Gil Hovav

Gil Hovav (; born March 17, 1962) is an Israeli TV presenter, culinary journalist, restaurant critic, and author. The Jewish Chronicle described him as "Israel's most famous television chef and cookery-book writer," and The Forward calls him "Israel's top foodie." He is the grandson of Itamar Ben-Avi, who began modern Israeli journalism, and the great-grandson of Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, who revived Hebrew as a modern language.

Early life Hovav was born in Jerusalem, Palestine. In his youth he lived there in the Katamon and Kiryat Shmuel neighborhoods, and he is Jewish. His parents, Yemenite-Israeli and Ashkenazi-Israeli , were among the first members of Kol Yisrael, the first public radio in Israel. His father was the chief news announcer and head of radio, and his mother headed radio stations Reshet Bet and Reshet Gimel.

He is the maternal grandson of Itamar Ben-Avi, a journalist born in Jerusalem, Ottoman Empire in 1882 who began modern Israeli journalism. The Yemenite Jewish side of his family walked from Yemen to Palestine in the late 19th century.

When he was five years old, during the battle for Jerusalem in the Six Day War in 1967, he and his family hid in their building's shelter for four days. He initially supported himself as a bartender at the Jerusalem Sheraton Hotel, by teaching Arabic, and by cleaning homes. He also worked as a restaurant reviewer and deputy editor of the weekly supplement for Israel's largest circulation daily, Yediot Achronot. He said that he preferred to inform those who read his reviews where they might like to eat, instead of which restaurant gave him "heartburn". The Jewish Chronicle described him as "Israel's most famous television chef and cookery-book writer", and The Forward calls him "Israel's top foodie". In 2001, while at Ground Zero after the 9/11 attack, he cooked a breakfast of shakshuka for 500 firefighters who were working at the fallen World Trade Center.

Television career Hovav has created, written, produced, and presented a number of cooking programs and food programs on television. "Going to the Market" ("Ossim Shuk," with him visiting different food markets) on the Channel 2 concessionaire Telad (2001), "Captain Cook" (with him globetrotting and exploring the world's best restaurants) on the Channel 10 (2002–03), "Making a Holiday" on Channel 3, "Gil Hovav and the Extras" on Channel 3 (2005), "The Israeli Food Parade" on Channel 2, "The State's Dish" on Channel 2 (2008), and "The Flying Chef" (2009–11). On the show, Hovav met with interviewees in their home, cooked dishes from literary classics, and took his interviewees to a bookstore where they discussed their favorite books. In 2011 to 2012, Hovav was a presenter for the Israeli Army Radio program "Roaring Night Birds". Asked in late 2012 why he wasn't on television of late, he said "I think I'm not very suitable for this decade's television. Because I'm not a blonde with big tits... There used to be a place for bald people on TV, but now there isn't."

In 2013, Hovav presented the program "Meals that Made History" on Channel 23. Each episode depicted a recipe related to a historical period covered in the episode, such as shrimp in orange sauce at the Last Supper (according to the painting by Leonardo da Vinci), and featured interviews with historians and archaeologists.

As of 2016, he was the voice of the announcements at Ben Gurion Airport.

In 2017, Hovav directed the tourism program "Open Skies" on the Israeli "Keshet 12" channel. In 2019, he started presenting the "Ochel Israel" podcast belonging to the .

Personal life Hovav is gay, and lives in Tel Aviv, Israel.

He came out at 25 years of age, and says "it was so easy it was embarrassing". He did, however, once grab a sign at a protest supporting the LGBT movement, and chanted slogans as he marched with the sign, only to discover later when he looked at the sign that written on it were the words: "I'm a proud lesbian!"

The couple lived in San Francisco, California, for three years as Halperin completed postdoctoral work at Stanford University. They have a daughter whose mother is Deborah Frishberg (a former basketball player for Hapoel Haifa and the Israeli national team, and a member of Kibbutz Ein Dor).

Written works By 2013, Hovav had published 16 books. My Family's Kitchen: (illustrations–Noam Nadav). 1996 Sun, Sea and Food: Mediterranean cooking (together with Ayelet Latovitch, Dalia Penn-Lerner; photos–Nelly Shafer; (Moden, 1998) Gifts from the Kitchen (Moden, 1999) Ten Diets: how to choose the diet that suits you best. (together with Ruthi Aviri Bar-El; illustrations–Yizhar Cohen, photographs–Ariel Shafran, Toad, 2003) The Sweets of Gil Hovav (photos–Moti Fishbein); Toad, 2008) How to Have Fun (Moden, 2009) Cooking with 5 Ingredients (Toad and Moden, 2012) Confessions of a Kitchen Rebbetzen (in English; Toad and Moden, 2012) Twenty-four Doors (Moden, 2015) Candies from Heaven (in English; Hovav, 2017) Closer from Afar: Short stories and novella (2021)