Ido Levy, Israel
When the Smoking Bug Hits You,
Just Give In
Ido Levy’s career cooking meat started when he was a teenager, imitating his older brother, who brought back with him from his travels to Argentina the asado method of low and slow meat roasting over coals. Ido soon became the go-to BBQ guy in his unit in the Israeli Defense Forces and continued cooking afterwards, in a cramped one-bedroom apartment in Tel Aviv. He cooked on the rooftop – on top of the air conditioning unit. “A vent near the air conditioner pushed the smoke away from the building,” says Ido. “Of course, I wasn’t supposed to be cooking on the roof at all. Unfortunately, sparks from the hot coals sometimes drifted down to the sidewalk onto people coming in the building. I continued smoking meat next to the window in my next tiny apartment – my philosophy is that anyone can barbecue anywhere! But I quickly became the person that everybody wanted to be friends with.” He was using a small bullet-type smoker he built himself, teaching himself the American way of BBQ. Ido caught the smoking bug early, even if it was only a small slab of meat on his Tel Aviv rooftop. Today, he and his wife Tzukit cook about 200 pounds of meat each week for 40 to 60 people who gather for “Levy’s Barbecue” at his home in the small village of Nahla, about an hour south of Tel Aviv. In 2013, the couple decided to open a smokehouse in their back yard, formalizing his hobby and love of entertaining friends. His university friends were visiting regularly for his smoked meat. One night before a friends reunion he saw a program about “home hosting” large groups. “My friend from the MBA program insisted that I could do this, and that people would come from all over the country.” Ido began searching for the best smoking tool. When he saw that a major distributor in Israel had begun importing the Big Green Egg, he wanted to give it a try. “I was searching for a smoker that enables both precision and long cooking sessions, while offering the natural smoky flavor of lump charcoal and hardwoods. It was love at first sight and soon I was the proud owner of two XL EGGs. I once held the right smoking temperature for four days in a row, stirring the ash and refueling the charcoal only three times.” A few months after the home hosting idea, Ido and Tzukit were selling out their events, held every Thursday and Friday, for months in advance. A typical meal includes beef, lamb, or chicken (but no pork due to Jewish dietary custom) and Ido’s cooking philosophy is nose-to-tail. Vegetables, such as cabbage, red peppers, eggplant, and potatoes, and fruits that complement the proteins are part of the meal. Ido likes the fact that fruit’s sweetness is amplified 12
©BIG GREEN EGG
by smoking on the EGG. Tzukit taught herself to butcher and trim the meats; she also selects the beer to accompany the meal, but her primary “job” – and passion – is as host. “Unlike a restaurant with a menu, our guests have no idea what they’ll get that night,” says Ido. “They just know they’ll get wonderful smoked meat from the EGG, side dishes, beer and a great time. In addition, they learn – because they see everything cooked right in front of them.” Two years after they began hosting events, the Levys added smoking workshops. Ido had already established himself as an EGG instructor, working with the EGG distributor to develop the first Big Green Egg smoking class, now a highly popular option for the EGG community in Israel. In 2018, Ido was one of the founders of Israel’s first EGGfest, a day-long cooking festival, much like the Big Green Egg’s EGGtoberfest held in Atlanta, Georgia each year. The Israel EGGfest is held every four or five months in a different location. “It’s like a moveable feast,” says Ido, “and definitely carnivore heaven.” The Levys next adventure was opening “Pitmaster,” a restaurant in Petach Tikva, with friends in the BBQ community, based on the home hosting concept with no set menu. Think of it like a sports bar with a lot of televisions – except these televisions show the preparation of the food so guests can watch and learn. Guests can also come to the one-of-a-kind open kitchen with a wall of BBQ equipment and take pictures or get a taste right from the pitmaster. “Every night we have a different pitmaster, dishes and experience. This is not a romantic evening out with your spouse,” says Ido. “It’s a three-hour immersive experience like no other that I’m aware of.” Ido has come a long way from his secret rooftop cooking in an apartment in Tel Aviv. The one thing that has stuck with him is the smoking bug. “When it hits you, just give in.”
