Manifestations of hatred toward Israelis around the world are increasing and not sparing even restaurants associated with Israel or those owned by Israelis – ranging from boycotts and protests to a swastika sprayed on an Israeli restaurant in New York. In other words, this is not a time when restaurateurs around the world are hanging the Israeli flag at the entrance to their restaurants.
Even the restaurants of Chef Assaf Granit and the Machneyuda Group in Europe have not been spared from antisemitism, but Granit decided to face the grim reality head-on and celebrate their Israeli identity through a culinary journey with five chefs from the group's restaurants. They will visit five different cities and cook two meals together at each restaurant.
"Due to all the protests against Israel and the shaming being directed at us globally, I wanted to show that Israeli cuisine is something that is happening, existing, and thriving. No one scares us, and we are proudly promoting our Israeli identity and inviting people," says Granit.
When the war broke out, he was called up for reserve duty but insisted on keeping all his restaurants open and maintaining routine operations. Now he is continuing in the same vein by "celebrating" the group's Israeli identity with a series of special meals. The first stop on the journey will be Berlin, and the last will be Jerusalem.
Has antisemitism reached your restaurants as well?
"In the Bertha restaurant in Berlin, someone wrote 'Free Palestine' on the bathroom mirror, and in the Tékés restaurant in Paris, a couple sat down and, upon realizing it was an Israeli restaurant, they simply got up and left before ordering anything. But compared to other restaurants, we are relatively okay. What happened to us is minor compared to what is happening to other Israeli restaurants. I feel it and see it all around, with protests outside Israeli restaurants in London."
And how do your employees cope with this?
"The employees come and give their best out of a sense of mission and great pride, but initially, they were very scared to come to work because Hamas called for global jihad and called for attacks on Israeli institutions worldwide. So, in the first month of the war, we hired a security company for our restaurants in Paris, Berlin, and London, to ensure the employees felt safe. In each city, there was a local security company, and the guards stood at the entrance. On October 7, it was important for me to tell all the chefs that we are not closing our restaurants, no matter what. So now, not only are we open, but we are also publicizing our Israeli identity."
The five chefs - Assaf Granit, Dan Yosha (Shabour, Paris), Eliezer Mizrachi (Machneyuda, Jerusalem), Dan Peles (Coal Office, London), and Guy Hochman (Bertha, Berlin) – will cook together at each of the restaurants, creating a special menu for each venue, which will be served for only two evenings. The various menus, which will travel with the chefs around the world, will feature flagship dishes from the restaurants alongside new dishes.
This culinary tour will kick off, as mentioned, at the Bertha restaurant in Berlin on July 8-9. Among the dishes, they will serve there will be Kubaneh, a Jerusalemite Kurdish pastry, Sha'ar Shchem salad with labneh and grapes, chopped liver kreplach, and the Shabour restaurant's cholent, Granit's Michelin-starred restaurant in Paris.
So is Assaf Granit doing a Taylor Swift?
The culinary tour we are doing around the world is also an opportunity to gather all our chefs to cook together, something they rarely get to do. We built all the menus together on Zoom, with everyone throwing out ideas, and everything was born from our brainstorming sessions. Even if I am the one setting the culinary direction in each restaurant, each chef in the group has their own world, uniqueness, and different direction. We do not replicate restaurants and menus. This togetherness of the chefs works wonders and elevates the group's culinary scene. It is also valuable internally for our organization, and if we can share it with our diners, then all the better.