and left at age four. He prepared a classic gumbo for the occasion. John Besh, owner of seven restaurants, figured out how to make jambalya without ham.

The tour culminated in preparing a gourmet dinner for 400 Israeli soldiers in the Golan Heights.

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