Israeli Restaurants Split: Michelin Stars Amid Boycotts

Ynetnews reports Israeli chefs thriving in the US despite boycott calls, while Haaretz describes a New York scene losing customers and chefs.

According to Ynetnews, the most striking win in Israeli-American dining came in May, when chef Raz Shabtai's kosher restaurant Motra in North Miami became the first kosher restaurant in the world to receive a Michelin star — an extraordinary achievement for a kosher establishment. Ynetnews reports that prominent Israeli restaurants are making no attempt to hide their identity, advertising openly with Hebrew or distinctly Israeli names such as Miznon, Malka, Shmoné, Or'esh, Motek, Carmel and the Yiddish Balaboosta. The outlet's framing is defiant: despite antisemitism and boycott calls since October 7, many chefs are proving that good food can overcome even the loudest pro-Palestinian protests, and that American diners will come as long as the food is good and critics praise it.

Haaretz tells a harder New York story. The paper reports that most Israeli restaurants there have lost customers amid pro-Palestinian sentiment, even as some still boast long lines and celebrity guests as prominent as Taylor Swift. Its most vivid detail: Eli Buliskeria, the chef behind the successful Bustan on the Upper West Side and Mesiba in Williamsburg, moved a few months ago to Palo Alto in Silicon Valley to work as a private chef for a wealthy family whose name, Haaretz notes, he cannot reveal. The two outlets' pictures of the same cuisine — Ynetnews's boom and Haaretz's attrition — make this a genuinely contested story rather than a settled trend.

Ynetnews profiles five restaurateurs adapting against the odds. Nadav Greenberg, who earned a Michelin star with Eyal Shani's team at Shmoné, opened Or'esh in Manhattan in February with Catch Hospitality Group, a charcoal-fired Israeli-Levantine room he says is one of the hottest in New York despite its Hebrew name and mezuzahs at the entrance. In Los Angeles, Asaf 'Assi' Maoz's Carmel on Melrose Avenue — inspired by Tel Aviv's Carmel Market — draws LeBron James, Sofia Vergara, Gal Gadot and Charlize Theron, per Ynetnews, with the investor dinner having fallen on October 8. Veteran Einat Admony of Balaboosta and Taim recalls pioneering sabich and falafel in New York, and remembers Robin Williams playing with her son while waiting for falafel.

The debate over who owns the food is part of the story. Ynetnews reports that in August New York Magazine argued Israeli chefs take Middle Eastern, Arab, Palestinian and North African dishes and market them to Americans as fashionable, expensive Israeli cuisine — accusations of 'cultural appropriation' that Ynetnews pushes back on, noting many chefs also create original recipes combining ingredients in unconventional ways. Shifka's Tunisian sandwich in malawach, inspired by Be'er Sheva corner stores, is the kind of hybrid Haaretz highlights. For devoted readers, the next moves to watch are whether Motra's star spurs more kosher fine dining, and whether New York's attrition — chefs like Buliskeria leaving restaurant kitchens entirely — deepens or reverses.