The Mideast Feast Process Jerusalem. Except for the candles and flowers at the Tel Aviv sites where Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated and where the buses were blown up, there is little outward manifestation of that tension and sadness many Israelis are feeling just now. There are a few more policemen than usual in the Old City, but you can travel through West Jerusalem for miles and see only the normal complement of policemen and soldiers. Still, there's an element of keeping a stiff upper lip about the Jerusalem 3000 celebrations, a year-long program of events commemorating King David's moving the capital from Hebron to Jerusalem 3000 years ago. Concerts, operas, plays and exhibitions are being staged, but the most ambitious single occasion was on the night of March 18, when 13 chefs from around the world, boasting 27 Michelin stars among them, prepared "King David's Feast." The idea was not to serve food that King David might have eaten (such as you now find at the Eucatyptus restaurant in the Russian Compound, where Moshe Basson uses mallow, cyclamen leaves and hyssop, and cooks a mean braised beef with green almonds and artichokes), but a dinner that contemporary chefs might design for one of history's best-known monarchs. The ingredients-with the exception of some black truffles and white cocoa beans that greatest-chef-on-earth Joel Robuchon used for his soup, truffled cream of white beans with smoked goose breast-all came from Israel, as did the wines (of which the reds from the Golan Heights Winery, were worth paying attention to). But that wasn't the whole story. The newsworthy aspect of the proceeding was that the chefs shared the printed credits with the mayor of Jerusalem, Ehud Olmert, and with Rabbi Yosef Fink. For most of the chefs the meal, cooked for 350 guests, was their first exposure to the complexities of the Orthodox Jewish dietary laws-a truly novel experience, especially when they finally and fully realized that this was to be a meat meal, and so no butter or cream was allowed. I don't imagine this was a problem for chef Bill Gallagher from South Africa, who made the appetizers: but I can't say for sure. Though we turned up in good time at the Jerusalem International Convention Center, we were given nothing to eat or drink for another hour and a half, when everyone sat down to tables featuring a conspicuous number of empty places These were filled as the evening went on. My Orthodox table-mates for this S600-a-head meal explained to me that the absentees had simply interpreted the 7 p.m. start according to "Jewish Mean Time." This did not interfere with the service, once Mayor Olmert's extensive perorations had been completed and the first toast drunk. "L'chaim" was followed by precision service by waiters so silent, discreet and deft that they could have been performing a security operation, rather than serving the banquet's 12 courses. Even so there was time, between the eighth and ninth courses, for my table companions to file out with sufficient other guests to make up the 10-man minyan needed to say the evening prayers. Philippe Braun of Restaurant Laurent in Paris paid homage to Israel's vegetables with his avocado cream, which concealed a jellied gazpacho. Pierre Troisgros of Roanne made a real effort to tie his dish to Israel, too, with the Mediterranean flavors and style of his filet of red drum (farmed sea bass) with eggplant confit. The culinary miracle of the evening was Galtiero Marchesi's luxurious risotto with saffron, a sort of risotto Milanese made kosher by using no butter. The secret-I think-was rich, jellied chicken stock and the maximum amount of fragrant saffron the human palate can tolerate. Pierre Wynants, of Comme Chez Soi in Brussels, made a dish that sounded local-striped bass in olives, sesame and spring vegetables-but tasted as though it had come from much farther east. There followed three triumphs in succession Jean Louis Palladin, of Washington, D.C., roasted breast of quail medium rare and stuffed it with foie gras. Michel Lorain of Restaurant La Cote St.-Jacques at Joigny cooked tender, well-flavored duckling the same way, and served it in a sauce of red fruits with an assortment of deep-fried herbs. Marc Haeberlin of the Auberge de L'lil in Alsace showed how good the local lamb is by treating a thick chop of it as a strudel with potatoes and rosemary . He was odd man out with a vengeance, but so far as the Israeli press was concerned, the star of the performance was Paul Prudhomme of K-Paul's Louisiana Kitchen in New Orleans. Kosher Cajun caught the imagination never mind that it was just a touch robust in this company, and Mr. Prudhomme invented from scratch-and therefore designed to be kosher-a smoked veal dish. As bacon was out of the question, he smoked some veal "tasso," and wrapped his veal medallions in thin strips of it. This was served with a mango glaze, tasting like a smoky but refined barbecue sauce. The dish was completely over the top, and diners who had just had nine previous substantial courses wolfed it down. Michel Trama of L'Aubergade at Puymirol had the toughest job of the day, because he had elected to make a creamy dessert, gelee of acacia honey with strawberries-but without cream. Nougatine with pears, by the chefs of Taillevent in Paris, Philippe Legendre and Gilles Bajolle, posed fewer problems and was a satisfactory conclusion to an evening that had lasted 51/2 hours. Why did the Israelis go to all this trouble? Because they are trying hard to dispel the notion that tourists eat badly in Israel. They hope that articles such as the one you are reading will change the country's culinary image And why did the chefs come? Well heeled Israelis do travel extensively, and when it was proposed several months ago, it all seemed a giggle. Now the mood has changed. Mr. Haeberlin, though, spoke for them all at a press conference, when he answered this question by saying, with an open and modest countenance, "I hoped I was doing something for peace."