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Star Israeli Chef Eyal Shani Enters Gulf Market With Dubai Restaurant
December 01, 2022
The chef sees opening the North Miznon restaurant in the United Arab Emirates as part of a mission to unite cultures and bring—what else?—peace.
Israeli chef Eyal Shani has been on an unstoppable tear. In the past few years, he’s opened a string of restaurants, bringing fresh, ingredient-focused food to markets as diverse as New York, Singapore and London.
His biggest challenge yet might be expanding in his own region.
Shani’s next stop is Dubai, where he is bringing his North Miznon brand, a Mediterranean restaurant that treats vegetables like minor gods — stars of the show in their own right, often taking up nearly half the menu. It will be his first restaurant in the Middle East outside of Israel.
The North Miznon Dubai opening will be the latest link between Israel and the United Arab Emirates since the Abraham Accords normalized relations between the countries two years ago. In the UAE, kosher restaurants have been opening for the growing (but still tiny) Jewish population, and Israeli tourists are visiting in droves. This year, through September, 146,000 Israelis visited Dubai, according to the city-emirate's Department of Economy and Tourism.
Business ties between the countries also have increased, including a free trade agreement, a controversial billion-dollar pipeline deal and some tech investments.
But cultural barriers are proving resistant to change. After an initial lukewarm reception, attitudes about the diplomatic normalization have soured in the UAE. Only 26% of Emiratis viewed the Abraham Accords favorably when asked last summer, down from 47% in November 2020, according to polling by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. It remains to be seen how a country that has huge populations of Egyptian, Iranian, Syrian and Jordanian immigrants and expatriates will receive an Israeli celebrity chef.
Like many chefs, Shani says he sees food as a great uniter. “There’s no better bridge than food, because food is making a promise. What is the promise? It’s very simple,” he says in an interview. “You will sit with me and eat with me, and we shall understand each other.”
He hears warnings that he won’t get Syrian, Lebanese and Palestinian customers. He says he thinks they will eat at his Dubai restaurant because he sees them in his restaurants in Israel.
Shani says he came to Dubai because a local partner made it worth his while, but he sees great meaning in the expansion in the region.
“It’s a big honor, and for me it’s a big mission,” he says. “I know one thing: that when there is food between people, there is no war and fighting between them. So for me, it’s my own act of making peace between me and my neighbors around me.”
Shani, who was born in Jerusalem, opened a restaurant there more than 30 years ago. He shot to stardom as a judge on the first season of MasterChef Israel in 2010. He’s known for thrusting the humble cauliflower into the limelight by roasting and salting it and making it a prominent menu item.