What are the chances of finding not just one, but two Israeli chefs tempting diners in Bordeaux? And both taking the town by storm, in spite of being modernising interlopers in a city associated with traditional French food?
Despite their Michelin-star training, these Israelis are not mimicking the natives. In the Grand Hotel de Bordeaux at Le Pressoir d'Argent, Gilad Peled is working to rules laid down by Brit Gordon Ramsay, while Gil Elad is a culinary rebel who has turned his back on formal fine dining at his restaurant, Miles.
Elad founded Miles with his Japanese wife Ayako and partners Arnaud and Laura Lahaut (he, French-Vietnamese, she from New Caledonia) - a crazy fusion of Middle Eastern, Asian and French food and - not at all what the Bordelais were used to before these culinary radicals fetched up in town three years ago.
"The restaurant is packed every night; it's not about a conservative clientele vs fusion cuisine but the fact they are serving delicious food," says Elad's fellow Israeli cooking abroad, Peled graciously. He discovered this last year when arriving in town for the first time and being recommended to Miles by his hotel concierge.
"It's funny, because he realised from my name that I was Israeli, but we hadn't met before," continues Peled, who forged his own path to fame in London. Conversely, Elad studied in Paris at the prestigious Ferrandi cooking school, where he met his wife and partners before they all went to work in the top-tier restaurant world that Miles was conceived. "Arnaud had some family in Bordeaux, so he suggested coming here because it was becoming a dynamic, happening city," explains Elad.
"We thought people here might be receptive to our idea of an open kitchen with guests seated around a counter, and a five-course "surprise" tasting menu to which we would each bring our own influences.
"But we were also warned that people in Bordeaux were conservative, so we weren't sure the concept would work. There's been some resistance to the idea of a menu with no choice, but there are many locals, including a couple in their 70s, who come here every two weeks."
Now the female partners have had children, it's mainly Elad and Lahaut in the kitchen at Miles, where each comes up with their own idea and the other critiques and sometimes tweaks it. Although dishes evolve constantly, they had a lot of success in their first year with a chocolate and porcini mushroom ice-cream, later usurped by a goat's cheese and lemon variation with sorrel granita.
"The most remarked-on dish is probably our starter of slow-poached egg yolk in hazelnut oil with smoked chestnut purée, Parmesan and a carpaccio of mushrooms," says Elad, who was born and raised in Jerusalem and served as a tank commander in the Israeli army.
"I was always fascinated by cooking. My grandmother cooked professionally, including at a university cafeteria, and my father also cooked.
"When I came out of the army I did a few weeks in the kitchen at Adom with Assaf Granit," he says of Jerusalem's most famous chef, the founder of Machneyuda and its London extension Palomar, "then I set out for Paris. While colleagues from the army were going to India or South America, I wanted the best cooking school I could find because I already dreamed of opening my own restaurant."
Elad went on to work at the three-Michelin-starred Arpege, his wife to the equally lauded L'Astrance as pastry chef, before the two took a chance on the south with their friends and partners.
Bordeaux has been a much happier experience than they expected: "I think it's the best place to be in France," says the 33-year-old. We are talking in his new second restaurant Mapuku, which is mainly Elad's baby, and where he is fielding less gastronomic but no less wacky dishes inspired by the street food of Israel and Japan. "I'm trying to avoid cliches, but I've served falafel based on fava beans rather than chickpeas, and taashima, a Palestinian dish of bread with nigella seeds and salted lemons as well as smoked aubergine smothered in labneh and honey. I'd like to think there could be more branches of Mapuku - that it's a concept which could travel."
If anything could stop Miles and Mapuku in their tracks, it could be the fact that locals love their regional wines - and the fact they do not work too well with this strongly-favoured Oriental food.
"Our food and Bordeaux wines are not a great match, particularly because locals like their reds, and our dishes work best with white wines. Our pairing suggestions are more likely to be from other parts of France or other countries," laughs Elad, who is hoping to introduce some Israeli wines in the future. For now he is happy with the challenges he has currently set himself.
"Three years ago I couldn't have imagined I'd have two restaurants by now - but then 10 years ago if you had told me I would be living in Bordeaux and married to a Japanese woman, I'd have said: 'No way!' However, making a success here is a lot less complicated than trying to open a restaurant in Israel, where fashion in food changes so fast."
