FROM THE BOOK
My Culinary Stories
“A memoir told through food — every chapter begins with a memory and ends with the recipe that came from it.”
CHAPTER ONE
Stuffed Leaves
Some of my earliest food memories began outside the kitchen — learning, exploring, and cooking with what was around us. Years later, those memories returned to the plate.
“Before I knew how to cook professionally, I already knew how food could become a memory.”
The Story Behind the Dish
In 1995, long before professional kitchens, menus, or Michelin stars, one of my earliest memories of cooking began outdoors. Our teacher, Dudu Choresh, took us into nature every week, where we learned by touching, smelling, building, and cooking. Those days planted something in me long before I knew I would become a chef.
FROM THE BOOK
“A memoir told through food — every chapter begins with a memory and ends with the recipe that came from it.”
CHAPTER TWO
The Flying Tuile
At Vicky Barcelona in Budapest, I created a grilled artichoke dish with salsa verde, goat cheese, and a crisp made from Hungarian rétes tészta. The crisp was so light that waitresses sometimes came back saying it had literally flown off the plate on the way to the guest. My sous-chef Ignacio and I started calling it The Flying Tuile — and the name stayed.
Read the story →“Sometimes the smallest accident becomes the part of the dish you remember forever.”
The Story Behind the Dish
The Flying Tuile was never planned as a story. It started as a practical problem: a crisp so delicate and light that it could actually blow away while the plate was being carried through the restaurant. After it happened more than once, the joke became part of the kitchen. What began as a fragile garnish slowly became one of those little memories that defines a whole period of your life. Years later, I still remember the dish not only because of how it tasted, but because of the people, the service, the laughter, and the chaos around it. That is exactly why this story belongs in the book.
Recipe:
Grilled Artichoke • Salsa Verde • Goat Cheese • Rétes Tészta Tuile