Israeli Chef Cooks Pizza in a Car to Demonstrate Child Safety · Global Voices
Maya Norton

Israeli celebrity chef Haim Cohen demonstrates what happens if you put a pizza in a hot car for 30 minutes. (YouTube: Beterem: Safe Kids Israel)
How hot does it get inside a car in the Middle East in summer? Israeli NGO Beterem: Safe Kids Israel teamed up with celebrity chef Haim Cohen for this light hearted public safety message. But this is no laughing matter. Sixteen children have died in Israel since 2008 as a result of being accidentally left in closed cars, as have countless more across the world.
According to the Times of Israel, 349 children were left alone in cars between 2008 and 2015. They report:
The vast majority (84%) of the children left behind in cars were between the ages of 0 and 4. The kids were most commonly left in private vehicles (84%), but they were also forgotten on school buses, public buses, and even Jerusalem’s light rail.
Beer Sheva, in southern Israel, hit a high of 115 degrees Fahrenheit on Wednesday, May 27, 2015. (Image credit: Sara Teichholtz)
Since being posted on Wednesday, May 27, 2015 on Chef Cohen's Facebook page, the video has been viewed by over 145,000 people, liked 3,000 times and shared 4,000 times, with more than 200 comments. The post is simply captioned:
(בכל יום !!! (והיום יותר מתמיד
(Every day!!! And today more than ever.)
Temperatures were at a season high on Wednesday, with some locations reaching as high as 115 degrees Fahrenheit (46 degrees Celsius).
Titled, “Cooking in the Car with Chef Haim Cohen,” the video begins with Chef Cohen welcoming viewers to his “new cooking show.”
“I'll teach you how to cook… in the car,” he says.
“That's right! In the car! It's simple, it's easy, and it's hot.”
He begins by preparing a pizza, placing the dough on a cooking sheet, spreading the sauce, and adding the toppings: cheese, corn, olives, mushroom and cheese.
Then he places the pizza in a car, telling the audience, “Thirty minutes in the car. Then we'll check.”
When he opens the car after 30 minutes, the pizza is burned from crust to core.
The video concludes:
Dear friends: in the summer, the car is exactly like an oven. Don't leave a child alone in a car, not even for a single minute! Every summer there is a sharp rise in accidents involving children. Share this video and prevent the next tragedy.
Here is the full one-minute video, in Hebrew with English subtitles:
Hat tip: Times of Israel.