THE ICONIC RESTAURATEUR: LA PALOMA’S MOUJI LONGHI
THERE IS PLACE IN THE NORTHERN HILLS OF IBIZA WHERE TIME STANDS STILL. A PLACE SPOKEN OF IN REVERENT TONES, A HOME TO MANY, WHERE THE ISLAND’S COMMUNITY GATHERS TO FEAST, TO DREAM AND TO SHARE. A THREE-HUNDRED-YEAR-OLD FINCA WITH METRE-THICK WALLS, ANCIENT SABINA BEAMS AND A SUN-SOAKED TERRACE PAINTED IN PALE DUCK-EGG BLUE. WHERE LAVENDER AND SAGE SCENT THE HOT SUMMER AIR AND BY NIGHT CICADAS CRACKLE AMONG THE SWAYING ORANGE TREES. A RESTAURANT, AN INSTITUTION, THE HEARTBEAT OF THE NORTH. THIS IS LA PALOMA.
‘I grew up in Tuscany and spent my teenage years living in India. It was in India that I learned about Ibiza, because a lot of people were living in Ibiza in the summer and Goa in the winter. The first time I came to Ibiza was 1997 and I still remember that feeling of landing here. I just remember looking at the red earth and thinking this is it, this is home. I founded La Paloma 20 years ago with my mother – a chef – and my ex-husband Amit. We’d always loved to cook and host and it felt like the right time to try to create something together. La Paloma was born from nothing – no money, no equipment. The northern community rallied around us and together we created a restaurant from scratch, hand-painting tables and chairs in our signature duck-egg blue and enlisting the help of all our friends. Very quickly La Paloma became a meeting place for a bohemian cast of characters from all over the world and it has remained just that – a hub of the community, for those who live here or pass through.
Our vision was, and still is, to offer heartfelt food prepared with extraordinary produce. Many of the vegetables come from our own garden and as much as possible we use local and organic ingredients – our farmers have become our friends. The menu is still very small and it rotates on a weekly basis depending on what is in season. Back in those early days, we simply offered my mother’s home cooking. Dinner was served beneath the stars in the orange grove, on wobbly tables lit by candles and fairy lights. On sultry August nights, the sound of the cicadas in the citrus trees was deafening. In 2007, our dear friend and chef Nir Cohen joined us and together we created Paloma Café, our Middle- Eastern-influenced lunch concept. The magic of Ibiza has always been the spirit and the freedom of the people who live here: the artists, the creatives, the hippies, the people that make this place wild and quirky. That’s what makes Ibiza – and La Paloma – feel special. You can come here barefoot, you can come with a Gucci handbag, you can come feeding your baby. You can be whoever you are, and that will never change. There is room for everyone on this magical island of ours.’
The magic of Ibiza has always been the spirit and the freedom of the people who live here.