New York Magazine’s recent Grub Street article, “When Eating Out Is Political,” tells a compelling story about the changing identity of Middle Eastern restaurants in New York. But the inaccuracies begin right at the start: the history of Israeli restaurants does not fit the narrative.

I am an Israeli-American and a longtime food writer who covers Jewish and Israeli food from around the world.

The article argues that for decades Arab, Iranian and North African restaurants obscured their identities behind terms like “Oriental” and later “Mediterranean,” while Israeli chefs were “happy to announce their connections to Israel and talk about the Tel Aviv food scene.”

In fact, Israeli restaurants spent decades doing much the same thing.

Israeli restaurateurs have been part of New York’s dining scene almost since the founding of Israel, but for much of that history their restaurants were routinely marketed as “Middle Eastern” or “Mediterranean.” 

You don’t even have to go far back to see it. When Israeli chef Einat Admony opened Balaboosta in 2010, The New Yorker described her food as “nouveau-Mediterranean,” not Israeli. When I interviewed Einat about her cookbook, I had to search deep into its back cover to find the word “Israel” at all. Miriam, opened by Israeli chef Rafael Hasid in 2005, was similarly described in contemporary coverage as “Middle Eastern.”

What changed was that, beginning in the 2010s, Israeli cuisine became fashionable. A........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)