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Although it relies on the same local ingredients, Palestinian cooking has received much less international attention — until now.

This week, two dozen Arab chefs and a handful of Jewish ones descended on the northern port city of Haifa for four days of celebrating Arab cuisine. The festival was founded by the Arab Israeli chef Nof Atamna-Ismaeel, who shot to national acclaim when she won Israeli Masterchef in 2014 and regularly appears on food programs in the country.

At the Haifa festival, curious crowds milled around a restaurant kitchen while Jewish Israeli celebrity chef Meir Adoni prepared hummus dishes alongside the Arab Israeli restaurateur Hussam Abbas.

“Jews and Arabs can learn about each other’s cooking traditions,” said Atamna-Ismaeel, who wants to use the festival as a pilot for a culinary school she plans to open in her hometown of Baqa al-Gharbiya in northern Israel.

Around a fifth of Israel’s population is Arab. Arab citizens of Israel have equal legal rights but face discrimination in government budgets, employment and housing. Poverty rates are higher among Arabs than among the country’s Jewish population.

For years, the income gap stifled a gourmet scene. In recent years Arab citizens have reached new heights in areas like music, acting, sports, journalism — and culinary arts.

A major challenge to Arab chefs has been breaking out of narrow expectations of Israeli customers, said Abbas, owner of El Babur, a chain of three restaurants in northern Israel. He said when he opened his first restaurant in 1979, Israeli customers just “wanted hummus, french fries and salad.” Now they are embracing his use of local ingredients such as arugula, wild spinach, asparagus and chicory.