Q&A: HaSalon Celebrates Their 1-Year Anniversary

Eyal Shani, Jeff Zalaznick, & Mario Carbone

Miami Beach, FL – November 17, 2022 –  Major Food Group (MFG) joined forces with Chef Eyal Shani – partner and world’s greatest master of Mediterranean cuisine, to celebrate their one-year anniversary, where he unveiled his new menu on Thursday and Friday of this week. The renowned Israeli restaurant founded in Tel Aviv, offered guests a perfect evening to experience Chef Eyal Shani’s brilliant cooking and warm hospitality, with an irresistible vibe that make HaSalon a restaurant like no other – and perfect for the city of Miami.

World Red Eye went behind the scenes with Chef Eyal Shani to get an exclusive first look at the new menu and the inspiration behind it. Read the full Q&A below.

Jonah Resnick & Eyal Shani

WRE: What inspired you to become a Chef?

Eyal Shani: I understand that food is a promise, a hope, and one of the best parts of the day. I recognized that through food you can touch the hearts of so many people. I found that out through food, I can change the way that people are working together and teach thousands of my workers a better way to live their lives.

WRE: How did your upbringing inspire the menu and concept?

ES: For me, you can’t learn about food just from food, it’s only one ingredient in the whole recipe of creating an experience made out of food, food is not my final address, people are, the interaction between them and the food. Food has unending depths, it’s a thing for life and you can never reach the final point. I can see a movement of a dancer, listening to somebody that is saying to me something that is lightening my heart, to feel the smell of the air, the color of the sky, the movement of the sea waves…and I am taking all this to my food.

Jonah Resnick & Eyal Shani

Jonah Resnick & Eyal Shani

Eyal Shani

It’s a very pure, brutal but elegant version of Mediterranean cuisine.

Eyal Shani

Eyal Shani

Eyal Shani

Neil Elliman, Stephanie & Jules Trump, Eyal Shani, & Moshe Ziv

WRE: Can you tell us the concept behind HaSalon?

ES: HaSalon is based on Mediterranean cuisine with some middle eastern perfumes. It’s a very personal cuisine that I created and evolved for the last 35 years and it became the frame of the new Israeli cuisine. It’s a very pure, brutal but elegant version of Mediterranean cuisine. The food is pure and naked, no seasoning but olive oil and Atlantic salt. The team is based on an idea that each one of them is a creator by its own and not a part of a machine. Real freshness is one of my biggest roles, dishes must express this, the life and the energy that creatures are carrying with them. Because of the big movement of the menu it puts the chefs under a big risk and calls to them a lot of attention and focus, they have to understand this movement. The food is carrying so much energy that it is absorbing into our audience and making them climb on the tables, and in the end, dance like crazy. The Salon was made for the world’s capital cities, the first one was established in Tel Aviv 16 years ago. Now there is one in NYC, one in Miami, Ibiza, and a newborn that it’s going to come in one month to Paris.

WRE: Why did you open HaSalon in Miami Beach?

ES: Because it’s a place of freedom, of the sea and sun, and the opportunity to work with the best partners that I can dream of, Mario and Jeff from Major Group.

WRE: It is the one year Anniversary of the opening, how do you look back over the past year?

ES: I feel that this year I had the chance to feel and begin to understand this amazing place. It takes some time to recognize the deepness of the layers and much more time to understand it. From day to day I am becoming more excited about that place. This year that has passed was my first birthday here and I know that so many others are waiting for me…

WRE: What are some of the signature menu items?

ES: There are many…I have invented a whole cuisine. The heroes are tomato sashimi, the grouper carpaccio, my whole roasted cauliflower, my grouper that is backed in the oven with wild vegetables and Burgundy wine. My slow cooked lamb, my General salad from the sparks of creation. My focaccia, pizza, and much more…

WRE: How does Miami influence the menu? How is this location different from your other locations? 

ES: Miami is living on the edge of American culture that is touching the edge of South American culture. This makes such a strong vibration of something that is trying to shape itself. There are so many cultures that are meeting here.

Food has unending depths … you can never reach the final point.

Eyal Shani