One of my favourite London chefs has now spread his wings to go open a brand new sushi bar in Beirut - Mayha. A few months ago, I sat down with him to discuss his next adventure and how they designed the menu for Mayha.
Talk to me about the new Restaurant you’re opening in Beirut - Mahya.
I always call it "my luck". I’ve always had luck in my life. All these coincidences happening, they are luck. After some disappointments in Poland, I came back to London to raise my spirits, and get more motivation. I motivated myself and the Beirut idea came through the door. Our business partner right now, he is from Beirut. He always had a dream to open a really good Japanese place and travelled the world to find a good chef but most people didn’t want to move to Beirut or they weren’t good enough. At the beginning it was always a joke - “hey Shinya-San [Co-Founder and head chef at Yashin Ocean House], let’s go to Beirut”. But in the end it happened and we went there. Beirut is really interesting. My favourite thing about it is the nightlife. It’s incredible. I’ve never seen anything like this. Everyone goes out. All the time.
What are you most looking forward to, with Mahya in Beirut?
I’m looking forward to finally starting this project. I seriously can’t wait. I want to go there and open this place and start to work. Here at Yashin I’m still a guest. I would like to start setting my own rules.
Why “Mayha”?
The name came from Beirut. It’s Lebanese for “Source”.
You’ve been developing this phenomenal Omakase menu at Yashin for a while now, in preparation for Mahya’s opening.
Yes. We want to have a backup of menus at Mahya that will work for a year. A four season menu will be ready before I go. In the beginning there will be no time for development. It’s more setting up and a lot of hard work. With this, the menu will be ready and we can get started right away.
Walk me through the process of developing a menu like that. I remember you telling me you once Skyped shin-ya san from Greece to share ideas.
First of all we think about the structure of the menu. It needs to be interesting and have something new and exciting, but also respect the old Kaiseki and sushi rules. That’s the first main consideration and the first topic of our meetings.
Then we develop something to use and showcase all techniques from Japan and also to combine sushi and Kaiseki but not in a traditional way of appetizers then sushi. We try to combine them in a more interesting way, in a way that’s less expected. Sushi is the main but accompanied by amazing Kaiseki dishes.
Now we have the spine of the menu. We look at the seasonality of the product, the amount of meat, fish and vegetables in the dishes, and then the sushi. We do a lot of research into the seasonality of the products, and types of fish and then we start to talk. A simple conversation.
When the theory of the menu is ready we start to develop the practicality - what does this look like, how do we combine it… etc.
