Just as Haifa is beginning to wake up again due to the cease-fire in the north, chef Hamoudi Okla, remembered from the first season of "Game of Chefs," has decided to say goodbye to his two restaurants in Haifa - Raseef 33 and Cafe Cucu.
Hamoudi opened Raseef 33 about three years ago, and from the very first day it became one of the best restaurants in the city and also marked him as one of the leading young chefs in Arab cuisine. He opened the second restaurant with the same partners, just three weeks after the outbreak of the war on October 7, 2023. Now he is parting ways with both of them.
"I decided to go in a different direction," Okla, 36, told Ynet, "I feel that after October 7 it will take the Arab chefs a long time to return to being part of the country and working like they did before. The situation today is very complex because of the war. Right now I prefer to stay away and be far away until the chaos is over."
How have you dealt with the restaurants in the past year?
"Fewer people came. I had two very successful businesses. I'm not ashamed to say that they were the two best restaurants in Haifa, but fewer people wanted to come to the downtown area because there are a lot of Arab businesses there. A few years ago, I moved from Kfar Marar to Haifa because Haifa is a city that is a symbol of coexistence, but after October 7 and the war with Lebanon it's different. In the last five months, it's been one big suffering."
What else?
"I believe in the state and coexistence, but I feel that being Arab has become a burden in the State of Israel. I know that this won't last forever, but for me right now it's too complicated to work this way. I feed evacuees and invite them over, and then I hear the neighbors say that they don't want to hear the muezzin and that the Arabs here are dangerous. This is something unbearable to me, it's hard to live with it. I'm a person who cooks and makes people happy, and it's hard for me to do that when something inside is uncomfortable. I felt that I couldn't cook in the kitchen and entertain people when I'm in this state. So I decided to sell my share to the partners, and in another week I'm moving with my wife to live abroad."
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Where are you moving to?
"We're moving to the United States, to Miami, Florida."
Miami actually has a large community of Jews and former Israelis.
"That's right, and that's exactly where I'm going. I'm going to work with the community of Jews and Israelis, and what's really funny is that the Jews abroad receive me with love and a huge hug. But things are complicated. My wife and I tried to attract more (Jewish customers) in Haifa, but I decided that was it. The restaurants continue to operate and I wish my partners success. My work is done."