The secrets, the plans, the openings: behind the scenes of the Mahaniuda empire - voila! Food

Makhaniuda's chefs in the academy kitchen: Uri Navon, Assaf Granit, Michael Perry and Eliezer Mizrahi (Photo: Walla! System, Ronit Avidan-Sheinfeld)

13 years ago, in 2009 to be exact, three Jerusalem chefs got together, and against everything they were told, especially by very concerned family members, they opened a restaurant in the city where they grew up, the most complex city in the country, some would say in the world.

And if that's not enough, they also chose to open it in the heart of the market, near the stalls, close to the beggars and the street vendors, not exactly a respectable place to open a chef's restaurant.

Almost all of us know what happened next, the Makhaniuda restaurant of Assaf Granit, Uri Navon and Yossi Elad became overnight the shining star in the culinary scene of the capital city.

Before long, more and more restaurants began to open in the market complex, as well as street food stalls, small bars and cafes.

Food tours began to pop up and fill the streets and alleys, and old Jerusalem restaurants also began to enjoy renewed recognition.

Morning pastries at Zemach restaurant.

A pastry shop was established that supplies all the pastries every day to the group's restaurants (Photo: Walla! System, Ronit Avidan-Sheinfeld)

A culinary empire

The restaurant in the heart of the market that has become synonymous with fresh and colorful market food that requires a few glasses of arak, drumming on pans and pots and above all a sea of ​​joy in the heart, established itself as a group and it sent its arms towards other places.

If you are also not sure which restaurants the Jerusalem Machaniuda group is controlling today, that's fine, it's really hard to keep track.

Some of the restaurants that opened in the early years of the group, such as the romantic Mona and the Talvia coffee shop and wine bar, spread their own wings and chefs who grew up under the group continued on an independent path.

Others are an integral part of its DNA to this day, such as Yodel'a - the small bar right across from the mother restaurant, the Dekal 3 also in the same neighborhood, a kind of members' club for those in the know, and of course also the steak house restaurant Hassana.

Two years ago, Zemach Restaurant opened for the first time, a vegetarian restaurant where you will find, in addition to wonderful plant-based dishes, one of the best breakfasts in the city, which includes, among other things, an impressive counter full of baked and stuffed pastries, sweet and savory, including a divine butter pastry filled with the famous polenta.

The one who kept them above water at the beginning of the corona virus, they say, was actually their sandwich stand, the Gigi Kovala, also located within a radius of the market, and until recently it also had a twin in Tel Aviv's Sarona Market, but it closed very recently.

A year ago, the group surprised again, when they opened the Tiberiani Lota, their first restaurant, in a hotel at the foot of the Sea of ​​Galilee.

And that's even before we started talking about the group's restaurants that have been opened over the years overseas and are receiving praise - "Palomar", the "Barbary" and "Call Office" in London and "Balan", "Tex" and "Shavor" in Paris.

We were only recently informed that "Balan" was closed due to a conflict with the local partners and is expected to reopen as a new project, while "Shavor" holds the coveted Michelin star for the second year in a row.

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The two holding the reins.

Assaf Granit and Uri Navon receive a Michelin for Shavor restaurant in Paris (Photo: Network 13 PR)

Are you tired?

Assaf Granit and Uri Navon are still holding the reins after Yossi Elad left about six years ago, and they really show no signs of fatigue.

They continue to gallop forward together with a large team of chefs, pastry chefs, kitchen workers, waiters, hostesses and managers who have long since become one big family.

In order to hold the entire empire to the group's high standards, a large logistics kitchen and pastry shop were also opened about five years ago in the market complex.

In the pastry shop, doughs for all the pastries and cakes of the group's restaurants are opened and removed every day - from Kovna to miniature manti pouches, rolled rogelach and puff pastry.

From the logistics kitchen, the raw materials, the hinges and the bases for most of the dishes of the Jerusalem restaurants come out in an orderly manner every day.

"The logistics kitchen is what allowed us to grow the restaurants in the market area," Navon explains.

"It relieves the chef of the logistical problems and gives him the ability to focus on the kitchen and develop new dishes. The dream of many chefs."

In the center of the space in the academy is a large hospitality table and adjacent to it is an intimate and open kitchen (photo: Walla! system, Ronit Avidan-Sheinfeld)

The Institute for Machaniuda Studies

In a side alley behind the Mahaniuda restaurant, the academy opened in recent months.

Do not make the mistake of thinking that the members of the group opened an institution for higher studies, yet the academy did not get its name for nothing.

"The academy was born because we needed a large and pleasant space with an attached kitchen where we could train our teams. Both these are language and teams for restaurants abroad who come here for training.

Here they will learn everything, from the happy culture of hospitality that characterizes the group to the preparation of the food served in the restaurants," Navon explains to us how the unofficial 'institution' for studies from Hanioda suddenly grew.

"Before the corona virus," says Navon, "we had permanent staff members who worked in the group for years, literally part of the family. When occasional trainings were needed, we would do them in the Yodel's kitchen at six in the morning. The corona virus played the cards. It caused a large departure and replacement of 80 percent of the staff members. We had to start training a large amount of people and that's how the academy was actually born. But our goal is to host here not only staff members but also guests from outside. Conduct workshops, tour the market and give a glimpse behind the scenes to those who want to stay with us privately ".

The kind of academies we are willing to continue with for a doctorate.

Opening cocktail at the Academy (photo: Walla! system, Ronit Avidan-Sheinfeld)

Private hospitality and a peek behind the scenes

Here too, as in the other places of the group, the feeling of warmth and home immediately spreads.

The not very large space of the academy is decorated in a pleasant eclecticism and in the center is a large and arranged table with a multitude of small saucers filled with different types of pickles and pickles.

Adjacent to it is an intimate and open kitchen, one that allows cooking in front of the diners or together with them, if they so desire, and also an impressive alcoholic bar managed by the group's mixologist.

The first cocktail was poured into the glasses, this time it was a cocktail of vodka cooked with celeriac sous vide and given a wonderful spicy taste.

Then there are trays on which small bellinis are arranged with gaberdalaks and tartlets with smoked trout.

In the same glass in which we drank the cocktail, a delicate garnished consommé was poured with tiny peppermint sachets that gets the aroma of the cocktail that was there before.

Now after the reception you can go on a tour of the market.

a culinary experience.

Mahaniuda's event and workshop space (Photo: Noa Ben Hamo)

Up to 16 people can be accommodated here directly, it can be a meal only, but if you have already arrived at the academy it is worth combining the meal with a tour of the market where the members of the group will take you to all their favorite stalls and you can also have a cooking workshop or a workshop on any other culinary topic the group.

When we return from the tour, different dishes will already begin to flow on the table alongside matching wines.

For example, kovna filled with Turkish spinach or Orfali chiga;

Roasted beets coated in coarse salt over blanco meadow cream;

salad with 36 different types of green leaves in a blush vinaigrette and pomegranate concentrate;

Delicate manto pockets filled with oxtail in a wonderful sour yogurt stone soup or red tuna fillet wrapped in beef fat served with veal almonds and huge mushroom skewers.

Each stay at the academy is built and adjusted according to the guests' request, and if you don't want to become part of the group later, at least you've had a delicious and enriching culinary experience.

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