Tomer Agai on failures, comeback, and why he still wants to open restaurants
In a new episode of Walla Food’s video podcast “Talking Food,” host Ron Yochananov speaks with chef and restaurateur Tomer Agai about more than 25 years in restaurants, kitchens, openings, closures, crises, television, family, and repeated comebacks. Agai, long associated with the Tel Aviv restaurant Santa Katarina and with a local culinary rock-and-roll image, says he does not romanticize the path he has taken. “A restaurant in Israel is a bet on everything,” he says, arguing that the country’s environment, including war risk and tourism swings, makes opening a restaurant especially dangerous.
Agai says Santa Katarina depended heavily on tourists, with 35% of high-season revenue coming from foreign credit cards. He says he likes camera work and content, and that he now earns a comfortable living from consulting and guidance. Still, he admits, “Something inside me does not sleep well at night.” What he really wants is the energy of a busy kitchen, with ten cooks behind him, 300 diners a night, and the feeling of a powerful service. He also explains that when he tried living between Amsterdam and Tel Aviv for four and a half years, the arrangement damaged his family life and hurt his children.
The conversation turns to television and to “Game of Chefs,” where Agai says being chosen as a judge after 25 years felt like long-awaited recognition. But he also says the show’s end was “the opening shot in a series of very serious troubles,” and that he was deeply hurt when the production later returned to a smaller judging panel. Even so, he says he would always want to return. He also describes his cooking as “a journey,” rooted in a home where his mother and grandmothers cooked at a very high level, and in a Syrian and Egyptian family kitchen. At home today, he says his partner, Teir, cooks, and he happily leaves the kitchen to her. His favorite ingredient is raw fish, especially sashimi and ceviche.
Agai says he will never stop opening restaurants. “A day before I die, give me a chance, I will open a restaurant,” he says. He adds, “I do not count the times I fell, I count the times I got up.” He discusses the loss of all his money at Santa Katarina, but also says the last years of the restaurant included some of the best years of his life. The episode ends with Agai revealing a new restaurant, Zaya, inspired by the Silk Road and the Mediterranean, with Asian and Turkish influences and many dumplings. He recommends several Tel Aviv spots, including Bar Pronto, Ail She’s new hand-roll place, Suf in the former Santa Katarina space, and “Boi” by Tomer Tal, which he calls the best restaurant in the city.
