HI! I’m Oz Telem, 31 years old from Israel. Ever since I was a child I was fascinated by food, growing up, I would always look forward to the weekend family dinners at my grandmother’s home. The first thing I would do upon arrival is to look inside the pots on the stove and see and smell what is cooking for dinner.
Ever since I can remember, I enjoyed eating and seeing ingredients transform to delicious food. I decided to turn this passion into a profession about ten years ago (2008), after participating in the local version of the reality show “Beauty and the Geek”. From the experience there I realized that I am not spending enough time doing the things I love, and that is when I began viewing cooking as more than just a hobby.
Later that year, I started business school and took several cooking courses.
During the three years of my bachelor’s degree (I would go on to complete an MBA at IDC Herzliya) I worked as a line cook at a local restaurant, gaining hands on practical experience running busy dinner services, and wrote recipes and food related articles to the student magazine, learning the basics of the content world.
In my final year I both translated Gordon Ramsay’s book, Healthy Appetite, to Hebrew and started working as an editor and recipe developer in one of the country’s popular content portals. In the following years I written and developed hundreds of recipes for magazines, local brands and other media outlets.
In October 2013 I launched my Hebrew food blog, and in time it grew to become one of the most popular food sites in Israel, and now it is here in English!.
Here I explain the what, how, and why, of the cooking world, focusing on simple homey dishes, not sparing on pictures of the cooking process, tips and explanations that help food lovers from all levels and walks of life achieve success in their daily cooking, time and time again.
Whenever you prepare a successful dish at home, one that makes you and your loved ones smile, you create joyful moments and pleasant, happy memories. It is a great privilege for me to be the man whose words help forge such moments.
I am excited to learn and discover more about the most common ingredients, and share that knowledge with you here.
In January 2017 I began a crowd funding campaign for my first cookbook, that raised over 150K NIS (over 30K GBP 42K USD) from 750 supporters, allowing me full creative control over the production of my book, Cauliflower, that has a page of its own!
Q&A (feel free to add yours in the comments!)
Who takes the pictures?
I work with both professional food photographers and shoot posts by myself.
In what cuisine do you specialize?
My cooking of first kosher (in very short: no pork, no seafood other than fish, no mixing of meat and dairy products). I am especially fond of Mediterranean and Middle Eastern vegetable forward cooking. However, I often change styles and sample various cuisines from all over the world, particularly the ones concentrated in Israel.
What do you like to eat?
Everything my grandmother makes!
Do you have a restaurant?
No, full time blogger and food writer
Where did you learn about cooking?
I took a basic culinary course but my main knowledge comes from a lot of reading (‘On food and cooking’ by Harold McGee is my culinary bible) and watching cooking shows from all over the world (shout out to Good Eats by Alton Brown and to all of Jamie Oliver’s, Gordon Ramsay’s and Nigella Lawson’s shows). Also, I have spent countless hours cooking in professional and home kitchens, and working as a professional writer (I receive dozens of questions daily) compels you to seek and gain better understanding of even the most basic of recipes.