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It must have been quite a culture shock for Haya Molcho, who grew up in Tel Aviv, when she moved to Vienna in 1981—a city that was rather gray at the time. What she missed most was the “pleasant chaos” on the plates: everyone ate only what they had ordered, whereas in Israel and the Middle East, sharing was second nature. “Perfection stifles conviviality,” Molcho once said in an interview with the Kleine Zeitung. This perfectly captures her strength: she didn’t just bring exciting new restaurants to Vienna but also a touch of Levantine joie de vivre. Her goal was to bring people together; from the very beginning, relaxed sociability was as important as the food itself.
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