It’s after Thanksgiving but before Christmas, which means South Florida is in the midst of its annual transformation as snowbirds come south in droves to escape the colder climates of the Northeast. 

This year, if Eyal Shani’s latest gamble proves correct, many of them will be flocking to Malka, the Israeli celebrity chef’s newest venture: a high-end kosher meat restaurant that opened this week in West Palm Beach. It’s the first Florida outpost of Malka, Shani’s kosher concept, which also has two locations in New York City and one in Tel Aviv. 

Opening a kosher restaurant in this quiet corner of West Palm Beach, just across the bridge from the island of Palm Beach, is a bold bet; most of the observant Jews in the area live 30 miles south, in Boca Raton. But Shani is confident that high-quality Israeli food in a beautiful atmosphere — the 10,500-square-foot space was designed by an acclaimed Israeli architecture firm, and all of the building materials were imported on container ships from Israel — will draw diners from across the region, whether they’re Jewish or not. 

“In its first week, they are fitting something like 150 people and there’s a waiting list of 300 people every night,” Shani told Jewish Insider in an interview on Wednesday. “I think that we are doing a very beautiful thing.” 

The restaurant’s signature dish is schnitzel, and inside the fried crust is not just chicken but mashed potatoes, a dish so popular that it is described as “the most famous Malka schnitzel.” The rest of the menu sticks with the same cheeky tone: “Hummus ragu, might be even closer to perfection,” “a bloody pizza, no blood,” and “whole fish roasted on a terrifying fire.” (Cooking with an open fire is Shani’s specialty.)

Shani, a bespectacled 65-year-old with unruly white curly hair, has opened 40 restaurants around the world, ranging from the casual pita stand Miznon that pioneered serving whole cauliflower as a main dish, to trendy Hasalon, a restaurant-meets-nightclub that serves upscale Israeli food to diners in Miami, New York and Las Vegas alongside a DJ. Shmoné, in New York’s Greenwich Village, earned a Michelin star last year. Shani also has restaurants in the U.K., France, Austria, Singapore, Australia and Canada.

Of those 40 restaurants, the only kosher ones are his four Malka locations and one kosher-certified Miznon in Times Square. He decided to open his first kosher restaurant after realizing that the majority of Israeli Jews keep kosher — and could not go to his restaurants.

“They used to stand and look at my restaurant with eyes that want to swallow my restaurant. But they couldn’t because they are Orthodox and they are eating kosher,” he recalled. “Then I said to myself, my purpose in life is to cook for my people. And these are part of my people. “

The idea to bring a kosher Israeli restaurant to West Palm Beach was not Shani’s. He was lured there by Terry Kassel, a philanthropist who lives in Palm Beach. She had already identified the location for the restaurant but needed a world-class chef. 

“‘Please join me to create a Jewish community in Palm Beach,’” he recalled her saying. Malka is only the second kosher restaurant in West Palm Beach. 

Located in a former butchery, Malka was designed by Kimmel Eshkolot Architects, the Israeli firm behind major national projects such as the Western Wall Tunnels, the Tower of David Museum and the Davidson Center at the Western Wall. All of the materials in the restaurant — including marble, metal and concrete elements — were sourced from Israel. The back courtyard is filled with olive trees and other Mediterranean foliage, and custom works by Israeli artist Michal Rovner adorn the walls. 

Shani’s success has turned him into something of a cultural ambassador for the Jewish state, a mandate he takes seriously, while painting himself as the godfather of the modern Israeli culinary scene.

“Maybe it’s not so nice to say something about yourself. But in the end, I was the main inventor of Israeli cuisine,” Shani said. 

He started his culinary journey with no knowledge of cooking, aside from occasionally preparing recipes from Julia Child’s cookbooks. He opened his first restaurant in Jerusalem in 1989 after his girlfriend fawned over his rendition of Child’s bouillabaisse, a classic French fish soup. (Shani, whose speech is peppered with philosophical references used to describe foods as mundane as tomatoes and cucumber, stands by never receiving formal culinary training: “It’s much better to be, really, a man or woman with no knowledge at all but with passion and dedication,” he said.)

From the time he opened his first restaurant in Jerusalem in 1989, Shani has been on a mission to bring a coherent sense of identity to the Israeli culinary tradition.

“As one of the people of Israel, I understood that there is no way for a nation, for a people, to be united under a state without their own cuisine,” he said. “It’s like if you are getting married and you have children and you are living in an apartment and there is no kitchen in that apartment. It will not last for long, because the kitchen is connecting all the people together.” 

The aftermath of the Oct. 7 attacks and the war in Gaza have tested Shani’s goal of spreading Israeli food around the world. To make the point, he compared Passover at his restaurants in 2023 versus 2024: Last year, his restaurants were still full during the Jewish holiday, even when many Jews left New York and others observed the Passover dietary restrictions. This year, his restaurants felt noticeably emptier during Passover.

“Even now we are feeling it. There are so many demonstrations against us,” said Shani. After Oct. 7, people who had never been to his restaurants started leaving bad reviews online. Some called the restaurants to shout “Free Palestine,” before hanging up.

But he thinks people will come back around to Israel — and Israeli food is going to make that happen.

“I was so proud of that little place in the world that is making the most beautiful food in the world,” he said. “Through the food, the world will connect to us again. That is my belief.”