New breed of Paris Jewish restaurant: delicious food, not quite kosher

Published: 13 August 2018

Last updated: 5 March 2024

ISRAELI CULINARY CELEB Eyal Shani launched this no-frills chain in Tel Aviv in 2011. It now dishes up sandwiches at a dozen locations worldwide (many of them licensed) in Vienna, Melbourne, and New York. But in Le Marais, the fusion neighbourhood where French meets Jewish, Ashkenazi meets Sephardi, and straight meets gay, Miznon Paris is filling a new niche.

Unlike its Tel Aviv namesake, this Miznon is kind of kosher… more like off-the-grid kosher. Observant co-owner, David Moyal, proffers strictly kosher meat and wine, serves no dairy or shellfish, and closes on Shabbat.

Sans supervision from the usual suspects—the Paris beit din, Chabad, Chief Orthodox Rabbi of Paris Mordechai Rottenberg—or any other third party, Miznon posts no kashrut certificate, or teudah.

Nor does the restaurant employ a mashgiach, the on-site personnel de rigueur at kosher meateries. But the word is out. On any given day, bearded men, skirted women, and other spiritual epicureans are tucking into this nouvelle cuisine: kosher gone rogue.

Miznon Paris is not alone. In fact, the city’s glut of kosher restaurants may, at least in part, encourage trendsetters here to reject the rabbinate. A throwback to simpler times, these entrepreneurs are embracing a well-established social contract.

FULL STORY In Paris, kosher restaurants go rogue (Tablet)

RELATED
Miznon Melbourne: no plates, lots of vegetables, messy and delicious

Photo: Miznon Paris (Youtube)