Argentine Jewish chef named top in Latin America by his peers
Tomas Kalika, who started learning how to cook in Israel aged 17, receives prestigious award from his peers at ceremony in Buenos Aires
Argentinian chef Tomas Kalika, who cooks traditional Jewish foods with a modern twist, won the Chefs´ Choice Award 2019, the only peer-voted prize at Latin America’s 50 Best Restaurants awards ceremony.
Kalika started to learn about cooking at the age of 17 in Israel with award-winning chef Eyal Shani, who later helped Kalika get a job at the Hilton Hotel in Jerusalem. Kalika later was head chef at the Eldan hotels chain. After eight years of living far from family in Israel he returned to Argentina as a professional chef.
Kalika believes that Jewish food is the first truly global cuisine and defines it as “the emotional memories of the Jews who fled Eastern Europe, the Sephardim who were expelled from Spain, the Mizrahi who have lived in the Middle East since Moses,” according the website of his restaurant Mishiguene, which means crazy in Yiddish.
The restaurant was opened in Buenos Aires in October 2014 by Kalika and his friend and partner Javier Ickowicz. Among his top dishes are: gefilte fish wrapped in carrot ribbons and topped with fish roe and micro greens; Mi Baba Ganoush with char roasted eggplant, yogurt sauce, toasted almonds and tahini; slow-cooked pastrami; and Kalika’s Bubbe’s Varenikes, a potato-stuffed dumpling.
The restaurant also placed 20th on the 50 best list during the ceremony on Thursday in Buenos Aires. Mishiguene was the winner of the Highest Climber Award 2018, jumping 32 places in the list from 50 in 2017 to 18 the following year.
According to the panel, “determination, self-realisation and a career peppered with vicissitudes” have contributed to Kalika as recipient of the other chefs’ votes as the best of 2019.
Thank you for helping to make Jewish News the leading source of news and opinion for the UK Jewish community. Today we're asking for your invaluable help to continue putting our community first in everything we do.
For as little as £5 a month you can help sustain the vital work we do in celebrating and standing up for Jewish life in Britain.
Jewish News holds our community together and keeps us connected. Like a synagogue, it’s where people turn to feel part of something bigger. It also proudly shows the rest of Britain the vibrancy and rich culture of modern Jewish life.
You can make a quick and easy one-off or monthly contribution of £5, £10, £20 or any other sum you’re comfortable with.
100% of your donation will help us continue celebrating our community, in all its dynamic diversity...
Engaging
Being a community platform means so much more than producing a newspaper and website. One of our proudest roles is media partnering with our invaluable charities to amplify the outstanding work they do to help us all.
Celebrating
There’s no shortage of oys in the world but Jewish News takes every opportunity to celebrate the joys too, through projects like Night of Heroes, 40 Under 40 and other compelling countdowns that make the community kvell with pride.
Pioneering
In the first collaboration between media outlets from different faiths, Jewish News worked with British Muslim TV and Church Times to produce a list of young activists leading the way on interfaith understanding.
Campaigning
Royal Mail issued a stamp honouring Holocaust hero Sir Nicholas Winton after a Jewish News campaign attracted more than 100,000 backers. Jewish Newsalso produces special editions of the paper highlighting pressing issues including mental health and Holocaust remembrance.
Easy access
In an age when news is readily accessible, Jewish News provides high-quality content free online and offline, removing any financial barriers to connecting people.
Voice of our community to wider society
The Jewish News team regularly appears on TV, radio and on the pages of the national press to comment on stories about the Jewish community. Easy access to the paper on the streets of London also means Jewish News provides an invaluable window into the community for the country at large.
We hope you agree all this is worth preserving.
