Yuval Ben Neria to Eyal Shani: "You shouting doesn't make it right. You can get angry but it won't change anything"
The heat in the "MasterChef" kitchen reached the judges' table this time as Eyal Shani and Yuval Ben Neria argued over the dishes served to them. Shani did not connect with the twist in the dish served by contestant Haim Cohen - and Ben Neria did not like it: "Eyal arrived with an opinion because he had already commented to you."
Four contestants remain on the way to the title of the next MasterChef, but as the competition progresses, the pressure is mounting, and it seems the heat of the kitchen is affecting the judges' table. In the latest episode, contestants prepared dishes from childhood leftovers, and during the tasting stage, an argument flared up between chefs Yuval Ben Neria and Eyal Shani.
Even before the tasting, when Eyal Shani saw that contestant Haim Cohen intended to serve a falafel crumble, he was less than impressed:
"There is no price for a falafel ball, remember one thing: this ball is crispy on the outside, soft on the inside. That is the magic of falafel, the moment you turn it into a coating – you lose the essence."
When Cohen decided to serve fish tartare alongside the falafel crumble, Shani repeated his critique. Yuval Ben Neria countered: "In bread too there is a crust and a soft part, you cannot separate, and yet they do separate."
The inspiration for the challenge was a couscous dish made from leftover bread by chef Avi Biton. "There is broken oil here, not broken falafel. At best it is a spice. You wanted to turn it into a restaurant dish so you made fish tartare, it doesn't belong," said Shani. "Avi changed the dimension of the bread, here there is no change but destruction."
Ben Neria disagreed with the criticism:
"The fact that you are shouting does not mean it is right. Haim, you did what was needed. Eyal arrived with a ready set because he had already commented to you about it. This is a very smart, tasty dish, and Eyal can get angry until tomorrow and it won't change anything."
When they tasted Manal Ismail's dish, which recreated the hard and burnt part left over from maqluba, it was Ben Neria who commented on the plating: "We expect chef dishes, the plating is too big and amateurish. You need to take this food and give it proportion." Shani disagreed, agitated: "I don't accept it. This is an ugly door with a clear idea. You enter a world of something old, and from within it the door opens to something indescribably beautiful."
"In a competition, especially at this stage, you need to serve food that is served in restaurants and not at home," added Ben Neria. When Shani remarked: "To make it a Tel Aviv dish?", Ben Neria replied: "You are a Tel Avivian and you are criticizing? All your dishes are Tel Avivian." Shani concluded: "Tel Avivian with observation."
