The perfectionist

Chef Confectioner Alon where he celebrates half a year for his store, launches a new winter collection, and talks about everything - gentrification, competitors, reviews, public relations, and why he did not feel comfortable selling even one dessert before opening his own place

Yael Laor

10/12/2021

Friday, 10 December 2021, 00:00 Updated: 01:24

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A few weeks ago, Chef Confectioner Alon contacted me and asked for my address. It was just in the midst of the annual donut tasting ahead of Hanukkah, and I assumed that Alon, like everyone else, wants to send me donuts for tasting, but Alon is not like everyone else. A few days later I was surprised to find an envelope in the mail, which is not a payment for a fee. A beautiful and well-designed postcard, inside an envelope, with a stamp. It was an invitation to Alon's winter launch event where, if not enough, together with illegal immigrants.) reference to the way, the invitation to a fashion show, is not accidental.

"I love fashion, I live it, I'm working with designers at the store, we designed the pink shirt of employees, and we are now working on a line of bags and T-shirts . Because we value this world we try to follow it a bit, we work on collections according to the seasons, so that there will be something to look forward to, we work with both inspiration and the order was like this,It seems right to us. "

Winter Treats at Alon Shavu (Photo: Yael Laor)

Half a year ago, last June, Alon Shavu (30) opened the store that bears his name, and now, it's time for him to refresh.

"We launched the new winter collection with more winter flavors. We went a lot for citrus flavors - like orange and grapefruit, more round flavors, maybe a little heavier, like coffee, and we also have a cinnamon tartlet. We did things that respect winter, deal with seasonality, and tried like Always create it in the most beautiful and impressive way we can.If it is a tart with lavender, then we drew lavender on chocolate, and when we thought of the orange tart then our association was, oranges-jaffa-port, so we made waves from chocolate, which is an extreme nightmare to make "But it's awfully beautiful. It takes a lot, a lot of time, it's a process of about two months, because we take it very seriously."

So in Alon's Winter 22 collection where you can find, among other things, Total Cinnamon Tart, Coffee and Caramel Tart, Red Grapefruit and Lavender Tart, Orange and Marzipan Tart, Eggplant Borax and Shame Cheese and Patisserie Snail and Raisins. Needless to say, everything is amazingly beautiful, and more importantly, so delicious, delicate and so elegant.

"We used to have a new dessert every day, but here it was really about taking out 14 new desserts and pastries at once, it's a two-month process that included inspiration and was full of trials until we were happy with the result. ".

"Unequivocally the coffee tart, it's completely surprising, and so is the eggplant and shame cheese borax."

"True. It's unintentional, we still really like pink, very much believe in it. Our serving utensils have become pink, we are collaborating with Avi Ben-Shoshan, he created dishes for us, so everything is shown on pink, but yes, winters among others "It's a color change. I really like pink, it's very appealing and very foody. But it can not be forced and flavors that have nothing to do with pink can not be pink, it's weird."

Eggplant and Shame Cheese Borax and Boris Vishisuaz (Photo: Yael Laor)

How do you sum up the last half year?

"It's a crazy roller coaster, nobody prepares you for it, just say, but you do not really understand it, every day is re-exciting, not easy, you do not sleep, it's tough, but every day is blown with adrenaline, in a new work. We They really try to treat the place not just as a bakery, but something more interesting, a place where they create. "

It's not that everything was rosy from the beginning, Bo's store generated a big buzz, especially on social media, and the queues lengthened accordingly, where and the staff did not keep up with demand, and quite a few waiters found themselves frustrated when they arrived at the start of the queue.

"This critique has been as difficult for me as I am for the people who have experienced it have been difficult. I have really taken it hard that we have reached a point where people are waiting, and they have not and they are screwed. Over time we have learned to work better, "

Alon Shavu's tarts (Photo: official website, Dan Peretz, Styling: Nurit Karib, from Alon Shavu's Instagram)

Do you feel that the corona has changed something in the habits of consuming sweets?

"Wow people are dying for it. You see two trends in my eyes, you see people appreciating desserts, suddenly it's become a pastime, people go out to eat dessert, something I did not feel there was before, and also feel like the world is going a little more in the direction of pastries and desserts all of a sudden. See how many bakeries and confectioneries are opening now. "

"A lot of people interpret it as competition and stress and biting into each other, to me it's amazing, and to me it actually fertilizes the discourse and it develops this field that has not yet developed as I expected or wanted it to be. I mean if you are parallel to Paris, or all the Nordic countries there are "A culture of eating desserts and pastries, of going out especially to eat, so I feel that it is starting to develop here as well, and I very much hope that I also helped this thing happen."

"I have no idea what it will be like with tourists, the truth is I thought about it recently. Think of us as tourists, what we do is consume culinary, I guess it would bring more audience here, but no complaints, I am pleased with the audience that comes."

Patisserie and fruit croissant (Photo: Yael Laor)

"There are no simple sights here"

The choice of the location of Shavu's store, on Chelnov Street in south Tel Aviv, managed to raise quite a few eyebrows at first. This is one of the poorest and weakest areas of the city, the closest to the slams that Tel Aviv has to offer. In the middle of it all they set up an artificial ecological lake with some goldfish, a fancy building complex with a neighborhood supermarket, who said gentrification and didn’t get it?

Where he does not get excited about the subject and actually finds himself quite easily here. "The environment here is very changing, all the time, even from the opening until now you can see how the area has changed and developed. It is not the easiest area, it is not the center of Tel Aviv and there are also sights that are not simple."

"I'm not excited, I've been living here in the neighborhood for a long time. There's an area here that is at some crossroads and I think that's what's beautiful in the end."

you come up with something that might be a little prickly, isn't that strange to you?

"Sometimes yes. And sometimes we work for, try to give a little, as much as possible. On the other hand I think it's a natural process, that's how businesses develop, and also, honestly, I do not think I could establish this place in another area of ​​the city, in all respects. , Rent, space. Property should be aesthetically pleasing to me, and properties in the center of Tel Aviv today seem shocking to me.

So I do not think it could have been otherwise, I do not want it to be different, I'm kicking it. "

Patisserie snail and raisins, and a chocolate croissant (Photo: Yael Laor)

You do not work with PR, you have chosen to do all the public relations yourself

"True, I think the food world is very small in the country, so colleagues and everyone connected in this world mobilizes for every business opened, at least that's how it feels to me, especially if it provides the The so-called goods. So you really do not need it. We built an audience that waited years, I did not feel comfortable selling dessert before this place opened, I did not feel I was good enough to do it, and now I feel and experience this love from people and it is amazing. "

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" Yes, I think you should Gain some experience. It's awfully hard for me to see people who have just finished school start selling desserts, it sounds delusional to me, how can you afford to do such a thing? ".

"At the end of the day we do what we love, and make it look the way we want, and we want to develop this field in the country. I really refer to it as a mission, very Sisyphean I must point out. There are half-hour cakes of icing and things. Our puff pastry, it The longest process in the world, it's a dough that takes 3 days to make. It's tough, and we had a thought to stop making it because it was so complex but the staff really insisted on it, and was not willing to give it up. "Why did I do that? A roller coaster."

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