LAND OF PLENTY
THERE ARE MANY reasons to get excited about Ezra, Sydney's new Tel Aviv-inspired restaurant. The biggest is the generosity of Israeli hospitality, and then there's former Paper Bird head chef Ben Sears (pictured, far left, with Ezra owners Nick and Kirk Mathews-Bowden) who is set to take on the vibrant side of Levantine food. "The menu reflects how you might eat in Tel Aviv – light snacks, flatbreads with various mezze, and an abundance of salads and heftier vegetables," says Sears. Plus, its Mediterranean roots means a good deal of seafood cooked over charcoal.
After years of cooking Korean and Japanese food at Moon Park and Paper Bird, Sears initially found the transition to Israeli fare "a little daunting. But the more I looked into and read about the food scene in Tel Aviv, the more I realised how dynamic and pluralistic it is," he says. It's certainly given Sears plenty of room to explore, evident in the recipes here. The roasted fish, for instance, features flavours from both regions. "The flathead in
