Let’s start from the beginning. How did you end up in Hong Kong?
My paternal great-grandparents moved [from the former USSR; what would be Ukraine today] to Shanghai in the 1920s, and both my grandparents were born in Shanghai too. My father moved to Hong Kong in the 1970s, and I’ve been in Hong Kong since I was 11 months old. I would spend summers in Tel Aviv [where my family is from], and that was my main exposure to Middle Eastern food. My first taste of fresh hummus was from a street [vendor in Israel]. I am a third culture kid, and my parents thought it was important to instil a sense of cultural identity in me. My mother made it a point to only speak to me in Hebrew and only cook food that she grew up with in Israel.
Why aviation?
No one in my family is in aviation. It was kind of an instinctive desire. It’s like asking someone why they like a certain flavour of ice cream—they just like it [laughs]. Flying has always been something that I wanted to do. After high school in 2004, I enrolled in Cathay Pacific’s cadet pilot programme. While everyone I knew went to university, I went to a flight academy in Australia. It was a 14-month programme; [then] I was back in Hong Kong working at the age of 19. I still fly full time.
How was the pandemic a catalyst for the launch of The House of Hummus?
Cathay flights were mostly grounded during the pandemic. Pilots had a lot of spare time. We all did a variety of things to fill our time.
This story is from the September 2023 edition of Tatler Hong Kong.
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This story is from the September 2023 edition of Tatler Hong Kong.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
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