THE NEW
SALSA
where the company heads plotted the conquest of the American
marketplace in conference rooms
named after touristy, exotic destinations like Madagascar and
Morocco. (Perhaps unsurprisingly,
none of the rooms were named
after Lebanon or Israel.)
At the root of Sabra’s success
was an influx of corporate money
and resources. Strauss, an Israeli
snack-food giant, bought half of
Sabra in 2005, and Frito-Lay, the
snack-food division of Pepsico,
entered a joint-partnership agreement with Strauss in 2008. Zohar
worked closely with the Frito-Lay
people, who had scored a big victory for a foreign dip in the early
’90s, when Tostito’s salsa beat
Heinz Ketchup to become America’s best-selling condiment.
With Frito-Lay and Strauss’ investments, Sabra built its Virginia
factory, where it developed flavors
intended to appeal to the average
American consumer: Spinach and
Artichoke, Pesto, Buffalo Style. As
Arabs and Israelis quarreled over
the origins of hummus, Sabra was
putting out a product that bore
about as much resemblance to the
authentic dish as a Domino’s BBQ
Meat Lovers pie does to a genuine
Italian pizza.
HUFFINGTON
06.30-07.07.13
In Israel, meanwhile, yet another
hummus debate was raging, and
although it was the least overtly
political of the controversies, it
was no less capable of provoking
feelings of hostility and anger. As
the celebrated British-Israeli chef
and food writer Yotam Ottolenghi
and his Palestinian-born business
partner and co-author Sami Tamimi wrote in the 2102 cookbook
Jerusalem, “Jews in particular