Sushi with Simcha

Art in the Kitchen

Tzfat is known for its artists' community. Paintings, sculptures, jewelry, ceramics, and other forms of creative expression are all part of the Tzfat landscape. One Tzfat resident, Simcha Laya Hoffman, expresses her creative talents in her cooking. Simcha Laya's neighbors are always pleased to be invited to her Shabbat table, where delicacies and unusual ingredients intermingle with traditional Jewish cooking. Several months ago, Simcha Laya began to offer one of her most popular dishes, sushi, to the public. Throughout the week, she takes orders for people who want sushi on their Shabbat table, and on Friday morning, she makes fresh rolls. Together with the traditional accompaniments of soy sauce, ginger and wasabi, she drives around the North, delivering the orders. (Special orders are also taken during the week for celebratory events).

Starting Out

Simcha Laya learned to make sushi over ten years ago from a macrobiotic chef. The chef was visiting Israel from NY and stayed in Simcha Laya's B&B. She taught Simcha Laya the basic techniques which Simcha Laya refined by working with a caterer-chef. However, it wasn't until she learned trade secrets from Japanese chefs that she began to find her own niche.

For awhile, Simcha Laya prepared sushi for her own family and guests who loved eating at her home. She also made the sushi on a small-scale for a local health food store when she worked there. But after a friend saw that sushi was being sold in Jerusalem by order, the idea came to Tzfat. Simcha Laya's friend tried the idea for a few months, but it wasn't really working. When the friend went to the States, she encouraged Simcha Laya to take on the business, and Simcha Laya has since turned the idea into a thriving cottage industry.

Unique to Tzfat

Simcha Laya's sushi goes above and beyond anything that the Japanese cooks could have ever envisioned. While much of their craft is based on the different kinds of raw fish that they use, most of Simcha Laya's customers prefer vegetarian sushi, so she has come up with many creative ideas for adding grilled vegetables and other additions to her sushi. She also puts a lot of her own bubbly personality into her craft - "When the phone rings, and the first orders start to come in, I get into motion, putting positive, happy energy into each roll - energy that my customers ingest - which is why I call my business "Sushi b'Simcha"."

Simcha Laya's dream is to open a health food store, where she can prepare sushi and other healthy "fast foods" for clients. In the meantime, her three children watch her carefully every Friday morning, learning the skill. Also watching her are the family "critters", Daisy the dog, Kushi the cat, and of course...the tortoise, Sushi.