A NYC based chef cooking the food of the Levant - paying homage to Iraqi & Turkish cuisine with a flair from the European kitchens I’ve spent time in.

At age 18, I left my Hasidic upbringing in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, and settled in the Machane Yehudah Farmer’s Market in Jerusalem, and lived there for the next 8 years.

I was immediately attracted to the bustling nature of the market, the busking musicians, the smell of cigarettes and hashish embedded into the cobblestones, fresh bread, toasted nuts, and seasonal produce wafting through the air.

Over my time there, I made my way through the kitchens of Jerusalem’s restaurant scene and pastry shops and befriended their home cooks and the market stall workers, learning about seasonal and local produce - a concept so foreign to an American who ate berries in the winter growing up. 

In 2016, while working at a local bakery in the market, I started flirting with the barista next door. That barista turned out to be the son of the legendary Eli Mizrahi, the pioneer of the European-esque food scene in the Shuk back in 2004. 

Yoav, that barista, was my boyfriend for 3 years and best friend for 7 years now. He welcomed me into his family, where my food education really stepped up a notch. 

I learned the depth of their Iraqi culinary heritage as well as classical French and Italian cuisine. Every meal was new and different and something to be savored. The years I spent in their warm home is where I collected the knowledge I use daily in my kitchen. 

During the pandemic I awoke from a vivid dream of being back in New York. I could taste the streets of my childhood, the Brooklyn bridge, Prospect Park, and the NYC green markets. Over the next two months, I sold everything I owned and made my way to New York to start anew. It was within no time that I was being asked to cater dinner parties, and within a year I was calling myself a private chef. It’s not a title I ever imagined calling myself but it’s what I knew how to do best and keep learning how to do better.

Thanks for stopping by – I can’t wait to have you at my table.