Moshe Basson

Basson liberally uses regional flavouring herbs, such as hyssop and za'atar. He often goes out to forage in the Jerusalem hills for wild plants to add to his soups, stews, and stuffed vegetables – including wild chicory, mallow, Jerusalem sage, purslane, lemon verbena, sumac, and wild cyclamen. Basson said he learned about edible roots and plants from the Arab women who patronized his parents' bakery in his youth, and from Arab farmers who sold wild greens by Damascus Gate.

Basson was an early proponent of the Slow Food movement in Israel. In 2009 he was a co-sponsor of International Slow Food Day/Terra Madre Day in Israel, with separate events for adults and schoolchildren.

The Eucalyptus reopened in 2007 back on Hyrcanus Street. As of 2015, the restaurant is in Hutzot Hayotzer opposite the Walls of Jerusalem.

In 1999 Basson was encouraged by the Israeli cultural attaché to Italy to compete in the international CousCous Fest in Sicily. Basson won first prize for his innovative presentation called "Manna from the Sky," incorporating fried eggplant, stuffed fish, sauce and garnish. He has since won the competition a second time.

Basson teaches cooking classes and gives cooking demonstrations. He has given cooking demonstrations in Israeli embassies in various countries. In 1998, he was invited to present a cooking demonstration and prepare dinner for guests at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., on the occasion of Israel's 50th Independence Day. He had planned to forage for mallow in fields around the district but was unable to locate any of the wild plant; in the end, several kilos of the plant had to be flown in from California.

When the property was slated for urban renewal, Moshe closed the restaurant and embarked on six months of travel and food tasting in Cyprus, Turkey, Thailand, and Africa. Upon his return, he opened a new restaurant at 7 Hyrcanus Street in downtown Jerusalem. Four years later, he moved to an address in Safra Square. He made the restaurant kosher in 1997 after his father's death. The restaurant closed during the Second Intifada in 2002 due to a wave of terrorist attacks on civilian targets that led Israelis to be reluctant to dine out until the construction of the Israeli West Bank barrier. In 2004 Basson co-founded Carmei Ha'ir, a charity restaurant that served midday meals with the sort of food and table service found at nice restaurants, but allowed customers to pay what they could afford.

The family eventually moved to a 16-square-metre (170 sq ft) stone house with a garden. Basson's parents opened a small bakery in the Arab neighborhood of Beit Safafa. They also cultivated a vegetable garden and raised chickens to supplement their government food rations. In the early 1960s, Moshe planted a eucalyptus seedling in the family's vegetable garden.

Moshe Basson ((Hebrew: משה בסון ‎; born 1950) is an Israeli chef, restaurateur, and food folklorist. An early proponent of the Slow Food movement in Israel, he is the owner and head chef of The Eucalyptus restaurant in Jerusalem. He specializes in traditional regional cuisine, biblical ingredients, and the use of wild plants and herbs that he gathers himself on foraging expeditions in the Jerusalem hills. He is a member of the Israeli-Palestinian group Chefs for Peace and a two-time winner of the international CousCous Fest in Italy.

Moshe Basson was born in Iraq in 1950. His mother Esperanza and her family were natives of Amarah. He immigrated to Israel with his family when he was nine months old. The family was assigned to a refugee absorption camp in the Talpiot neighborhood of Jerusalem. Arriving in 1951 during the Passover holiday, they were allocated a 7-square-metre (75 sq ft) shack with corrugated tin walls and no floor. Utilities in the neighborhood initially consisted of a public water tap where refugees stood in line to fill pails with water, and communal latrines.