(13 Feb 2008) SHOTLIST
1. Pan from street level to Zozobra restaurant
2. Wide of Kyoto restaurant sign
3. Interior of Zozobra restaurant with owner, Steven Lobel in kitchen
4. Close-up of a dish being prepared
5. Close of Asian chefs at restaurant working, with tilt down to cooking
6. SOUNDBITE: (English) Steven Lobel, owner of Zozobra restaurant:
"At the moment, the immediate action that needs to be taken is to cut back from the 900 foreign workers to 500 workers that's virtually half immediately without having trained the local cooks to replace them - this is just impossible. We have fought and we have done tremendous amounts of efforts within the restaurant groups, the different restaurants to try and train the locals, but there are certain jobs that are suited for the Asian workers, although we have quite a few Israelis working you can see in my own kitchen - you can see the Israeli's working within the kitchen. So who's going to have a cutback with the workers, which restaurants are going to be closed?
7. Chefs working in kitchen
8. Meat on the grill
9. People eating at restaurant
10. Zoom out of people eating in full restaurant
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Lior, customer at restaurant, Vox pop:
"I think it is right that when Asian, when Asian persons make this food it will be much better. But in the same way he can teach Israeli persons to do it and we need to come to the restaurant and know that Israelis did it and during the time the profession will get better and the Israelis will know how to do it in the same way."
12. Cutaway of Asian chef at restaurant cooking with zoom into wok
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Restaurant customer, no name given, Vox pop:
"I like the food very much in this place and I think it will be a pity that all of them will leave."
14. Pan across restaurant
15. Close of wok with tilt up to Asian chef
16. Pan across Asian chefs working in kitchen
17. People eating at restaurant
18. Tilt down from waiter to customers inside restaurant
19. Wide of street with shops
STORYLINE:
Israel's nationwide sushi craze is being endangered by a wasabi-strength threat: the government, seeking to protect local jobs, wants to send all foreign-born Asian chefs packing by January 2009.
Asian food has become increasingly popular in Israel, fuelled by the large number of young Israelis who travel to the region in an unofficial rite of passage after compulsory army service.
This year, the government limited the number of visas for foreign chefs to 500.
In 2009, there will be no work visas for foreign chefs, only tourist visas permitting brief consulting opportunities for experts in Asian cuisine.
Steven Lobel who owns the Zozobra restaurant in Tel Aviv and which employs 14 Asian chefs says the measures to drastically cut back from 900 foreign workers to 500 workers, without training the locals Israeli's to do the job properly, would be impossible.
"We have fought and have carried out tremendous amounts of efforts within the restaurant groups to try and train the locals, but there are certain jobs that are suited for the Asian workers," he told AP Television.
Lobel added that although he employed a few Israelis in his kitchen, he was more concerned to know the economic and financial implications of the Asian workers cutback on the food business.
"Who's going to have a cutback with the workers, which restaurants are going to be closed?" he asked.
Lior, a customer at Lobel's restaurant, said she was in favour of the Israeli government's move to keep the kitchen staff national, but the dishes Asian.
However, another customer patronising Zozobra's did not agree.
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