Entrepreneur and Real Housewife Tamara Elbaz: ‘When I moved to PC Hooftstraat, things went crazy’

First she wanted to meet in the Cornelis Schuytstraat, but then it had to be The Valley, on the Zuidas. “There are many old cars in the Cornelis Schuyt, which doesn’t look good in the photo,” says Tamara Elbaz. “Actually, cars never look good in photos.”

Aren’t Cornelis Schuytstraat mainly home to expensive new cars?

“I see a lot of old cars among them. We are now at the Zuidas in this beautiful building, it suits me better.”

Her sister already lived in Amsterdam, in Osdorp, when Tamara Elbaz fled Volendam. “I knew I had to come here. I lived with her for the first five months, then I felt that I had to go South. I eventually came to live in PC Hooftstraat, where things went wild. I went to a party or an event every night. That took ten years.”

Tamara Elbaz owns Mr. & Mrs. Green, a nutritional supplement company. “On a natural basis. I have personally benefited greatly from taking supplements. It was difficult for me to get pregnant. After using supplements I was successful in two months. We have more than a hundred varieties, for everything. I completed training and then started developing the supplements.”

Elbaz is also one of the participants in the Videoland series The Real Housewives of Amsterdam, although she lives in Marbella in the winter. And she is, with her best friends Farja Farvardin and fellow Housewife Maria Tailor, creator of the podcast GeenFilter.

In it, Elbaz said earlier this year that she pooped on her hand in the toilet so that her then boyfriend wouldn’t hear a splash. “The whole of the Netherlands now knows that I poop on my hand. I did put paper on that, but it wasn’t directly on my hand.”

Is it important to stand out in your work?

“That episode of the podcast was about fears. We always have a topic – something that a lot of people are talking about, but they don’t dare to say what they really think about it. We do that, that’s why it’s called NoFilter.”

“Maria is afraid of poop, that’s how we came up with this. I always try to maintain my femininity. Dutch women walk around defecating and farting next to their husbands, who think this is part of life. I find that super uncharming.”

“The danger is that my friends are like-minded people. We are all crazy, then I no longer know what deviant behavior is. But we have the most fun together, it’s a very nice life. They all live in Oud-Zuid, yes.”

Tamara Elbaz’s mother is from Volendam, her father is a Moroccan Israeli. “My mother discovered that she is also Jewish, her family’s name was originally Salomon, which was corrupted to Snoek. Her maiden name was Buijs. They don’t know it themselves, but almost everyone in Volendam is Jewish. They came from Spain and stayed because there was money to be made fishing. Volendam residents are all entrepreneurs, money is very important.”

“My mother was a hippie and wanted to spread her wings. Almost no one in Volendam did that. She went to Israel to learn more about her Jewish side in a kibbutz. There she met my father and my sister was born there. They realized that she would later have to join the Israeli army and my parents did not want that. My father was forced to serve in the army there, he is still traumatized by it. Then they moved to Volendam.”

How was that?

“My father’s family came from Morocco and Israel, he was used to talking to everyone on the street, socializing and eating together. I’m like that now too. In Amsterdam I meet ten new people a day. My father had no connection at all in Volendam, which made him sad. Volendam residents are always at work, in fishing or construction. They don’t like chatting on the street with people from outside.”

“I first went to live with a boy from Volendam. Everyone did that, I thought that was the way it was supposed to be. The house had to be spotless, I used a vacuum cleaner to clean the front and back sidewalks. Curtains were also very important, a real status symbol. We had the most expensive curtains. After a few months I thought: I don’t want this at all. Then I went to live with my sister in Osdorp. I was twenty.”

What did you find?

“In Volendam people thought it was strange that I came from somewhere else and then I also behaved differently, they thought: what kind of crazy is that? I was welcomed in Amsterdam: how interesting, your origins and how nice that you are a little different. I belong here. Amsterdam is open-minded and ambitious, with many entrepreneurs. A city of stimuli, that’s what I like.”

“The first time I came to Amsterdam without my parents, I was fifteen. Frans Molenaar had discovered me, the couturier. I started walking fashion shows for the big designers. Between the ages of twenty and thirty I went to all the parties and events. That was useful for my work: look, there’s Tamara, we can ask her for something. Or they were asked: are you coming to dinner tonight? I was single, so I would rather sit in a restaurant in the evening than be alone on the couch at home.”

“I don’t drink alcohol or do drugs, that’s why I lasted so long, I think. At 30, it was time to settle down and have a child. I met a man who lived in Brasschaat, Belgium. I could recover there from Amsterdam. Later we moved to Marbella, but we divorced there. I still live there half the year, so that my ex can continue to see his child.”

You are a Real Housewife of Amsterdam who does not live here?

“After the divorce I immediately came to Amsterdam. I was here during the filming last year. Maria was already there and asked if I wanted to participate. I was looking forward to a new adventure. During my relationship, which lasted eleven years, I was really a housewife type. Participating was good for my reach on social media and for the fame of my company.”

What is your role in the series?

“I’m the village idiot. Spiritually, I do tarot cards and I do money affirmations. If you tell yourself you will get rich, it will happen. And I think I was the biggest wrangler of the second season. One argument was over who would get which makeup artist. And the other was because no breakfast was made when we went to stay with one of the women. I found that so inhospitable. Those arguments both lasted three episodes. They are first world problemsYes.”

Do you still come to Osdorp often?

“My sister continued to live there. She thinks I’m naive, but I stay in that bubble of positive vibes. People say Amsterdam is a tough city. That is not my experience, I meet really nice people.”

“I don’t come to Osdorp often, only when I visit her. You won’t easily find me in the Bijlmer either. Last year I went to the Kwaku Festival for the first time. I was wearing Paul Schulten couture, I thought I was going to a party. It was more of a party with plastic chairs.”

“I prefer to be in Oud-Zuid. Have lunch in Nela or Brasserie Margaux. This is an international environment, with many expats and entrepreneurs. Other parts of Amsterdam are also international, but not in the same way.”