Haya Molcho: The fortune of the chef & CEO of NENI

How much money does Haya Molcho have?

Haya Molcho is a trained psychologist and the wife of the once world-famous mime artist Samy Molcho. But first and foremost she is a cook and founder and owner of the NENI restaurant chain. This now has branches in more than ten European cities. Molcho also increases her wealth with cookbooks and TV appearances. Haya Molcho’s estimated wealth is 4.5 million euros .

Haya Molcho’s sources of income

Haya Molcho is the managing director of the NENI restaurant chain , which currently has eleven locations in cities such as Vienna, Berlin, Munich, Paris and Amsterdam. She also earns money with the NENI am Tisch brand, through which she sells around 25 products in numerous German and Austrian supermarkets. Fees she receives for appearances on TV shows also increase her wealth, as do sales of the four cookbooks she published between 2015 and 2020.

Food as payment

Haya Molcho was born Haya Heinrich in Tel Aviv. Her Romanian parents emigrated there after the Second World War. Her father worked as a mobile dentist and often received vegetables from his patients as payment for treatments. The whole family had to help prepare the rich meals that resulted from this – including Haya. In 1964 the family moved to Bremen, where Haya completed her high school diploma and earned a degree in psychology . In 1973 she met the mime artist Samy Molcho, married him in 1978 and moved to Vienna to be with him.

Culinary world travel

However, the couple regularly travelled around the world , as Samy Molcho performed in countries such as China, Japan and India. Haya Molcho had plenty of opportunity to discover the culinary specialties of each country. In 1984, Nuriel, the Molchos’ first son, was born. Samy Molcho ended his career as a mime one year later and the family stayed in Vienna. From 1986 to 1990, Haya Molcho gave birth to three more sons, namely Elior, Nadiv and Ilan.

The first restaurant NENI

Haya Molcho has always been passionate about cooking in her private life. In 2003, a neighbor asked her to do the catering for a party . This was her first paid job as a cook. From then on, she was regularly booked for catering. In 2008, she decided to open a restaurant. She asked her sons Nuriel and Elior, who studied economics and event management respectively, for help. The restaurant opened its doors in March 2009 on Vienna’s Naschmarkt and is called NENI, which is made up of the first letters of Molcho’s sons’ first names.

Haya Molcho and her great successes

In the following years, Molcho opened more than ten new restaurants in European cities such as Berlin, Munich, Zurich, Paris, Amsterdam and Mallorca, thereby steadily increasing her fortune. Ilan also now works in his mother’s company, which also sells products in supermarkets in Germany and Austria under the NENI am Tisch brand . It also cooperates with the Europe-wide hotel chain 25hours. Molcho regularly appears on TV shows such as Kitchen Impossible with Tim Mälzer , The Taste and Grill den Henssler with Steffen Henssler . She has also written the cookbooks Balagan! (2015), Hayas Küche (2016), Tel Aviv (2018) and Wien (2020).