EL AL | Atmosphere

Lifestyle I Food

She’s an Italo-American Israeli vegan chef with a Ph.D. in Political Discourse and a cooking show on Israeli TV. Nadia Ellis is teaching the world how to make delicious Italian food - only 100% plant-based \ By Yulia Prilik-Niv The Italian Job

life”, she explains. “At the time, I was an academic, barely able to cook a pot of rice. If this was going to work, I’d need to learn how to cook - especially the food of my childhood. Being Italian, food is a fundamental part of my cultural identity. It took about a year of intense - and dare I say delicious - researching for the kitchen doors of ‘The Vegan Italian Chef’ to swing open”. How would you define your cooking style? “Exclusively Italian and vegan. There are two approaches to plant based cuisine, which in my opinion complement each other: the first seeks to recreate non-vegan dishes via clever strategies, while the second aims to invent new, perfectly balanced dishes, ex-nihilo”, explains Ellis. “I like both, though I cook according to the first. My mission is to recreate plant-based versions of classic Italian dishes. Not a single

“My dad is American, my mom is Italian, and after six years toing and froing between Paris, Milan and Tel Aviv, I eventually put down roots in Israel. In other words - I’m a living, breathing melting pot!”, says Nadia Ellis (42), a.k.a. ‘The Vegan Italian Chef’. At 28, she came to Tel Aviv for a holiday, met an Israeli, and stayed on. “The relationship didn’t last very long”, she says, “but I fell in love with the city and decided to make it my home. I can’t imagine living anywhere else”. An accomplished academic, Ellis earned a doctorate in Political Discourse Analysis, and still lectures at Tel Aviv University. “They call me Dr. Ellis over there, but on social media and on TV, I’m ‘The

Vegan Italian Chef’. I’ve been hosting private dinner parties in my home for many years, teaching Israelis how delicious Italian food is, even when it’s 100% plant-based”. The journey to veganism: “the greatest adventure of my life” How did it all start? “Eight years ago, I came across a short clip, not particularly gory, of animals on a factory farm. What I saw was enough to keep me awake all night”, says Ellis. “I decided to find out more about livestock farming and soon discovered there was no such thing as cruelty-free animal products. Realizing this compelled me to go vegan - and I embarked upon the greatest adventure of my

32 ATMOSPHERE AUGUST 2022

Photos: Snir Soofgi Gueta, Courtesy of the israeli food channel, Nimrod Saunders