Mica Talmor, Pomella
Saturday, July 23, 2022, 10:30 am - 11:15 am
Stop by the Foodwise Classroom for a cooking demo featuring the seasonal bounty of the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market.
Chef Mica Talmor grew up in northern Israel in a family where, like many other Jewish families, feeding people was a way of showing love and affection. Talmor attended culinary school in Israel and worked in high-end Tel Aviv restaurants before coming to San Francisco in 1998 to attend pastry school at the California Culinary Academy. After graduating, she worked as a pastry chef at Eos in San Francisco and Grasshopper in Oakland. From 2005 to 2018, Mica and her then-husband, Robert Gott owned and operated Savoy Events, a high-end catering company. In 2015, they opened their first restaurant, Ba-Bite, a successful fast casual Israeli restaurant on Piedmont Avenue in Oakland. The restaurant quickly became known for its silky hummus and flavorful, seasonal salads, and it was featured in Food & Wine, Sunset Magazine, and on KQED’s “Check, Please! Bay Area.” Bi-Bite closed in 2018 as a result of a rental contract dispute.
Pomella, Talmor’s current venture is located just a stone’s throw away from where Ba-Bite once was and it shines as a delicious hub for Israeli food that’s made from locally sourced ingredients meant to be shared with others. Pomella is drawn from tradition, but not bound by it. The restaurant combines favorite, familial, Middle Eastern flavors with community and sustainability. According to Mica, “Pomella is a taste, a scent, and a feeling. It’s a sense of place, belonging, and community. It’s delicious Israeli food, made from whole ingredients that are locally sourced, and shared with others. Pomella is drawn from tradition, but not bound by it. We combine favorite, familial, Middle Eastern flavors with community and sustainability. There is great importance to the fact that chefs such as Ottolenghi and Solomonov, and even me, are not residing in Israel and haven’t for a while. We get to reminisce on the flavor of our childhoods while using the best ingredients and best techniques not widely used in our country of origin. We bring something to the table that is more appealing and approachable to our Western audience.”
All demos take place in the Foodwise Classroom (under the tents in front of the Ferry Building) and are free to the public, with recipes and samples for all.
Photo by Douglas Depres.