Born in Israel and raised on cheeses­teaks in Philadel­phia, chef Alon Shaya calls New Orleans his home. The three cel­e­brat­ed restau­rants he start­ed and helmed as exec­u­tive chef/​partner — Domeni­ca, Piz­za Domeni­ca, and Shaya — all reflect his culi­nary jour­ney and resound­ing love of Israeli and Ital­ian cui­sine. In 2017, Alon formed Pome­gran­ate Hos­pi­tal­i­ty to fos­ter oppor­tu­ni­ties for col­leagues, part­ners, and friends in a com­fort­able and pro­fes­sion­al envi­ron­ment where cul­tur­al dif­fer­ences are cel­e­brat­ed. Alon has been nom­i­nat­ed for five James Beard Awards. He has been named ​“Best Chef, South” while at Domeni­ca in 2015, and Shaya won ​“Best New Restau­rant” in 2016. He was named one of the ​“50 Peo­ple Who Are Chang­ing the South” by South­ern Liv­ing mag­a­zine in 2015, and one of the ​“50 Most Influ­en­tial Jews in Amer­i­ca” by The For­ward. In March 2018, Alon will pub­lish his debut cook­book, ​“Shaya: An Odyssey of Food, My Jour­ney Back to Israel” (Knopf). In ear­ly 2018, chef Shaya & Pome­gran­ate Hos­pi­tal­i­ty announced the open­ing of two new restau­rants: Saba in New Orleans and Saf­ta in Den­ver, both open­ing Spring 2018.