“Opening a catering grocery store has been my dream for a long time, to offer family cooking in large pots, as my grandmother did. I grew up in Tel Aviv, born to an Iraqi mother and an Austrian-German-Russian father who met in Ukraine. Like many Israelis, I grew up between very different cultures: an Ashkenazi Jewish culture from Russia and Germany, and a mixed and rich Iraqi culture.
As my parents worked a lot, my brother, my sister and I spent the majority of our days and evenings with our Iraqi grandparents, who lived a stone’s throw from our house, with the door always open. My grandmother did not work and spent her time cooking. There were always big pots simmering on the fire, delicious and different dishes every day, in considerable quantity. It was unfussy, we sat down like that, there was a simplicity and a spontaneous generosity that have become rare today.
“I had only one idea in mind: to open a restaurant for my grandmother. I imagined a very simple place, where people would settle throughout the day, until there was nothing left. »
As a teenager, I started working in the restaurant business for three years, before doing my military service at 18. Even while I was in the army, my maternal grandmother sent me food. I then lived for a while in the United States, I missed her dishes, and when I returned to Israel, I had only one idea in mind: to open a restaurant for my grandmother. I imagined a very simple place, where she would arrive in the morning to prepare her pots, where people would settle down throughout the day, until there was nothing left. I wanted to share her cooking with friends, with everyone, I saw it as a gift, a tribute to my grandmother. But my grandfather didn’t want to. He refused to let his wife work… He wanted to finance the project, but without my grandmother in it, which for me made no sense.
On this disappointment, I left for France. I was 24 years old, I didn’t speak a word of French, I didn’t have a round and no papers. But I was convinced that my life would be here, in Paris. I took a small shared apartment with someone who became a friend and helped me a lot. I found a job as a private cook for a family for six years. It was hard, but it forged me and made me realize that I was not a real cook. My passion is above all to receive.
I worked a little in fashion and in art, then, in 2016, I met the team of Assaf Granit, a famous chef in Jerusalem, who was setting up Balagan, his first address in Paris. This is where it all began. Today, we are partners and I take care of everything that is not the kitchen in our restaurants: room, decoration, atmosphere, service, development, business… With Shosh, I realized my dream, that of to offer people the taste of my grandmother’s generous dishes – like mjadra, a traditional lentil rice that she prepared very often, always with love. »
Shosh14, rue Saint-Sauveur, Paris 2e.