A Quickie with Eyal Shani
The Israeli chef behind HaSalon, Bella, and now Naked Tomato is still not counting
Eyal Shani doesn’t count his restaurants (”It’s like counting 65 children — how do I do that?”), can’t name a favorite city for food (”There is no one city”), and won’t even tell you which of his skewers to order (”I’m not treating you as a customer”). And he conducted his interview with an untouched baguette sitting in front of him.
So we probably should have seen it coming when we asked the Jerusalem-born chef, one of the people most responsible for putting Israeli cuisine on the global map, now on his third Miami concept with the just-opened Naked Tomato, why he chose Miami for a third time. He had a lot of feelings about that — and everything else.
Name: Eyal Shani
Nickname: It’s just my name, but pronounced the Jerusalem way. People from Tel Aviv and people from Jerusalem say it differently. It’s a small difference.
Title: Chef/Owner
Best childhood leftover memory: My refrigerator is completely naked, empty, to prevent leftovers. Jewi…
