NEW YORK, N.Y, October 25, 2022 — Celebrity Chef Gail Simmons, a well-known cookbook author, and dynamic television personality perhaps best known for her role as a judge on the award-winning television series, Top Chef, joined local philanthropists for a culinary experience of a lifetime when she led a private cooking class for a select group of Jewish National Fund-USA’s major donors in New York City on October 19, 2022.
JNF-USA CEO Russell F. Robinson, Gail Simmons, and Lior Lez Sercarz
Hosted by Jewish National Fund-USA ambassadors Sheryl Buchholtz and Sadie Gelb, Simmons partnered with Chef Lior Lev Sercarz, an award-winning cookbook author, master spice blender, and owner of the La Boîte biscuit and spice shop in NYC, to curate the extravagant evening filled with sipping Israeli wine provided by Joshua Greenstein from the Israel Wine Producers Association, tasting delicious food, an intimate cooking demonstration from Simmons and Sercarz, and learning about food, spices, and the Galilee Culinary Institute by JNF (GCI). Sercarz is also the Co-Founder & Chief Culinary Officer of GCI, an intensive total immersion program that is expected to reinvent culinary education and revolutionize the culinary arts scene in northern Israel when it opens in 2023.
Jewish National Fund-USA partners (donors) enjoying a four-course meal and private cooking demonstration from celebrity chef Gail Simmons in NYC
Sercarz and the co-host of the TV series, The Good Dish, demonstrated how to cook an Israeli-inspired four-course meal consisting of mouthwatering Middle Eastern favorites including hummus and smoked eggplant baba ghanoush, stuffed grape leaves, braised dates with mushroom and lentil, Cod Siniya with tahini and pine nuts, and a sweet apple olive oil cake.
Lior Lev Sercarz and Gail Simmons
At the end of the evening, Buchholtz, Gelb, and Jewish National Fund-USA’s CEO, Russell F. Robinson presented Sercarz, Simmons, and her culinary team with Jewish National Fund-USA tree certificates stating a tree had been planted in Israel in their honor.
For more information, contact Michael Feinman, JNF-USA Executive Director, Tri-State at 212-879-9305 x503 or MFeinman@jnf.org.
Gail Simmons
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About Jewish National Fund-USA
JNF-USA is the leading philanthropic organization for Israel that supports critical environmental and nation-building activities in Israel’s north and south. Through its One Billion Dollar Roadmap for the Next Decade, JNF-USA is developing new communities in the Galilee and Negev, connecting the next generation to Israel, and creating infrastructure and programs that support ecology, individuals with special needs, and heritage site preservation.