2024-02-20 11:58:44
When they say timing is everything in life, they probably mean Chef Shaked Fahima. In as bad timing as only life in Israel can arrange, just as his restaurants were reopening, something happened that should not have happened. “Half of the cooks didn’t come, each with his own story, and there was atomic pressure in the kitchen. While on the phone and cooking, I slipped and broke my left hand. For two months I couldn’t work. I just watched from above, added personnel and plucked the white hairs that came out.”
>> The beloved fish sauce has left the Carmel market. The prices of the market remained
A small jump in time and a recalculation of the route. He continues to believe in the Carmel market, where his four kosher food businesses are concentrated (the meat restaurant Dua, the dairy Hula Hula, the fried fish stand Fish and Chips Market and a space for private events), but he follows the paths of great and veterans who have already made the transition to street food. Dua will open next week as Dua Burger, and the event space is already launching delivery pizzas. Flexibility is the order of the hour.
A change of direction with a good smell. Hula Pizza. Photo: Yonatan Ben Haim
Nowadays flexibility means hamburger. Fahima renovated the restaurant and adapted it to the new concept, and if there are no surprises in a week and a half you can eat “a basic but most delicious hamburger in the world” at his place. Pieces of meat from nearby butchers (“Everything I buy for my restaurants comes from the market, to help my friends who are also in a difficult situation”), will be ground daily and turned into a patty that will be served with homemade sauces, truffle aioli and red wine sauce and pearl onions for example. To the obvious question of why a hamburger, since the city is flooded with meatballs, Fahima answers simply that “there are almost no places for a hamburger in the market and I’m the only one who makes a kosher hamburger.”
Photo: Yonatan Ben Haim
A similar twist in the plot happens in the events space, which is located in front of Hula Hula: in order to take advantage of the daylight hours, a stone oven was placed in the kitchen, according to the standard of a pizzeria that operates only on deliveries. The menu offers Neapolitan-style sourdough pizzas with a mixture of hot peppers, basil and parmesan; confit garlic, kalamata olives and cherry candies; and white pizza with truffle cream sauce and cheeses (NIS 67-85) as well as starters, pasta dishes and fish. On days when there are no events, the pizzas will be added to the menu of the restaurant across the street as special dishes.
Are there any events at all? Do people come to the restaurant?
“There is plenty, thank God. People tell me, ‘We are hurt and angry and we have no strength, but if we don’t manage to disconnect for a while and free our souls, Hamas has won.’ Shocked. He said he needed this switch, even for an hour or two.”
A remnant from another era. Photo: Yonatan Ben Haim
How do you hold four food businesses in wartime?
“It’s not easy at all,” he replies with a bitter smile. “You have to feel the staff, everyone with their craziness and anger and what they’re going through during this time. Hula Hula is a happy restaurant with music and atmosphere and there are people that don’t suit them. The customers for their part deserve the release.”
Did you receive compensation from the state?
“Not yet, I just made sure to conduct myself properly. If I hadn’t put money aside, two of the businesses would have closed for sure. And this is money I saved to open more places. The few good days are not enough to last, and that is true for everyone. There is no one I talk to or share with . Traffic in the market has decreased drastically, but I don’t plan to stop. The customers’ smiles and compliments are my fuel.”
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