Assaf Elkanna Granit (; born 20 August 1978) is an Israeli chef and owner of the Parisian restaurant Shabour. In January 2021, Granit was awarded a

Michelin star The ''Michelin Guides'' ( ; ) are a series of guide books that have been published by the French tyre company Michelin since 1900. The ''Guide'' awards up to three Michelin stars for excellence to a select few restaurants in certain geographic ...

for his Shabour restaurant. It is the first Michelin star awarded to an Israeli restaurant in

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

Biography

Granit was born in the Rasco neighborhood of

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

. His parents were native-born Israelis of

Polish Jewish The history of the Jews in Poland dates back at least 1,000 years. For centuries, Poland was home to the largest and most significant Jews, Jewish community in the world. Poland was a principal center of Jewish culture, because of the long pe ...

descent who Hebraized their surname "Guterman". He grew up in the

Nayot Nayot () is a neighborhood in south-central Jerusalem established in 1960 by a group of English-speaking immigrants.''A holy hill becomes home from home'' Haaretz Magazine, Anglo File, December 24, 1999 The neighborhood's population of 2,223 includ ...

neighborhood and attended the Denmark High School in his hometown, where he earned the nickname "Buffalo" which sticks with him to this day. Granit initially served in the army as a combat soldier in the paratroopers brigade. After sustaining an injury during training, he was reassigned to serve as a medic instructor.

Career

Shabour

He opened the restaurant in September 2019. In October 2019,

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...

named it one of the trendiest new restaurants in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. In November, Granit won a major award from the French culinary magazine Le Fooding. In December 2019, the restaurant was named the best restaurant in the French capital by Le Figaroscope, published by the French daily

Le Figaro () is a French daily morning newspaper founded in 1826. It was named after Figaro, a character in several plays by polymath Pierre Beaumarchais, Beaumarchais (1732–1799): ''Le Barbier de Séville'', ''The Guilty Mother, La Mère coupable'', ...

. In January 2021, Shabour received a Michelin star and Serena Williams, among other celebrities, enjoyed a meal there.

Other restaurants

Granit owns and operates other restaurants including Balagan (Paris, opened 2017), the Palomar (

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

), Sella (Saint Barthelemy, opened 2022) and Machneyuda (

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

, opened 2009). He owns other restaurants with business partner Uri Navon as well. Granit was born and trained in

Other projects

In November 2020, Granit won the tender to open six restaurants to feed approximately 3000 employees at the Wix campus in

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( or , ; ), sometimes rendered as Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and usually referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the Gush Dan metropolitan area of Israel. Located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline and with a popula ...

. The campus is set to open in 2022 and Granit's team won the tender to provide all of their meals.

Television

In 2008, Granit was eliminated during the second season of the show "

Knife Fight A knife fight is a violent physical confrontation between two or more combatants in which one or more participants are armed with a knife.MacYoung, Marc, ''Winning A Street Knife Fight'', (Digital format, 70 min.), Boulder, CO: Paladin Press, ( ...

" on Channel 10, and represented Israel in the American version of the show. Since January 2014, Granit has served as a judge on the cooking reality show "Game of Chefs" (Mischakei HaChef) on Channel 13. Since 2015, Granit has hosted the

docu-reality Factual television is a genre of non-fiction television programming that documents actual events and people. These types of programs are also described as observational documentary, fly on the wall, docudrama, and reality television. The genre h ...

show "Revolution in the Kitchen" on Channel 2, which is the Israeli version of the British show "

Kitchen Nightmares ''Kitchen Nightmares'', known in the UK as ''Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares USA'', is an American reality television series originally broadcast on Fox, in which chef Gordon Ramsay is invited by the owners to spend a week with a failing restaurant ...

" hosted by chef

Gordon Ramsay Gordon James Ramsay (; born ) is a British celebrity chef, restaurateur, television presenter, and writer. His restaurant group, List of restaurants owned or operated by Gordon Ramsay, Gordon Ramsay Restaurants, was founded in 1997 and has ...

. In March 2017, the show "Chef Games: Food on Wheels" premiered, in which Granit participated along with chefs Meir Adoni and

Moshik Roth Moshe Aharon "Moshik" Roth (; born 12 December 1971) is an Israeli celebrity chef. He was head chef of restaurant &moshik, &Moshik in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, which held two Michelin Guide, Michelin stars. Biography Born in 1971 in Haifa, Isra ...

. In 2021 he starred in the second season of the series "Being Filmed" which airs on

Hot 3 Hot 3 (styled as HOT3; ; also available in HD as HOT3 HD) is an Israeli television channel of the cable television company HOT.The Next Restaurant" on Channel 13, alongside chefs Moshik Roth, Yossi Shitrit and Ruthie Russo. He guest starred in the second season of the series

Home Alone ''Home Alone'' is a 1990 American Christmas comedy film The comedy film is a film genre that emphasizes humor. These films are designed to amuse audiences and make them laugh. Films in this genre typically have a happy ending, with dar ...

. In 2022, he was a judge on the first Israeli season of '' The Next Restaurant''.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Granit, Assaf Israeli chefs Head chefs of Michelin-starred restaurants Living people Israeli television presenters 1978 births