Three by Eva Halasa, alongside her daughters Lilian and Emilie, represent a remarkable family trio in the culinary world. Eva Halasa, the matriarch, brings years of experience and heartfelt dedication to her cooking, inspired by her family’s traditions and personal experiences. Together, they embody a unique blend of tradition, resilience, and innovation in their restaurant.
The Best Chef: How your restaurant got started and what inspired you to pursue this culinary path?
Eva: It’s almost 15 years now in the industry. I did it because I always see my mom and my grandma and all of them feeding everyone with love and love, even though there was no equipment, nothing. It was a simple life. I got married very young. I started to do the same with my babies, with my husband and his family. We have this culture, big family. Every Friday we have all of us to sit together and have this. But unfortunately, when I lost a sister, she was only 22 years old, in a car accident. And that night she was eating our famous vine leaves with kusa. And while she was eating, I told her, “Stop it. You’re going to be fat. Stop eating this.” She said, “You know what? Everyone has to taste this.” The second day she passed away. And for two years, I’ve been in a “coma”. I don’t know anything about these two years. Then I decided from this moment to go out from Jordan, find another land for my peace, because I couldn’t find peace there, and do her dream. That’s why we are successful. I think it’s because of her soul. When she sees me down, she pushes me to go up and keep doing what I’m doing. I’m 58 and I’m so proud. I’m full of energy, full of love, and I will continue giving this love for her soul until I die. Never stop. Every day I will come. Every day. People, they think there are no stories, no misery, no… Every smile has something behind it.
Lilian: It’s a lot of work. If you’re not married to the industry, I say don’t get into it. You have to love what you do. Because it becomes who you are. It’s not just a job that you go to or a means to an end, more or less. And I think, one of the biggest reasons for our success, is that it’s not the numbers at the end of the month. It’s not what we’ve achieved rather than how much we’ve enjoyed every week and every day and where we’re going next.
The Best Chef: How do you see the culinary scene in Dubai evolving, and what sets it apart from other global food destinations?
Eva: I think in Dubai, everyone left their family in their countries. They feel lonely and when they come, we give genuine love. Honestly, I give my time and energy to sit and listen to their problems. So this is part of their comfort zone. They come not only for food, they come also to see us. The fact we are connected to each other, the family vibe, it relates to them. They love to see this. I want to give this because now you can see families are separated, children, they are not with their dads and moms. I always say family is the most important thing in life. That’s why now we started our new concept, which is the cooking classes. Cooking classes is not only teaching you cooking, it’s teaching you love. Teaching you how to communicate with your kids, with your friends, with your husband, with your partners. So we’re going to start this and I’m going to do my best to spread this because I feel that no matter how we grow, how rich we are, we need this simple love from our family.
The Best Chef: What do you believe are the key factors behind the success of your restaurant, and has working with your family been an advantage or a challenge in achieving that success?
Lilian: I think flexibility in the industry is very important for you to succeed, for you to grow, for you to keep trying, and to have an open mind. And again, people think it’s all butterflies and happy smiles. To be honest, working with family is one of the most difficult things in the world and I think a lot of people agree. Some days we want to kill each other. There’s no way to sugarcoat it. But we have the same goal, we have the same vision, we have the same values within each other because we’ve been raised in such a way. So I think at the end of the day, I think the most important thing in the industry is to ask yourself the question, “When is enough?” Because it’s very easy to say, “Let’s franchise and cash out and keep doing more and let’s do another concept because we can.” Of course we can. And I think the fact that we have established where the line is and what our priorities are, I think this is what keeps this concept genuine and what keeps people coming back for more. Because recipes are very standard, but it’s the soul. And I keep saying, you can never duplicate soul.
Emilie: I’d love to add that with flexibility and empathy, the trust between us is a very important and integral role. It’s kind of like a complete triangle where I trust that she is doing whatever she’s doing and I don’t micromanage that. We can share ideas. We can brainstorm. She also trusts that whatever we are doing is along the lines and we are having the same vision. To have that very integral pillar, especially in family, you’d be surprised. You think family comes without saying. No, it doesn’t. You see families, brothers screwing each other. We’re very blessed to have been raised like this and to apply it in life as well and I really appreciate that.
The Best Chef: What have been the main challenges you’ve encountered throughout your career, and how have you overcome them?
Eva: I’m very blessed and thankful because God, he puts the power in us because especially after Corona, we couldn’t find staff. We have to do everything. We started with only 10 people. They are my old people. We start like this. Then they decided to do a soft opening and it wasn’t a soft opening. My God. Nothing was soft about it.
Lilian: I think that’s a very interesting story to talk about because we really didn’t expect that to happen. So post COVID, things were very quiet. Things were very chilled. We said, you know what, let’s test things out. Let’s see. It was maybe a Wednesday or Thursday and we said, we’ll just open the door. I haven’t advertised or spoken about it. Nothing at all. People were just passing by. I promise you, Thursday comes. It was a weekend at the time. We had a line of people waiting with maybe three waiters. We weren’t ready. Even the POS system wasn’t ready. We started cleaning tables, running around, taking orders, running to the kitchen, going up and down. The beauty of it is that especially in a place like Dubai with such high standards, people were understanding. And so at 4 p.m. I’ll never forget this. We ran out of food. This never happened. She’s been in the industry for 10 years. She knows how to manage quantities and things like that. At 4 p.m. we had to lock the door and people were coming back from the garden. Knocking, “open the door”. “We want food like we want to try this. Are you open?” We’re like, “please come back in two hours”. We were serving everything. We were just doing everything. And I’ll never forget it. Honestly, I’ll never forget it. 18 hour shift. Nonstop. We would sit on the floor in the back crying, pain in our legs. This is why I say the reward is very different when it’s your own sweat and tears.
Instagram: @threebyeva @eva.halasa
Restaurant: https://threebyeva.com/
Restaurant address: AL WASL ROAD 23B, JUMEIRAH 2, VILLA 53, DUBAI – UAE
Artykuł #FOODMISSION 2024 – Eva Halasa, Lilian Halasa, Emilie Halasa – Three, Dubai, UAE pochodzi z serwisu The Best Chef.
