No one ever went hungry at the Israel Embassy's Yom Ha'atzmaut do in London.

But the arrival of new ambassador Mark Regev has co-incided with a culinary revolution.

Previous embassy celebrations featured a variety of food stations which included plentiful sushi and that staple of English pub lunches, shepherd's pie.

But this year nationalism took over the menu with only a Middle Eastern selection available – cocktail-sized kebabs, mini-pitta slices and assorted salads.

And why not, you might think, since chefs such as Yotam Ottolenghi have put Israeli food on the international map.

Could this spark a new trend in Anglo-Jewish catering - and is the love affair with Japanese raw fish finally waning?