For those that haven’t heard of Open Restaurants, think Open Houses but for restaurants – the restaurants open their doors for visitors to poke around their kitchen and see where the magic really happens.  The concept was developed in Tel Aviv four years ago and has since expanded to London, Amsterdam and now Jerusalem

The culinary festival will include a variety of events related to chefs, restaurants and local culinary personalities.  Special events include a cocktail party on the Light Rail, Jerusalem chefs giving special tours of the Israel Museum and a Mad Hatters Tea Party at Alliance House.

Several popular Jerusalem restaurants will open their kitchens for special workshops and dinners, among them Machneyuda, Hamotzi, Adom, Rama’s Kitchen, and Azura.

There will also be a series of food walks including around the Old City and Machane Yehuda shuk by day and night. Bitemojo, the self-guided food tours app initially developed in Berlin market will make its Israeli début with two separate tours. Some of the city’s leading hotels, including Alegra, American Colony and Herbert Samuel will offer workshops with their chefs and special rates for accommodation.

While most of the events will be held in Hebrew, there will also be some events in English including food walking tours of the ultra-orthodox neighborhoods, an evening/night tour starting in the Nachalat Shiva neighborhood and ending in the shuk. Food writer Nomi Abeliovich will lecture on Ottolenghi’s Anthology: Memories, traditions and Jerusalem food in English and there is also a guided tour of Machane Yehuda in English for children.

Information on all the events can be found on the festival website http://open-restaurants.co.il but there is very limited information in English even about the English-speaking events!