Chef Marcello Sandman

He served as the South African President's Private Chef, fed 1500 people who arrived at Nelson Mandela's Coronation Ceremony, sailed in prestigious cruise liners, and was in charge of upscale banquet hall kitchens. ## He is now the head chef of the huge Congress Garden and luxury boutique hotel grounds.

Photos: Congress Garden

Chef Marcello Sandman (48) lives in the Ahuza neighborhood of Haifa with his wife Orit and his two children Zoe (17) and Segiv (14), and has spent more than thirty years in the restaurant and kitchen sector. Behind him are senior positions in the largest event halls in the country, and the mother reminds of the City Tower in Tel Aviv, and the violins and d’Or in Haifa. He also managed to work as a young man in the well-remembered La Schumier restaurant, and also to own or run a restaurant.

The native, Marcello, is named after his grandfather. He grew up on Kassel Street in the Hadar neighborhood of Haifa for parents with a recommended combination - half Romanian, half Moroccan. His father was a seaman, and his mother worked as a nurse at Rambam. The love bacteria for the kitchen infested his youth in France, when Rio was there on a mission. At age 17, before enlisting in the army, he served as a cook in a poolside restaurant in the Danya neighborhood. He served in the Navy and later served on the Dan Network and was a chef. At the Dan Tel Aviv Hotel, after two years of experience, he packed up farming and traveled to South Africa where he studied at a well-known culinary school and advanced to the ranks when he was accepted to work as a chef in Sun City - the betting city. The highlight of his stay in South Africa was when he served as private chef for President De Klerk, and then was the chef in charge of Nelson Mandela's inaugural ceremony in Pretoria, then fed 1500 people, including 47 world leaders, including Eizer Weizman.

Marcello's culinary journey continued to the US - where he served as an executive chef at the famous Royal Caribbean and the ship's sung off America for five years. In the summer, the ship sailed to the Caribbean and winter to Bermuda.

When Marcello returned to Haifa, in 2012, he was appointed Head Chef of the Congress Garden complex and the Garden Hotel - the new, luxurious boutique hotel that is due to open very soon next to the Congress Garden. Upon entering the new position, Marcello worked hard to build a new menu for the entire complex, including the hotel, in innovative, fusion designs.

The new menu features natural smoking meats, locally sourced raw materials, from bread to dessert, fresh jerks in an Italian reci