Tali Fisk and Janie Levitt came to Israel for a gap year after high school, expecting a meaningful experience before returning to the United States for college. Instead, the year changed the course of their lives.
Fisk, 21, from Miami, and Levitt, from Chicago, both grew up in Zionist Jewish homes, attended Jewish day schools and spent much of their childhood visiting Israel. The two met during their gap year and later decided to room together at the University of Texas in Austin.
Tali Fisk and Janie Levitt
But after a year in Israel, American college life felt like the wrong fit.
“It was a very American college experience,” Levitt said. “After spending a year in Israel, we knew we wanted something a little more meaningful, especially after the events of October 7. We felt a longing to be alongside the Jewish people in Israel.”
Their families were not immediately convinced. Fisk said her mother “shut it down pretty quickly” because she did not want her daughter living so far away. Eventually, however, the parents came around.
“They grew up sending me to Israel almost every single year of my life,” Fisk said. “So how could they deny the fact that I would want to go and study here?”
In Israel, the two friends found an unexpected path through food. Their cooking began in a tiny dorm room kitchen in Austin, where they were “always on top of each other,” and later developed into the social media brand they are now building.
Food, they say, became their language of connection.
“I only know Hebrew in terms of food words,” Fisk joked. “I know shum (garlic) and shemen zayit (olive oil).”
Their recipes have also adapted to Israeli tastes and to the preferences of their friends. Garlic, onion and spicy flavors have become staples, while cilantro is often left out because one close friend hates it.
“We love garlic,” Levitt said. “Our cooking has evolved into this garlic, onion, harif.”
Their videos now mix cooking, shopping, hosting and lifestyle content. In one reel, the two document preparations for a festive Shabbat sheva brachot meal, moving from butcher to nut store to vegetable shopping as they assemble a full spread.
The pair say they see themselves in the “startup phase,” building a brand around food, lifestyle and their own story as young American women who chose Israel.
“Right now, I think we’re viewing ourselves in the startup phase, building the brand,” Fisk said. “Food is our niche, and also lifestyle.”
The long-term dream, they say, is to turn the project into a profession: traveling through Israel, the United States and Jewish communities around the world, hosting demonstrations, preparing events and showing how food can connect people.
“Just sharing our passion for food, bridging the gap between the Diaspora and Israel,” Levitt said. “Showing how food brings people together through demos and recipes, and a mixture of our story and the Zionism and all of it coming together.”
The war also shaped their experience. Fisk was in Miami when it began and was unable to return for two months. Levitt remained in Israel, spending about a month in Caesarea at a friend’s grandmother’s home, where she helped cook three meals a day for around 10 people.
“There was plenty of downtime to cook,” Levitt said. “Steak spreads on repeat, chicken burgers, chia pudding, and of course in between sirens. But we made the most of it because that’s what it means to live here.”
Despite the distance from home, the uncertainty and the war, both say moving to Israel was the right decision.
“We look at each other every day and say, ‘Oh my God, we can’t believe we made this decision,’” Fisk said. “It was truly the best decision we ever made.”