'Israel is seen as violent' — and Israeli chefs, once global culinary icons, are feeling the heat

'Israel is seen as violent' — and Israeli chefs, once global culinary icons, are feeling the heat

It used to be that three kinds of people frequented the Israeli chef Eyal Shani’s international restaurants — Israelis, diaspora Jews, and everyone else. But when “the Israelis and the Jews were away for Passover” this spring, Shani said, “all the others, they didn’t want to go.” Shani’s high-energy eateries — 12 in Israel, and 30 around the world, including Port Sa’id and Malka in New York City, and offshoots of the Tel Aviv-based Miznon across…