Being Jewish with Jonah Platt

[00:00:00] Jonah Platt: One of the key tenets of this program is the idea that we all deserve to live as our full, authentic selves. Usually, I'm speaking in the context of Jewish identity, but we are all multifaceted humans, and I guarantee you that many of us have other aspects of our identity that we continue to either conceal or with which we are not yet fully in line.

[00:00:21] Jonah Platt: Today, I want to share with you my journey of self discovery that brought me into alignment as my full authentic self for the first time in a long time. Not because I have a burning desire to talk about myself, but because, as always, I hope my words maybe knock a little something loose in your brain that just needed a little nudge.

[00:00:41] Jonah Platt: Let's start somewhere Jewish, that being the theme of this show and all. From age 2 to age 13, I attended Jewish day school, and the experience was a mixed bag, to say the least. When I had challenging and empathetic teachers, I thrived. When I had rigid and overwhelmed teachers, I thrived. I got into [00:01:00] trouble.

[00:01:01] Jonah Platt: My parents and teachers chalked this up to a combined lack of intellectual stimulation and an inability to control myself, which was very bad indeed. By the time I graduated 8th grade, I had received 30 detentions, two suspensions, been compared to a Nazi by the Judaic Studies Director, and received one in school suspension, a punishment they made up just for me on my very last day of school before graduation.

[00:01:28] Jonah Platt: Fast forward to 2023. 15 years into my never ending struggle to achieve success in the entertainment industry. Jumping from writing, to acting, to music, to producing. Always trying to have as many balls in the air as possible. And yet, I was in a constant state of feeling disappointed in myself. Why wasn't I more prolific?

[00:01:47] Jonah Platt: Why wasn't I breaking through? How would I ever reach my full potential? If I tried something else, wouldn't that make me a loser, a quitter, a coward? Around this time, my son, who had been having clear impulse control issues [00:02:00] from age two, was diagnosed with ADHD. They don't actually distinguish it from ADD anymore, it's all ADHD now.

[00:02:07] Jonah Platt: His diagnosis brought great relief for me and my wife, weekly shout out to Courtney. We began to learn all the different ways ADHD could manifest. How so many things that we might chalk up to rudeness or forgetfulness or defiance were in fact just symptoms of a condition over which my little boy has little control.

[00:02:25] Jonah Platt: I recognized a lot of myself when I saw my kid, and that realization, on top of the strong urge I had to find more achievement in my own life, Led me to get tested for ADHD and wouldn't you know it? I've got it, too. And while I appreciated having that new knowledge I didn't really put any effort into trying to understand what it meant.

[00:02:45] Jonah Platt: So it didn't do me much good. In fact, as the year went on my mental state continued to deteriorate. I'd always felt I lacked purpose. What am I supposed to do with my life? Who am I supposed to be? And with those existential questions turning [00:03:00] over and over in my mind, I I always felt like my life was lacking, despite it being so full with so many blessings.

[00:03:08] Jonah Platt: Things came to a head during the summer. I was in a constant state of frustration. My meter always at 99, so the tiniest thing would push me right to 100. Nothing felt worthwhile. I didn't seek out any of the things that bring me joy. I wasn't getting work. Everything was just going through the motions, hollow.

[00:03:26] Jonah Platt: After I lost my temper one too many times over nothing, nothing. Nothing. My wife and I both demanded that something had to change in me immediately. So, I made three major changes, and almost overnight, I became a totally different person, in the best way. The first change was medication. Sweet, sweet Sertraline, baby.

[00:03:47] Jonah Platt: Overnight, my impulsivity was curbed and the temperature on my temper turned all the way down. I can't overstate how amazing it feels to not have impulsivity getting in the way of the person I truly am. [00:04:00] The second change was that, at my wife's urging, I got serious about trying to understand my ADHD.

[00:04:05] Jonah Platt: Most of us who don't know any better think of it as a condition that's exclusive to kids who can't sit still in school. Not super meaningful to an adult who has done well professionally, has a family, all that. But boy, oh boy, as I dug into a book called The ADHD Effect on Marriage by Melissa Orlov, we discovered that so many facets of my core personality, including many of the behaviors I had been told were bad or made me bad, We're actually manifestations of my ADHD.

[00:04:32] Jonah Platt: When I forget to lower the garage door, it's not because I don't care about my family's safety, it's because between the time I open the garage door and think, I gotta remember to close that, and then get into my car four seconds later, I've already thought about twenty other things. So if I don't happen to notice the open door in my rear view, it never re enters my mind to close it.

[00:04:51] Jonah Platt: The trouble I have getting started on non preferred projects, it's not because I'm lazy or dumb, it's because people with ADHD have a hard time getting started on non [00:05:00] preferred projects. My impulsivity is not because I'm a bad person. It's because my brain moves really fast and doesn't produce enough dopamine and is constantly searching for stimuli.

[00:05:11] Jonah Platt: I also learned that some of my struggles could actually be superpowers. When Courtney calls my name and I don't answer, it's not because I'm ignoring her, but because I have hyper focus and can get into such a deep flow state that the world disappears. Understanding moments like these has been a huge win for both of us personally and for our marriage.

[00:05:32] Jonah Platt: Another fascinating one. ADHD brains don't employ hierarchical thinking the way non ADHD brains do. So while a regular brain sorts various tasks or details by order of importance, my brain treats everything as equally important. Which is why everything I've ever produced, from scripts to vocal arrangements to lyrics to this podcast, is so meticulously picked over and my standards set so high.[00:06:00]

[00:06:00] Jonah Platt: But what really blew my mind was Was reading the expansive list of ADHD symptoms, courtesy of Dr. Edward Halliwell. Things I had no idea were ADHD related. A sense of underachievement and insecurity, regardless of how much one has actually accomplished. Many projects going on simultaneously. Impulsivity.

[00:06:21] Jonah Platt: Inaccurate self observation. It was me to a T. The transformation was instantaneous. By realizing how much of my lifelong internal struggle was due to my own brain's erroneous view of myself, I was able to let go of that struggle and embrace myself in a way I never would have even considered. The last change was committing to the creation of this podcast.

[00:06:47] Jonah Platt: My ADHD told me I wasn't successful enough. That my worth was less because I hadn't reached a high enough height and that until I did, I would never realize my full potential and my life would be wasted. But once I [00:07:00] understood where these false ideas actually came from, I stopped believing them. I realized that so much of the turmoil I'd been experiencing was due to the internal conflict between my mind, which told me I had to keep my foot on the gas of entertainment at all costs, and my heart, which told me there was a pursuit far more significant and potentially impactful waiting for me if I would only take it up.

[00:07:22] Jonah Platt: Rather than spend an afternoon prepping an audition for a four line role on The Rookie, I could spend that time trying to empower and educate folks about the modern experience of being Jewish. Understanding my ADHD allowed me to release myself from the shackles of unfair expectations and step gratefully into the role I was meant to play all along.

[00:07:44] Jonah Platt: You know, I actually always hated when people shared stories like mine because it's not like anyone is trying to be spiritually misaligned. I had to organically stumble into my situation after lots of struggling, so just because I can say, hey, do this and you'll feel great, doesn't necessarily [00:08:00] help you in any way.

[00:08:01] Jonah Platt: Your circumstances are your own, but I do feel there is a universal truth at play here. Your gut, your instinct, your inner voice, your soul, your intuition, your divine spark, whatever you want to call it, is always right. We do our damnedest to ignore it, to allow our brains, or our emotions, or the brains and emotions of other people to drown out the wisdom that's already there, feeling out of alignment, bereft of the ease that comes from inhabiting your full authentic self.

[00:08:33] Jonah Platt: Is your insight telling you that there are warring factions at play within you? Recognize this. Examine it. Tease out the intuition from the impulse, the natural from the noise, the push towards salvation from the pull of fear and doubt. As the ghost of Babe Ruth says in The Sandlot, Follow your heart, kid, and you'll never go wrong.

[00:08:55] Jonah Platt: So follow yours. And when you do, I'll be here, waiting to wish [00:09:00] you an enthusiastic mazel tov, waiting at least until my brain needs more dopamine and I gotta go do something else. But you get it, because you at last are you, and I'm just being me. This is the 13th episode of Being Jewish, with me, Jonah Platt.

[00:09:44] Jonah Platt: Folks, if you don't already have a snack handy to enjoy during the episode, now would be a good time to grab one. Because today, I'm in Philadelphia, sitting down with arguably the most well known ambassador of Israeli cuisine in the world. Check out these numbers. By the end of this year, he'll have nine [00:10:00] restaurants open.

[00:10:00] Jonah Platt: He's a four time cookbook co author and a five time James Beard award winner, including Outstanding Restaurant for his flagship Zahav, the first Israeli American restaurant to win the honor, and where I absolutely demolished dinner last night. We are not cooking today, but I'm hoping he'll still bring us some food for thought.

[00:10:18] Jonah Platt: Please welcome Chef Michael Solomonov.

[00:10:21] Michael Solomonov: Thank you so much, man.

[00:10:22] Jonah Platt: On this weekend of all weekends, your son's bar mitzvah was this weekend. Yeah. Here you are. How was that?

[00:10:27] Michael Solomonov: It was very emotional. It was like, my son is named after my, uh, brother David, uh, who, you know, died, um, In the IDF, he was killed in the IDF.

[00:10:40] Michael Solomonov: And so like, it was, I think it meant a lot to my family to be there to be able to celebrate him as well. So yeah, it was great, man. It was great. You haven't done any Bar Mitzvahs yet, right?

[00:10:48] Jonah Platt: Not for my kids. No, my oldest is five. Yes. You got some time. My nephew has Bar Mitzvahed this past year. How did it go?

[00:10:54] Jonah Platt: He's like the first of that generation. It was amazing. It's just what you described, you know, so nice to have everybody [00:11:00] together, celebratory, now more than ever.

[00:11:03] Michael Solomonov: Totally. Well, I think that that is, You know, something obviously you talk about all the time, which is like the most Jewish thing, which is like to, you know, Jews are great at like grieving.

[00:11:13] Michael Solomonov: We are great at mourning. We are great at eating. We are great at celebrating and all those things come with very good food, right? Yeah. Well,

[00:11:20] Jonah Platt: certainly at your gatherings, I'd imagine. Well, my

[00:11:22] Michael Solomonov: gatherings, but you know, it's like, so we had the, uh, owner of Rodden's deli who, uh, used to own four street famous four street, um, which you probably, I don't think so.

[00:11:30] Michael Solomonov: Oh, it was on fourth and Bainbridge. It's still there. Uh, he's sold it, but. Russ Cowan is like a multi generation Delhi man. And my mom, who passed away eight years ago, but is buried in Israel, um, lived in Israel the last 20 years, 20 years of her life. Every time she would come to Philly to visit us, she would get Delhi.

[00:11:51] Michael Solomonov: Cause like, Deli in Israel sucks, right? Not good. Not what everybody out there is thinking.

[00:11:56] Jonah Platt: That's it, right, because they don't, they don't have the, the good livestock, right?

[00:11:59] Michael Solomonov: Yeah, [00:12:00] it's not good deli. And so my mom, she would come to Philly and get hot fudge sundaes at Franklin Fountain and wolf down these giant pastrami and like chopped liver sandwiches.

[00:12:09] Michael Solomonov: Now she weighed like 90 pounds. I don't know.

[00:12:12] Jonah Platt: Good metabolism.

[00:12:13] Michael Solomonov: How she did it. Thank God. She was also like a very heavy smoker, but, um, she like, just loved this deli. And so on her, um, birthday, my ex wife, my wife, my kids, we all have, which is on Christmas Eve, we all go to this deli and we get pastrami sandwiches.

[00:12:32] Michael Solomonov: And so I asked Russ, I was like, listen, man, I know that you don't cater. It's my son's bar mitzvah. We like your, uh, Cooking your deli is like part of our life. And so he catered it. That's so

[00:12:44] Jonah Platt: cool And I saw you posted online the Shabbat dinner for the weekend was that fuss 75 exactly exactly. Tell me how that happened I

[00:12:51] Michael Solomonov: lived in South Philly for a very long time my Sons and my daughter like, you know, their first meals and restaurants were at pho Everybody [00:13:00] in Philly in the chef community eats at pho 75.

[00:13:03] Michael Solomonov: It's an amazing experience Place. I don't know if you've been there yet. Hot tip

[00:13:06] Jonah Platt: everybody. 575

[00:13:07] Michael Solomonov: on 12th and Washington is the best breakfast, lunch and dinner you will ever have. I get the number nine or number 14 small meat on top. Amazing.

[00:13:16] Jonah Platt: That's awesome. Very

[00:13:17] Michael Solomonov: nonchalant. I know people probably expect me to have like multi course whatever, but that's just not in the cards, man.

[00:13:24] Jonah Platt: Yeah. Was there a lot of cooking in your house growing up?

[00:13:27] Michael Solomonov: Yeah. Yeah. There was a lot of cooking in my house. Um, my, both my parents were really good cooks. We didn't eat in restaurants very often. Uh, and so she did most of the cooking and it was phenomenal. Yeah.

[00:13:38] Jonah Platt: What was her like go to cuisine or style?

[00:13:42] Michael Solomonov: Even though we were not, we were very secular. Shabbat dinner was still kind of a thing.

[00:13:46] Jonah Platt: Oh yeah.

[00:13:47] Michael Solomonov: And so like, fresh challah. And like the brisket or the roast chicken or like the, you know, rice pilaf or like when my grandmother would visit from Israel, which was like every Other year, it was like boricas and [00:14:00] schnitzel and like all that stuff.

[00:14:02] Michael Solomonov: So Food was very important in our households Um, we were not fancy eaters and like we probably ate chicken like four nights out of the week

[00:14:10] Jonah Platt: What were some of the dishes that you really looked forward to having

[00:14:13] Michael Solomonov: growing up? My israeli grandmother would make the most incredible stuffed peppers that my mom uh sort of learned how to make and so stuffed peppers were like Big I mean even when I was like

[00:14:23] Jonah Platt: beef

[00:14:24] Michael Solomonov: Beef and rice.

[00:14:25] Michael Solomonov: Yeah. Or sometimes just rice, but like beef and rice. My grandmother would use like green pepper. She was like frugal or whatever. So green pepper, we grew up with like green peppers, you know, and um, I didn't know they were

[00:14:35] Jonah Platt: cheaper than the red, cheaper

[00:14:36] Michael Solomonov: than red. And they are also delicious, but like, again, not as like fancy as red, but that kind of stuff I really enjoyed.

[00:14:43] Michael Solomonov: Periodically we would get like lamb chops. We had some

[00:14:47] Jonah Platt: lamb chops on the grill.

[00:14:48] Michael Solomonov: So good. The thing is my parents worked a ton. My mom was like a teacher at a Solomon Schechter school. My dad was a jeweler and then owned like a subway sandwich place. And so my parents [00:15:00] worked like very, very hard, you know, and, but priority to them was still home cooked meals all the time.

[00:15:08] Michael Solomonov: And it's so, I mean, I, work nights, you know, but Sunday, Monday and Tuesdays, I really try to be at home. And like only since COVID have I discovered how much I love not just the act of cooking in my home, not with like a professional kitchen, but really like cooking for my family. And again, that sounds like so cliched, but it is so meaningful.

[00:15:30] Jonah Platt: You're talking about growing up. You were born in Israel, but you do, do you mostly feel like your childhood was in the States?

[00:15:36] Michael Solomonov: So my childhood was in the States. I was born in Israel. We moved to Pittsburgh when I was three. My mom grew up in, uh, East Liverpool, Ohio. And then When, whatever, after college or whatever, she made Aliyah, met my dad, and then they moved to the States, uh, after they had me.

[00:15:55] Michael Solomonov: So from three to like 15, we grew up in Squirrel Hill, Pittsburgh, [00:16:00] which is kind of a shtetl to, like Squirrel Hill is, I grew up thinking that most American cities had people speaking Yiddish in the streets.

[00:16:08] Jonah Platt: Wow.

[00:16:08] Michael Solomonov: It was very cool. We moved to Israel. And then I was there for one year in boarding school in this place in a town called Pardeskhana.

[00:16:16] Michael Solomonov: And when I got back to the States, I was like, something doesn't feel right. Like I'm very American, right. But I don't feel like I totally belong here. But when I'm over there, I'm like I need somebody to be polite, even if it's bullshit, like just say, you know, just, just bring it for a second down. I mean, that's in for my identity.

[00:16:36] Michael Solomonov: Obviously that is my identity. And also as it relates to like bringing Israeli food to the U S it kind of. You know, it sort of fits like I have a foot in the door kind of in both places and I'm not totally comfortable in either. But it was a really like incredible time. Statistically, you're much safer over there than you are here.

[00:16:56] Michael Solomonov: Right. As a 15 year old, we could like hitchhike to like Caesarea, [00:17:00] go to Jerusalem for the weekend. Every other weekend we could be off campus and we could, we would just try to get as far as we could with like 50 shekels. Every time I go back, people are still like, well, don't you feel unsafe? And I'm like, dude, I live in Philly, bro.

[00:17:14] Michael Solomonov: Like the likelihood of me getting murdered. Outside of the studio way greater even now than totally

[00:17:21] Jonah Platt: so you mentioned your brother Yeah was killed while serving in the idf. Yes, your older younger brother younger younger brother

[00:17:27] Michael Solomonov: Yeah,

[00:17:27] Jonah Platt: I don't think people realize how common that is to be israeli and have someone close to you Have been killed in some conflict or some war well

[00:17:35] Michael Solomonov: memorial day over there is very different than here here There's like sales on electronics and people go to the beach and over there Every single person is affected Right.

[00:17:45] Michael Solomonov: So it's a very different thing. And over there, there's mandatory draft here. Most of our people don't know what that means. And uh, yeah, David was, um, killed by Hezbollah snipers. He was in Metula, [00:18:00] which is the northern most sort of town. Right at the

[00:18:02] Jonah Platt: top. Yeah.

[00:18:03] Michael Solomonov: In an apple orchard. And, uh, he was killed by Hezbollah snipers that fired through the border that were in Lebanon, um, on October 6th, which happened to be Yom Kippur that year.

[00:18:16] Michael Solomonov: So it was like three days before his release, too. Oh, man. Yeah, it was a drag.

[00:18:20] Jonah Platt: How did that impact the trajectory that you were on?

[00:18:23] Michael Solomonov: Changed everything.

[00:18:24] Jonah Platt: In what way?

[00:18:25] Michael Solomonov: A month before he was killed, I had been working at Vetri Restaurant, which you've probably eaten at. Yes, which I've eaten at. In Philly. And Mark, um, At that time would close for the month of August, which is like a very Italian thing to do.

[00:18:39] Michael Solomonov: And, uh, it just, so right before your release in the idea, if you get like a break and it's so happened that they coincided. So my mom bought me a plane ticket under the condition that I would cook dinner for friends. And I flew over and David and I hung out for like three weeks together. And like, we'd been living on different continents.

[00:18:58] Michael Solomonov: for years. So it [00:19:00] was really meaningful. And I had become kind of a chef and David was serving in Golan, like an infantry, you know, he was a sniper in Golani brigade. And so we had very different lives and it was, there's no like younger or older. We were just like very close and like, It was like this realization that I had like discovered my best friend, you know, and so we had spent three weeks shopping around the country betting, getting food so I could cook dinner for my mom's friends, going to like clubs and hanging out at the beach and just like really, you know, I just have a lot of gratitude for that.

[00:19:33] Michael Solomonov: That was the first thing my mom said when I spoke to her after, you know, she called the first thing she said was, I'm just so, you know, so happy you guys had that time together because, uh, it was incredibly meaningful. So after his funeral, I came back to the States and like whatever feeling I had coming back from boarding school, it was that times a hundred.

[00:19:57] Michael Solomonov: How do you relate to people in the States? [00:20:00] What do people know here about siblings getting killed in the military? Especially where we live in the north. We have no relationship to that. What do people know about borders? I mean, a terrorist organization under condition of like either ceasefire or withdrawal from Israel should have been north of the Latani River and next to UN peacekeepers.

[00:20:25] Michael Solomonov: We're firing across an international border at Israeli soldiers, right? My brother. Killed by three snipers. And I guess, since we're getting real right now, where's the fucking outrage?

[00:20:41] Jonah Platt: Yeah.

[00:20:41] Michael Solomonov: Right? Yeah. Nothing.

[00:20:43] Jonah Platt: Nothing.

[00:20:43] Michael Solomonov: And so I think it's very difficult. And again, we don't have to get very political about this.

[00:20:49] Michael Solomonov: But as you can imagine, it's very difficult to come back and relate to people after that.

[00:20:54] Jonah Platt: Totally. Nobody

[00:20:55] Michael Solomonov: knows what that means. Right. My friends They have

[00:20:57] Jonah Platt: a lot of opinions, but they don't really know what it means.

[00:20:59] Michael Solomonov: [00:21:00] Well, it's funny. They have a lot of opinions now, but at the time it was just like, Oh, we're terrible.

[00:21:05] Michael Solomonov: We're like, wow, that's really fucked up. How could that have happened? And I didn't even ask you if I could swear on your show. You can't. Okay. You're good to go. Excellent. Yeah. But so I think that people didn't really want to touch it. But even when I talk about my brother right now, I mean, people are like, well, you know, IDF soldier.

[00:21:19] Michael Solomonov: And I'm like, what? Think about, think about how the U S would tolerate something like this. Right. Right. Think about what the outrage would be. And so at the time my brother should have been alive. I mean, it was three days before his release. And, um, you know, I remember the apple farmer. So he's killed in basically in an apple orchard and the farmer, um, uh, Moshe, who has since passed away, but brought this bushel of apples to the Sheba and it was like, they were so sweet, you know, and that part of the country is just, you know, Shockingly beautiful.

[00:21:53] Michael Solomonov: And there was, it's right by the good fence. So there was a time where Lebanese citizens were in Israel, like working, or there was an open, not [00:22:00] exactly an open border, but it was like chill. Right. You know?

[00:22:03] Jonah Platt: Right.

[00:22:03] Michael Solomonov: And so it was, this was before the war with Lebanon in 2006, before the Israeli soldiers got taken hostage and before ultimately, um, on condition of a ceasefire, there should have been another withdrawal to north of the Latani river, which has also never happened.

[00:22:19] Michael Solomonov: But so it is, um, Yeah. I mean, it changed everything. I didn't really understand how something, how this sort of land that produced these incredibly sweet apples could also have this sort of like stain of like my brother's blood and spirit. And, and it was just a hard thing to sort of explain to people here.

[00:22:39] Michael Solomonov: Listen, think about the border crisis that we talk about here in the States.

[00:22:42] Jonah Platt: Yeah.

[00:22:43] Michael Solomonov: Very different. Canada, Mexico. Completely different. Very different.

[00:22:48] Jonah Platt: Canadian snipers.

[00:22:49] Michael Solomonov: Exactly. So I, I came back. And I, I was the sous chef at battery. And a few months later we would close for [00:23:00] like Christmas and new years. Um, and I wanted to go back and cook for my brother's army unit.

[00:23:05] Michael Solomonov: Which was still in Matula, which is an old British mandate base. And I told Mark Vetri, and he's like, I'm going to come with you and cook. Wow. You know, which was like hilarious. Cause he was also like, let's roast a suckling pig. And I was like, you're not going to let us do that. You know? And then he was like, we'll make us a bucco.

[00:23:22] Michael Solomonov: And I was like, yeah, right. So we made like schnitzel for, you know, 250 of my brother's soldiers. And he was about to get released. So like he was the sort of veteran. So everybody there knew him and really it's amazing to, to Learned about him sort of afterwards. I mean, he was really a great, great guy. And so we cooked this meal and Mark, um, just looked on the drive up, even he looked like a zombie and I was like, dude, why didn't you sleep?

[00:23:49] Michael Solomonov: And he was like, I was on one of those like birthright planes. And it was just like kids like getting fucked up all the time. And so he looked like a zombie. And then we cooked this [00:24:00] meal. And, uh, my brother's commander is like, we're driving around the border and then we cook this amazing meal. And at the end of it, he looked like super emotional.

[00:24:10] Michael Solomonov: Right. And I was like, dude, are you okay? And he was like, you know, this morning I was surrounded by these like 20 year old American kids that were going on this like free vacation. And now,

[00:24:26] Michael Solomonov: you know, now I'm like surrounded by these like 20 year old Israeli kids like your brother that are in uniform. covered in mud that have five minutes to eat before they have to go out and like defend a country.

[00:24:38] Jonah Platt: Yeah.

[00:24:38] Michael Solomonov: And it just was like, so, um, you know, even 21 years later, it's still very emotional, right?

[00:24:47] Michael Solomonov: I totally understand. And so for me, I was like, now he gets it. And Mark grew up Jewish American, had been to Israel once before that. But didn't, wasn't affected the way he [00:25:00] was then. And I was like, you know, I can't. Like I need to figure out how to become closer to my brother and it's fucking hard because he's not around now, you know, so after that, um, my business partner, my current business partner, Steve, it's like one of my best friends.

[00:25:18] Michael Solomonov: Nice.

[00:25:18] Jonah Platt: I

[00:25:18] Michael Solomonov: kept hearing about him because he was the other Jewish line cook in Philadelphia.

[00:25:22] Jonah Platt: Uh huh. Right.

[00:25:23] Michael Solomonov: And so I met Steve Cook and Steve hired me to be the chef of Marigold Kitchen.

[00:25:28] Jonah Platt: Yes. On

[00:25:29] Michael Solomonov: 45th Street.

[00:25:29] Jonah Platt: Which I frequented with my college girlfriend. Shout out to Rachel. Hope you're doing great. Yeah.

[00:25:35] Michael Solomonov: Rachel's doing just fine.

[00:25:37] Jonah Platt: It was fantastic. I loved that place. It was a BYO, which when you're in college, that's, you know. You could bring in a box of wine. Yeah. Exactly. Bring me a Carla Rossi or your Yellowtail. A cooking

[00:25:48] Michael Solomonov: Chablis.

[00:25:48] Jonah Platt: So. So you knew him before you got to Marigold. He brought you in.

[00:25:51] Michael Solomonov: I knew him.

[00:25:53] Michael Solomonov: Because he wanted a chef for marigold because he was stepping down and he hired me as a chef

[00:25:58] Jonah Platt: Okay, so that was your first real that [00:26:00] was my first

[00:26:01] Michael Solomonov: chef's job at my first like head chef job Mm hmm, and that was our first introduction Steve was like son and brother of a rabbi and was married to Shira who I knew from Squirrel Hill So that was like enough for me, right?

[00:26:15] Michael Solomonov: Yeah, and I guess it was enough for him to hire He's the chef too. And so Steve was cooking more like New American, but like very Ashkenazi heavy. And I cooked more, I guess, Sephardic or Mizrahi. And we got a bunch of accolades. And at some point I'd gone back to visit my family in Israel, which I did every year.

[00:26:34] Michael Solomonov: And like the experience of sitting down at a restaurant, having like 20 different salads, having the hummus, the laffa, the pita, the shippudim, everything cooked out of ash. That not only was like delicious, such an exciting way to eat, but also was so. Different than like what fancy chefs were doing in the States was amazing.

[00:26:57] Michael Solomonov: And it also explained the story of [00:27:00] Israeli cuisine kind of warts and all right. It was like dozens of diasporic Jewish, there was indigenous Palestinian, there was everything shooken up and just sort of spilled onto the table. And I was like, this, why are we not doing this? You know? And that was the sort of, uh, yeah.

[00:27:18] Michael Solomonov: The catalyst for opening Zahav.

[00:27:19] Jonah Platt: So you, you come back from that experience and these things have crystallized in your mind and you go to Steve, like, let's open a Israeli

[00:27:26] Michael Solomonov: restaurant. And Steve was like, fuck yeah, let's do it. You

[00:27:28] Jonah Platt: know, here we are seven restaurants later. And

[00:27:31] Michael Solomonov: 16 is 16 years old. 16 years.

[00:27:34] Michael Solomonov: That's like a hundred years.

[00:27:35] Jonah Platt: Yeah. You know, I, I, I was a Senior at Penn when it opened.

[00:27:38] Michael Solomonov: Yeah.

[00:27:39] Jonah Platt: So I remember it. Yeah. Let me just say about Zahav, I had like the greatest meal there last night. Thank you

[00:27:45] Michael Solomonov: so much.

[00:27:45] Jonah Platt: Every bite was better than the next. I mean, when you hear a restaurant so highly lauded, you're like, okay, let's, let's see what it's about.

[00:27:53] Michael Solomonov: It almost makes it harder to get people excited. Of course.

[00:27:55] Jonah Platt: But it's like, it totally delivers. It was [00:28:00] every bite of every, it was like the best cabbage dish I've ever had in the salad team. The pickled cabbage with the sumac. it's like, I don't eat cabbage and this was so good. And, uh, my favorite dish of all, I think was probably the oyster mushroom kebab.

[00:28:13] Michael Solomonov: Oh my God. Yeah. With the harissa and the dates. Yeah. It's

[00:28:16] Jonah Platt: like whatever it's soaked in that like makes it. It's like chickeny, right? Sweet umami. Kind of some spice, like all together, it was just, yeah, we had the best time. It makes me happy, man. Thank you. Get on the list. You got to get yourself there. If you haven't got a

[00:28:30] Michael Solomonov: call, we're going to put your cell phone number out here.

[00:28:32] Michael Solomonov: Yeah, there we go.

[00:28:33] Jonah Platt: Perfect. Yeah. What do you think it is about your approach to the cuisine that's elevated it to this level?

[00:28:39] Michael Solomonov: For us, it was really about, Uh, you know, in a way advocating for this country that is like, so continues to be so misunderstood.

[00:28:47] Jonah Platt: Yeah.

[00:28:47] Michael Solomonov: And I was like, listen, if people leave here and they turn on the TV and there's imagery or messaging about Israel, and this was.

[00:28:56] Michael Solomonov: It's actually way easier 16 years ago than it is [00:29:00] now. And they have this idea about Israel and they're like, but you know what, I ate at this Israeli place and like, it was cool. And I didn't, you know, find it to be problematic or whatever. If people can leave our restaurant and say, and how, you know, a better idea or something more positive to say about Israel, which is a country that they, let's face it, know nothing about.

[00:29:22] Michael Solomonov: I'm okay with that.

[00:29:23] Jonah Platt: You, you mentioned, you know, that you, you give credit to other cultures, cuisines that make their way into the Israeli cuisine. Yeah. How, how often are you hearing and how are you dealing with people being say, you know, Israeli food is appropriated from Palestinians. Well,

[00:29:38] Michael Solomonov: I guess there's like the truth, which is that it's fucking food.

[00:29:43] Michael Solomonov: Right? And like,

[00:29:45] Jonah Platt: what?

[00:29:46] Michael Solomonov: Yeah. I don't know. You're talking about pizza in LA. Do you think there are Italians that are like, no, you've stolen from us or what? I don't know. I mean, we could just go on and on. I think it's bullshit. You know, I think all of it, the older I get, the more I'm like, I just don't want to hear it.

[00:29:58] Michael Solomonov: Like, I don't know, [00:30:00] California and Texas were Mexico a hundred years before Israeli independence. You eat tacos there without people vandalizing your pizza. Fucking taco shop. Like I don't want to hear it.

[00:30:09] Jonah Platt: It's

[00:30:09] Michael Solomonov: stupid. Okay. It's stupid. But if I were Palestinian living in the West bank under occupation, going through checkpoints, having my olive trees burned, I'd be fucking pissed off.

[00:30:19] Jonah Platt: Yeah.

[00:30:20] Michael Solomonov: That I'm Mike's online of is as a homeless company is like doing really well. Right. I will say that both Israelis and Palestinians did not invent hummus. Okay, so like

[00:30:31] Jonah Platt: where'd it come from?

[00:30:32] Michael Solomonov: It came from Egypt more than likely.

[00:30:34] Jonah Platt: Is that where falafel came from too? Falafel

[00:30:36] Michael Solomonov: is fourth century Coptic Christian and it was like the answer to like meat on lent.

[00:30:41] Michael Solomonov: Okay And I'll tell you, the Coptic Christians are not doing very well right now either. And nobody says a goddamn word about that. Israelis helped market it and like, they're good. We are good at doing that. And that's fine. And like denying the fact that there's Palestine or Palestinians or Palestinian culture, which Is also [00:31:00] bullshit and that we have to, you know, when it comes to things like food, we have to be able to give credit to where it's due.

[00:31:05] Michael Solomonov: But most of the time when I'm hearing this, it's like, you've appropriated this Israeli food doesn't exist. And really what they're saying is Israel doesn't exist too, which I think people actually. In a bizarre refreshing way is almost just easier to hear now. If you don't think that Israel should exist or has the right to exist, just say it.

[00:31:24] Michael Solomonov: If you don't think the Jews have the right to their own homeland, just say it. So we don't have to have these like pseudo academic discussions about like food or like cultural appropriation. Like it's a, it's nonsense, you know, it's nonsense. But again, if I were Palestinian, And I didn't have access to like land, water, or the right to do whatever, I would also be irate and I totally get it, you know, and so we support as much as we can.

[00:31:58] Michael Solomonov: It's obviously the relationships are like [00:32:00] complicated. We support Palestinian wineries. We support Palestinian farmers. You know, the door for us is always open and will continue to be open. October 7th and up until now has made things tremendously complicated. Yeah. And I'm hoping that we're

[00:32:16] Jonah Platt: going to get into that.

[00:32:17] Michael Solomonov: Yeah, I can't wait because this has all been so easy. Yeah, right.

[00:32:22] Jonah Platt: We're just softball after softball.

[00:32:24] Michael Solomonov: Yeah, totally.

[00:32:25] Jonah Platt: Speaking of a softball, it's hard enough to open a restaurant as it is, but you were also dealing with drug addiction at the time that you were opening Zahav.

[00:32:33] Michael Solomonov: Yes.

[00:32:34] Jonah Platt: Most of those stories end terribly and yet here you are having pulled through it with a restaurant empire.

[00:32:40] Michael Solomonov: Yeah.

[00:32:41] Jonah Platt: What was that period like for you and how did you? Pull through it to, to create the life you've made for yourself.

[00:32:46] Michael Solomonov: I mean, the period was hell. And right after Dave's death, I came back to the States and I started smoking crack. Not because I had, I mean, I'd always had this like addictive. Sort of personality.

[00:32:57] Michael Solomonov: I always partied or whatever, but it's it is [00:33:00] interesting when you are sort of born an addict It is very hard and like from the addictive or addiction perspective Having a brother killed three days before his release on Yom Kippur. It's just let's go. Yeah, like let's go right something here Yeah, so I get back and immediately I Start, start smoking crack and eventually do heroin and, but I was very good at hiding it.

[00:33:24] Michael Solomonov: Um, and I'm, you know, my, my business partner, Steve, weed opens a hub and, um, things, you know, it's a progressive disease. So it just got worse and worse, obviously. And, you know, eventually I couldn't hide it anymore. And so three months after weed opens off. Steve, uh, and my wife at the time drew of me to rehab, um, and I spent 10 days in treatment and then came out and had a rough couple, first couple of months.

[00:33:50] Michael Solomonov: I mean, it's hard to stay clean and sober, especially when the economy is falling out. You know, I mean, we almost close off. When I was in [00:34:00] like very early recovery. So it was like,

[00:34:04] Jonah Platt: it was no cakewalk,

[00:34:05] Michael Solomonov: it was no cakewalk, but I mean, the, um, you know, my now ex wife who I love very much, uh, and my business partner, you know, in our, my community really is, they're the ones that got me clean and sober.

[00:34:18] Michael Solomonov: And, and, you know, Steve used to pick me up every morning. This is somebody that found out in years into a business partnership. We've collateralized our homes. To borrow money for Zaha, I found out that I was like hiding like a crack and heroin on addiction from him. Right. And would, and you know, most people would be like, you gotta screw this guy.

[00:34:37] Michael Solomonov: Cut. Get outta here. And Steve was like, I'm gonna pick you up every day from this a meeting and drive you.

[00:34:45] Jonah Platt: It's amazing.

[00:34:46] Michael Solomonov: And I went to a 12 step meeting every day. I went to outpatient rehab four days a week. I went to, uh, uh, personal therapy. I started like working out. I, I did. You did all the things, wrapping fill in like, you [00:35:00] know, I found a Jewish sponsor and I was like, I don't know a mantra.

[00:35:05] Michael Solomonov: I like, he's like, you need a mantra. And I was like, I don't have that. And he was like, well, you went to Hebrews. Can you just, Like recite the Shema, and I was like, I can do that. Yeah. That's so, I literally started saying the Shema, like I, it was like so funny. I know, which I still do. Amazing.

[00:35:21] Jonah Platt: So you and Steve, you've got, since I have you have Goldie, LaserWolf, Federal Donuts, Lila, Deezengoth, and Kfar Cafe.

[00:35:28] Jonah Platt: Did I miss anything? I

[00:35:29] Michael Solomonov: think that's, I think that's

[00:35:31] Jonah Platt: it. Yeah. That's seven. That would be seven.

[00:35:32] Michael Solomonov: That sounds right. Yeah.

[00:35:34] Jonah Platt: Give me the one sentence description of each of those spots.

[00:35:37] Michael Solomonov: Federal doughnuts is hot doughnuts, well cake doughnuts, Korean fried chicken, coffee. A little salad too, but you have to get fried chicken on top of it.

[00:35:47] Michael Solomonov: Amazing. Um, Deezing Off is like an Israeli cafe, lunch and dinner. Um, Laser Wolf is a shippudia, so it's like a salad skewers. Shippud [00:36:00] means skewer, so it's like kebabs.

[00:36:02] Jonah Platt: So it's like, that's, everything is kebabs? Charcoal.

[00:36:04] Michael Solomonov: Not everything is kebabs, everything is cooked over charcoal. And then it's a ton of salads when you get in, fresh pita and hummus.

[00:36:10] Jonah Platt: So how's that different from Zahaf?

[00:36:13] Michael Solomonov: Zahav has got mezze. Zahav is a bit more elaborate. Zahav is a little bit less utilitarian.

[00:36:19] Jonah Platt: Quick question, then you'll keep going. My Broadway fans want to know, is Laser Wolf anything to do with Fiddler on the Roof? Fuck yeah, dude. Oh, hell yeah. It's for The Butcher? Of course it is.

[00:36:26] Jonah Platt: Butcher, bro. Okay, there it is. I mean, I assumed, but you know.

[00:36:30] Michael Solomonov: Yeah, 100%. I love it.

[00:36:31] Jonah Platt: We still got Goldie, Lila, and Kfar.

[00:36:34] Michael Solomonov: Kfar is an Israeli bakery cafe, right? It's like the place where you go to get like salads, like, like, like entree salads if you want, pastries. We do, uh, like a Jerusalem bagel that is like stuffed with, uh, like egg, you know, and cheese.

[00:36:51] Michael Solomonov: So it's like, uh, Breakfast sandwich meats sort of is really that snack sounding Boricas and pastries and then Goldie's [00:37:00] falafel,

[00:37:00] Jonah Platt: right,

[00:37:00] Michael Solomonov: but it's actually vegan and we actually have a kosher haksher.

[00:37:04] Jonah Platt: Cool.

[00:37:05] Michael Solomonov: Um, and it is Tahina milkshake. So it's the you know, I've had that

[00:37:09] Jonah Platt: tahina milkshake. It's like the

[00:37:10] Michael Solomonov: greatest thing in the world falafel either sandwich or salad and french fries and Lila is like a private event space Um, where you can get actually the Sa'ev experience for like a wedding or bar mitzvah, just in case, you know, you got eight years, but we're ready for you and Zahavu is what people call a modern Israeli restaurant.

[00:37:29] Jonah Platt: Boom. There. You got the primer. Jaffa

[00:37:32] Michael Solomonov: actually is going to have shellfish.

[00:37:34] Jonah Platt: I, I heard that yesterday at the restaurant. Which we don't have,

[00:37:37] Michael Solomonov: we don't have trade for any of our restaurants. We don't do mix milk and meat together. Right. I noticed that. Jaffa will have shellfish. a cheeseburger. Jaffa will have like a raw bar too.

[00:37:47] Jonah Platt: And tell me like what's the the impetus for Jaffa? Why is it called Jaffa? Why are we doing all the the treif and stuff there?

[00:37:54] Michael Solomonov: Well if you were to open a raw bar in Jaffa, like what would it be? You know? And so [00:38:00] that was kind of it. And there's plenty of shellfish that served in Israel and I think we just wanted to You know, we're like, we like shrimp, we're Jews.

[00:38:09] Michael Solomonov: We like shrimp. We like, I love shellfish, I can't

[00:38:11] Jonah Platt: get enough of it. And then Aviv, you're opening at the one hotel in Miami. Yeah.

[00:38:15] Michael Solomonov: Yeah.

[00:38:16] Jonah Platt: What's up with Aviv? What's that vision? I mean,

[00:38:18] Michael Solomonov: Aviv is like, if we know, Aviv is

[00:38:20] Jonah Platt: spring, right?

[00:38:21] Michael Solomonov: Aviv is spring, exactly, in Hebrew. And it's like, I think if, uh, Zahav and Lazer Wolf kind of had a baby.

[00:38:27] Michael Solomonov: You know, but it's an amazing, beautiful restaurant. The one is just, it's a magical experience. I've stayed there. It's sick. Yeah, it's beautiful. It's beautiful. And, um, they just did like the most incredible renovation to this restaurant and the team there is wonderful. We love working with them. They're like awesome.

[00:38:45] Michael Solomonov: So Aviv will be kind of like if we were to open Zahav. Now after having 16 years of experience of figuring out and answering some of the questions of like what Israeli cuisine is Aviv is kind of the answer.

[00:38:58] Jonah Platt: Wow. Yeah, [00:39:00] incredible.

[00:39:00] Michael Solomonov: It's gonna be sick. You should I'll definitely

[00:39:02] Jonah Platt: make my way there Yeah,

[00:39:03] Michael Solomonov: I'm sure it'll be hard.

[00:39:04] Michael Solomonov: I don't want to twist your arm To come to Miami and stay at the one, but like, yeah,

[00:39:07] Jonah Platt: I'll find a way. Yeah.

[00:39:09] Michael Solomonov: Yeah.

[00:39:10] Jonah Platt: Speaking of like Aviv and the Hebrew name, I love seeing all these restaurants with Hebrew and Israeli names and you know, the, the menu at Tzahav, it's Al Ha'esh and Messi Ba. Yeah. On the fire and party for like the family dinner.

[00:39:24] Jonah Platt: Is that just like a natural choice or is that an effort on your part to like be introducing these Israeli Hebrew names into the menu?

[00:39:32] Michael Solomonov: Well, I think like the, the way to answer that was like, kind of when we decided to open Zahav and call it an Israeli restaurant, you know? And I think that like our publicist at the time was like, are you sure?

[00:39:45] Michael Solomonov: Not Mediterranean? Not Middle Eastern? It's really, is that too political? And we're like, this is what it is, so we're just going to do it and we're going to, we're going to go, we're going to get in there, you know? And so, you know, you can't really exclude. [00:40:00] Like Hebrew, you can't exclude, you know, this is what it is.

[00:40:03] Michael Solomonov: So I think that it sounds cool. It is what it is. Cooking meat few inches over charcoal is an incredible way to cook. And I feel like it should be celebrated and Hebrew, I think helps sort of evoke that. It's not just a Middle Eastern restaurant, it's not just a Mediterranean, it's certainly not just a Jewish restaurant, it's an Israeli restaurant and this is the way that we want people to experience it.

[00:40:27] Jonah Platt: What has been your biggest challenge, I mean you mentioned what your publicist sort of reaction was, what's been the biggest challenge of trying to bring Israeli cuisine to America?

[00:40:35] Michael Solomonov: That's sort of the issue with anything Israeli is that you're always a political talking point. Right, you're just trying to

[00:40:40] Jonah Platt: be who you are and eat the food you want to eat and people are making a thing about

[00:40:44] Michael Solomonov: it.

[00:40:44] Michael Solomonov: Right, I mean this is sort of. Press stopped publicly or on social media criticizing Israel. Entirely on October 7th.

[00:40:52] Jonah Platt: Mm.

[00:40:53] Michael Solomonov: Prior to that, I had no problem.

[00:40:55] Jonah Platt: Right.

[00:40:55] Michael Solomonov: Doing that. I had no problem finding Israel and protesting the government, which I've done before. Yeah. [00:41:00] You know, you just have to scroll back to see it's like, whatever, not, you know, I liked criticizing the government like every other Israeli.

[00:41:06] Michael Solomonov: Sure. Um, you know, after October 7th, I, I made a decision to stop doing that. They don't like understand the nuance.

[00:41:12] Jonah Platt: Yeah.

[00:41:13] Michael Solomonov: And I was like, well, if there's like a percentage of people that don't think that Israel has the right to exist, then I'm not giving them one inch of like fuel. So I kind of like stopped doing that.

[00:41:24] Jonah Platt: I kind of feel the same way. You know, I sometimes I'll get asked like, why aren't you talking about X or Y? And I say, there's a, there's a lot of haters who are already sort of talking about X and Y. I don't need to add to that contribution. I can just be doing, you know, saying positive things.

[00:41:38] Michael Solomonov: And, uh, and I, Like, again, I'm very pro two state.

[00:41:44] Michael Solomonov: I would be probably categorized as very, maybe not very, but like certainly center left when it comes to Israeli politics, um, and American politics. Like, I just want to cook Israeli food and open an Israeli restaurant. I'm not sure why I need to like answer for like the policies [00:42:00] of like a foreign government or whatever.

[00:42:01] Michael Solomonov: You know what I mean? You shouldn't have

[00:42:02] Jonah Platt: to. Did you come up against that a lot? We always come up

[00:42:05] Michael Solomonov: against that, and you do as well. I will say that like when I order like Chinese food or go to a Chinese restaurant, I don't ask the servers or the owners what their stance is on like Uighur Muslims being in concentration camps, right?

[00:42:17] Michael Solomonov: Of course not. I don't do that. And I definitely don't do that when I go to like Arab restaurants or Palestinian restaurants or Indian restaurants. I find that to be Annoying, um, but it doesn't change. I mean, we continue to open restaurants and they continue to do well. They continue to do well. And like, listen, I understand.

[00:42:35] Michael Solomonov: Like I understand why people behave the way that they do. I do. I sometimes have a problem with like double standards and this standard that Israel always has. I also have a problem with Israeli policy.

[00:42:49] Jonah Platt: Sure.

[00:42:49] Michael Solomonov: You know, the issue that I have is like, Mike is making Kumos. He hates Palestinians. He like, you know, it's just, or he's stealing it from them the way that like the [00:43:00] Israeli government has stolen land or whatever.

[00:43:02] Michael Solomonov: And I just, I'm like, it's just, come on, you know? And also I just, I'm like, we're not, I'm not shutting doors. I don't, that is not the way that we're going to like get to a solution that works for everybody. So, um, I have no, uh, preconceived notion that I'm going to make challah or hummus or pita or svenge or malawach or any, or jachnun or any of these things.

[00:43:26] Michael Solomonov: And then suddenly there will be like peace between Israelis and Palestinians. However, I would say that formal historical diplomacy and, you know, diplomatic efforts also aren't working. So like, you got to keep it, you got to keep it moving. Connection is connection. You got to

[00:43:40] Jonah Platt: have the people to people, the shared experience, whatever it is, whether it's athletics, whether it's cooking, you got to be bringing people together.

[00:43:47] Jonah Platt: I mean, it's so important. It's, it's, we shouldn't be discrediting it. Dialogue is,

[00:43:51] Michael Solomonov: is like, frankly, as far as we're concerned, is the most important thing. The problem is sort of post Dark Sober 7th plus social [00:44:00] media algorithms make it very difficult. But I mean, you've experienced the same thing, I would imagine.

[00:44:05] Jonah Platt: Probably lesser degree than you. No one's protested outside my place of business. I

[00:44:09] Michael Solomonov: know because your place of business is everywhere, but like you're still very, very public.

[00:44:14] Jonah Platt: So far, so good. Yeah. I see. So speaking of October 7th. What was that day like for you as somebody who is so connected to Israel, has lived in Israel, has people in Israel, and you were here, I'm assuming.

[00:44:24] Michael Solomonov: I was here, it was directly after the 21 year anniversary of my brother's death. Literally the day later.

[00:44:32] Jonah Platt: Yeah.

[00:44:33] Michael Solomonov: And I, like all of us, was like, I can't fucking believe this is happening. Like, I can't understand this. And then I would say almost equally, I was like, I can't believe that people are doing this to other people and uploading it on social media in real time and then sending it to the victim's families.

[00:44:50] Michael Solomonov: What the fuck? And then I was like, I can't believe that people in the U S are rationalizing this and celebrating this. And in, while the blood is still fresh [00:45:00] in Israel. Like people are then blaming this on Jews, like Jews, like, you know what I mean? Like, it was like, well, this is what do you expect? And I was like, I don't know.

[00:45:09] Michael Solomonov: I don't expect people to like rape and behead people and light them on fire and video it and then hold hostages. That's what I don't expect that. Definitely. You know?

[00:45:19] Jonah Platt: Yeah. The sense of bewilderment and surprise. As we touched on, I've faced a good deal of controversy in the past year, uh, stemming from what most people would recognize as a very natural support for a Jewish Israeli chef for his own people and home during this terrible time.

[00:45:36] Jonah Platt: But some people, including some people on your staff, were Uh, perturbed and, um, you know, which most notoriously resulted in, as I mentioned, this large protest outside of Goldie's, uh, where they were chanting, Goldie, Goldie, you can't hide. We charge you with genocide. Right. What's the feeling when you, like, see that happening in a place that you care about?

[00:45:55] Michael Solomonov: A couple things. One, I'm very proud that we live in a country that allows free speech [00:46:00] and the, uh, freedom of protest. Number one. Great. Like, that's a great thing. People can do whatever they want. Yeah. I think also it is absurd that I would be charged with genocide for making falafel, right? Or for raising money for United Hatzalah, which is what we're talking about,

[00:46:17] Jonah Platt: first

[00:46:19] Michael Solomonov: responder volunteer run organization that is also trained, trained Palestinian Red Crescent when the earthquakes were in Egypt, sent over volunteers to go help people out.

[00:46:29] Michael Solomonov: So like, I don't know what to tell you, you know what I mean? Like, that's, it's absurd.

[00:46:34] Jonah Platt: Good. I'm glad that that was more the feeling than some deep traumatic impact. Yeah.

[00:46:40] Michael Solomonov: I don't know. We still, like, everybody's fine.

[00:46:43] Jonah Platt: Speaking of the Hatzalah part of it, you, you later apologized for saying, you know, you didn't realize they were also sharing supplies with the IDF.

[00:46:52] Michael Solomonov: We, right. Well,

[00:46:53] Jonah Platt: did that actually make a difference to you or were you just?

[00:46:56] Michael Solomonov: Like, I don't. Morally, we have no issue with that. Yeah. It [00:47:00] was the Thursday after October 7th. We donated 100 percent of all of our revenues of all of our restaurants. Right. Except for Federal Donuts. Tuna and Chatzalah. Right. And, um, we were really proud of that.

[00:47:14] Michael Solomonov: The issue was, was that, um, because of the amount of reservists, which it was 320, 000 or something like that, they were giving medical, medical treatment to soldiers.

[00:47:23] Jonah Platt: That's who was being in. So,

[00:47:25] Michael Solomonov: you know, it's a lot was doing that. We did not know that it doesn't change anything for me morally, but the money that we raised went completely to civilians.

[00:47:35] Michael Solomonov: We just. When we had announced it to our staff, we did not know that there was any affiliation, um, with the military, and that,

[00:47:45] Jonah Platt: like, They felt taken by surprise by that part.

[00:47:47] Michael Solomonov: That was what we apologized for. Right. Okay? And that was, like, on us entirely, and, uh, but I don't think from a moral standpoint, and we were giving medical aid to, to, or treatment to people, and the money that we had raised did not go to any, [00:48:00] um, anything having to do with the IDF.

[00:48:02] Michael Solomonov: And because it was through our restaurants and through our companies, we just wanted to make sure that we were transparent with people. So it wasn't an apology for like what we had done. Just the, the messaging from our, uh, from us was, could have been better.

[00:48:17] Jonah Platt: How did it feel to see your own staff, people who are employed by an Israeli at an Israeli restaurant?

[00:48:24] Jonah Platt: Taking issue with the ownership supporting Israel,

[00:48:27] Michael Solomonov: you know, the reality is there's like a ton of restaurant Like we don't have to work for me if you don't want to there's other places I You know, we try to be as considerate as possible the reality of like my identity is what it is Yeah,

[00:48:44] Jonah Platt: exactly.

[00:48:44] Michael Solomonov: So You don't have to work for me if you don't want to.

[00:48:48] Michael Solomonov: We try to like, listen to people and hear people out as much as we can. But the reality, like, these are Israeli restaurants. You know? And so this is what it is. So I don't, you know, I don't really [00:49:00] know what more I could possibly say about that.

[00:49:01] Jonah Platt: This is a tricky question. What's the next like, level up for Israeli cuisine?

[00:49:06] Jonah Platt: Like, what, what can you, what is there still to be explored and discovered that you haven't done at all of these restaurants? We haven't done

[00:49:11] Michael Solomonov: a shawarma yet, dude, and I really want to do a good shawarma, but Take it on your own, your own diet. Shawarma is like, very, very hard. We're thinking about a couple different ideas.

[00:49:17] Jonah Platt: What makes it so hard?

[00:49:19] Michael Solomonov: So, you have to be like, really busy, you know? You have to make money as a

[00:49:23] Jonah Platt: business?

[00:49:24] Michael Solomonov: Not to even make money as a business, but to make very good shawarma, you need consistent foot traffic. Like, you don't want them meet just sitting around thing. 'cause you gotta be able to be going through it.

[00:49:33] Michael Solomonov: Exactly. Okay. So I feel like to me, you need to be in a place that knows what this is and you need to be able to time it correctly. Um, I had amazing shawarma at Avi

[00:49:44] Jonah Platt: QI was gonna mention, I haven't been there yet. What? I know.

[00:49:48] Michael Solomonov: What

[00:49:48] Jonah Platt: the fuck? Fuck man. It's like, it's wa right?

[00:49:50] Michael Solomonov: It's so good. I

[00:49:51] Jonah Platt: know it's in the valley, so I'm like, I just haven't made it out there.

[00:49:54] Jonah Platt: I'm like, it's what? It's like.

[00:49:55] Michael Solomonov: How far is that?

[00:49:56] Jonah Platt: That's probably like 25, 30 minutes from my house. It's not crazy, but it's like, I don't [00:50:00] really have an occasion to be there and just be able in the neighborhood. I'd have to really like, destination it.

[00:50:04] Michael Solomonov: You gotta make an occasion to be there. Dude, BBQ is so good.

[00:50:07] Jonah Platt: I know, I've heard amazing things.

[00:50:09] Michael Solomonov: It's so good. Um, and I've heard that, uh, and I haven't been yet to Safi's.

[00:50:13] Jonah Platt: I haven't been to Safi's either.

[00:50:14] Michael Solomonov: Ori is like an amazing chef. I've been to Pavel and Bestia, but not Safi's. Yeah, really, really good cook. And then, uh, Lior's place, Spice Brothers in, in New York is like awesome too.

[00:50:24] Michael Solomonov: But I want to do shawarma very much. I, we also want like weekends and vacations and things like that. We're very busy. Yeah. I don't know what the next thing is, but I guess to me, I mean, Jaffa is going to be exciting because it is, There's like shellfish.

[00:50:38] Jonah Platt: So different than the others. Very,

[00:50:40] Michael Solomonov: very different.

[00:50:40] Michael Solomonov: And then I would say Aviv just because I really feel like it's almost like a best of.

[00:50:45] Jonah Platt: So you and I actually met when you were doing a cooking demo at my house with our mutual friend and chef Aliza Sokolow. Yeah. Uh, which was awesome for me to get to just watch you guys. Assemble and then get to eat it.

[00:50:57] Jonah Platt: Yeah. You were promoting your new cookbook, [00:51:00] Zahav Home, which you graciously, graciously signed for me.

[00:51:03] Michael Solomonov: In your home.

[00:51:03] Jonah Platt: In my home. Yeah. Tell me about that book and like, especially how it's different from the Zahav cookbook.

[00:51:09] Michael Solomonov: So Zahav cookbook was Israeli food through the lens of this Israeli restaurant in Philadelphia.

[00:51:16] Michael Solomonov: Zahav Home is basically like what happens after you have a bunch of kids, and you're like, I just, I want to be able to make food. In my house, I want to be able to cook, like, with one pot. I need to get the shit on the table, like, fast. It has to be nutritious and, like, very tasty. And how do I do it realistically?

[00:51:35] Michael Solomonov: So we disciplined ourselves. And, you know, most cookbooks have, like, a stylist, a this, a that. This was, like, Steve and I, Just rolling up our sleeves and actually cooking together in my kitchen.

[00:51:45] Jonah Platt: Wow.

[00:51:45] Michael Solomonov: Everything was done in my kitchen. Everything was shot in real time, meaning there was no like design.

[00:51:51] Jonah Platt: Right.

[00:51:51] Jonah Platt: We just

[00:51:51] Michael Solomonov: made food and we had somebody there literally document, documenting recipes as we were freestyling. Wow, that's cool. So it's like for normal people. Was that fun [00:52:00] to do? That sounds like a blast. By far the most fun we've had. You should do the cabbage. We do like cabbage, uh, Cacio e Pepe, and it's

[00:52:07] Jonah Platt: Cabbage Cacio e Pepe?

[00:52:08] Michael Solomonov: Yeah, it's dope. It requires a broiler in your oven. It's so easy. We have a broiler. Yeah, everybody does. That's the thing. Everybody has a broiler. And it doesn't smoke out the kitchen. Yeah. When you like, you know, because you're not searing, so Okay. Yeah. That's top of the list. That's very good.

[00:52:22] Jonah Platt: All right, now to We're almost at the end here.

[00:52:24] Jonah Platt: I'm going to just run through some sort of light, lightning round food questions for you. Number one, go to bagel order.

[00:52:31] Michael Solomonov: You know what? I, this is so basic. I was, I went to Courage. Oh yeah, I've been to Courage in LA. Very good. So, um, I am sesame toasted butter. I mean, sounds delicious. That's it. That's it.

[00:52:43] Michael Solomonov: Yeah. I don't

[00:52:43] Jonah Platt: know if I've ever gone with that combo because I'm always like, I want the everything. I want all this flavor. I want the cream cheese. See, to

[00:52:49] Michael Solomonov: me, I'm like, I feel like the sesame, I don't know. I just, to me, it's like a perfect bite, you know?

[00:52:54] Jonah Platt: Gefilte fish. Ken or La?

[00:52:57] Michael Solomonov: Okay, so the Why is [00:53:00] this the hardest question?

[00:53:01] Michael Solomonov: We're talking about very

[00:53:02] Jonah Platt: controversial. So

[00:53:03] Michael Solomonov: real gefilte fish, I think is great I don't like jars of like the shit at room temperature that freaks me out or the jelly freaks me out real gefilte I mean stuffed. I mean, so a real stuffed fish is awesome.

[00:53:14] Jonah Platt: Hmm.

[00:53:14] Michael Solomonov: You can make very good gefilte fish I don't

[00:53:16] Jonah Platt: know that I've ever had like a homemade gefilte fish.

[00:53:18] Michael Solomonov: Well, I would recommend you doing either It's gefilte ria in Brooklyn that will mail order you I believe by the Gefilte fish. Real gefilte fish.

[00:53:26] Jonah Platt: Gefilte ria.

[00:53:27] Michael Solomonov: Gefilte ria. It's dope. All right.

[00:53:29] Jonah Platt: Uh, what's the key to making great schnitzel?

[00:53:32] Michael Solomonov: So the key to making great schnitzel is to not flour. It is just to go egg wash and either mozzarella or breadcrumbs.

[00:53:39] Michael Solomonov: I like to put a ton of spices and salt in my egg wash. And I will soak the chicken paillard in that shit for like hours. Hours. Refrigerated. And it'll season and almost cure it. And then I will, like, roll it in the matzo meal leftovers that you have. Yeah. And it, and like sesame seeds, sometimes whole cumin seeds.

[00:53:57] Michael Solomonov: I love that shit. Cool. Very good. Sounds delicious. Yeah. The [00:54:00] crust gets really thin. Nice.

[00:54:01] Jonah Platt: What's the one spice we all need to have at home and how do we use it?

[00:54:05] Michael Solomonov: The one spice you need to have at your home. Well, it's a blend and it's called Hawaj. There's many different kinds. It's Yemeni blend, but Hawaj just means It's like curry or like baharat.

[00:54:14] Michael Solomonov: It just means blend of spice. Like there's different kinds of them, but the one that I like is the soup spice, which is turmeric, cumin, black pepper. Mash it in chicken broth with noodles or just chicken or with like beef or with whatever. That is just my favorite.

[00:54:31] Jonah Platt: Bam. All right. Uh, what's the key to great brisket?

[00:54:34] Michael Solomonov: The key to a great brisket is actually when it's like braised brisket, like Jewish brisket is cooking it, slicing it, letting it rest in the juices, sliced, refrigerating it, and then heating it the next day.

[00:54:48] Jonah Platt: How long do you let challah rise for?

[00:54:50] Michael Solomonov: I like really, really slow rise and I like it really sort of puffy.

[00:54:54] Michael Solomonov: So I like to let challah rise, I mean, depending on air temperature, [00:55:00] at least two hours.

[00:55:01] Jonah Platt: Okay.

[00:55:01] Michael Solomonov: Yeah.

[00:55:02] Jonah Platt: That's a good one. Oh, yeah. Everybody better have their pens out. Last thing, we take some questions from social media from Instagram, a Jewish underscore girl who's back again with more great questions. Thank you.

[00:55:13] Jonah Platt: Um, what one Jewish food do you think needs the most improvement? And which one do you think gets too much hate, but it's actually delicious?

[00:55:20] Michael Solomonov: gefilte fish, uh, gets too much hate. And I mean, I'd say Ashkenazi food in general gets a really bad rep. Like, think about it. All the Jews that left Europe with nothing, right?

[00:55:30] Michael Solomonov: They were, I mean, they were like leaving pogroms and coming to the New World, either Montreal or New York or whatever, and had no access to like forage mushrooms or berries or whatever. So it was like they were cooking on a budget in a city. The same thing with like Italians coming to New York and not having San Marzano tomatoes.

[00:55:49] Michael Solomonov: Like

[00:55:49] Jonah Platt: it's

[00:55:49] Michael Solomonov: not, uh. They had to adapt, right? So I feel like everybody thinks it's either what deli blitzes or like shitty chicken or whatever. That's not Ashkenazi cooking. So in [00:56:00] general, Ashkenazi cooking needs not a facelift, but like a connection to like what it actually was.

[00:56:05] Jonah Platt: Jay Brookstein says for Philly cheesesteaks, Angelo's on ninth.

[00:56:09] Jonah Platt: Your thoughts.

[00:56:10] Michael Solomonov: Angelo's. is an incredible cheesesteak. Del Rossi is an incredible cheesesteak. And I'm like still a past guy. Yeah. And actually D'Alessandro's on Henry Avenue. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I don't know if there's like a best, I would say Angelo's. Changed the bar for cheese steaks though. Wow. And I think Del Rossi is right behind it.

[00:56:34] Michael Solomonov: Yeah.

[00:56:35] Jonah Platt: I've never been to Angelo's. It's on my next visit list.

[00:56:38] Michael Solomonov: Danny is like, talk about great chef. Danny is like the real thing, man. He's, his pizza too is so good. His cutlet sandwiches. And his hoagies are like next level. Is this all

[00:56:47] Jonah Platt: at the same restaurant? Same restaurant.

[00:56:49] Michael Solomonov: All right,

[00:56:49] Jonah Platt: amazing. Uh, last one.

[00:56:51] Jonah Platt: Rach. Fleisch back again. She says, it's been a tough year. What's your go to comfort food and your favorite spot in Philly to get it?

[00:56:58] Michael Solomonov: Mmm, I mean [00:57:00] Phos 75. I figured that was going to be your answer. The bowl of pho is really, really good. I think that, um.

[00:57:04] Jonah Platt: When my wife was pregnant with my son, it's like all she wanted was pho.

[00:57:07] Jonah Platt: Pho every morning, yeah.

[00:57:08] Michael Solomonov: Well, I will say, okay, so Philly has an amazing Chinatown too. There's a place called Spicy that does hand drawn noodles. That are like amazing as well. So I think it's good, but you know. Rache, is it? Rache, yeah, rache. flysch. Rache, you know, I was getting into this before, like, we mourn and we grieve and we celebrate and we do it around food and, like, I'm, you know, wolfing down pastries and Chava, like, Chava's like my cigarette, right?

[00:57:36] Michael Solomonov: So I just wolf that shit down. I think that's kind of what I've been doing, but I Do you make

[00:57:40] Jonah Platt: it or do you get it from somewhere?

[00:57:42] Michael Solomonov: I get it, I mean We make it, it's not as good as like where you buy it and um, Seaton Mill has really good chalva too by the way and really good trina but um, I really You know, even just like doing this, I know it's all cheesy, but like this and the bar mitzvah and the fa [00:58:00] and the family and being able to share and be heard has been, um, a really wonderful thing.

[00:58:06] Michael Solomonov: If there's anything that good that comes out of these like atrocities that we have to experience is the renewed importance of gratitude towards like community and through customs. And if there's like anything. You know, I mean, I started wrapping to fill in, not because I grew up wrapping to fill in, it was because I had to deal with like addiction and there was an answer for it, you know, and to be able to celebrate and to eat together and to be together has been a gift that I think has been sort of crystallized through all this hardship and through all this grief and all this Bullshit that we're all going through at the same time.

[00:58:40] Michael Solomonov: Amen. Yeah,

[00:58:42] Jonah Platt: let's leave it there. Michael. That was a perfect ending so much for being here. Thank you so

[00:58:48] Michael Solomonov: much. I appreciate

[00:58:48] Jonah Platt: it Thank you so much to chef mike for being here and for his family for letting him be here getting away during the important bar mitzvah weekend He's [00:59:00] hummus Out now in Whole Foods, so you can get your own little taste of Zahav at home.

[00:59:04] Jonah Platt: Thanks to everybody at Zahav last night for a truly memorable meal, especially Chef Colin, who showed me how to make laffa, and our amazing server, Kiana, took us on a food adventure. Uh, thanks to all of you, as always, for loving the show the way you do, and I will see you all back here for the next delicious episode of Being Jewish with me.

[00:59:23] Jonah Platt: Jonah Platt. Thank you to everyone who makes being Jewish with Jonah Platt, possible executive producer, Matthew Jones, story producer Sean Ish Veli and editor Patrick Edwards of Rainbow Creative Consulting producers Bethany Mandell and Ariella Novak of Shield Communications social media manager, Yuval.

[00:59:42] Jonah Platt: Graphic designer Noah Bell of Bellboy Creative, my incredible research assistant Samantha Greenwald, everyone at Aura House Studios, the whole team at Jewish Broadcasting Service, composer Gabe Mann, and of course you, dear listeners, who even stuck around to listen to all these credits. Man, I [01:00:00] love you guys.