“Our food culture serves as an amazing ambassador.”

I was raised in Jerusalem and at the age of 14 I moved to a boarding school in Ein Gedi near the Dead Sea. When I finished school, I took any food-related job I could find, making first steps in the culinary world.

At the age of 23, I was able to fulfill a big dream of mine, moving to Milano, Italy, where I learned a lot and expanded my horizons.

Upon moving back to Israel, I opened my first restaurant, Piatto. Today I own and operate a catering company, cooking for events held all over the world, in addition to teaching and mentoring at Israeli culinary institute Bishulim.

The Israeli culinary world is getting recognized globally in the last decade. Our food culture serves as an amazing ambassador and I’m proud to be a part of it along with my fellow chefs, growers and restaurateurs.

My biggest motivation is my great family that also acts as my biggest support. I am constantly pushing to learn and evolve, to make people happy and excited when they experience my food. I look at each person tasting what I made, as if they were my daughters and wife sitting at the table.

Together with my partner, Orly Segal, I am working on Tel Aviv Groove, an amazing project bringing Israeli chefs as well as local makers of some of the world’s best wine and produce, to people worldwide. Israeli chefs will be sharing their best work to create a true meeting point of local and Israeli cuisine, introducing Israel’s diverse culture to people globally.

Opening a restaurant is one of the hardest things one could do. It is demanding, stressful and full of challenges. But it’s totally worth it, since the reward of getting people excited about food you created is really unmatched. With Tel Aviv Groove, we are facing similar challenges to those of a restaurant — but on a greater scale. Still, the potential to create such a unique culinary experience makes it worthwhile.

My vision of the future would be living with my family in my vineyard, taking care of our horses, making cheese and wine and cooking seasonal, honest and exciting food for the people we host in our intimate and inspiring space.