Draft:Gil Hovav

Gil Hovav (גיל חובב) is an Israeli TV presenter, culinary journalist, restaurant critic, and author.

Biography
Hovav was born in Jerusalem on March 17, 1962. Hovav is the great-grandson of Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, who revived the Hebrew language and the maternal grandson of Itamar Ben-Avi, who began modern Israeli Journalism. His parents, Moshe Hovav and Drora Ben Avi, were both some of the first members of Kol Yisrael, the first public radio in Israel.

Hovav studied at the Rehavia Hebrew High School and the Hebrew University and completed a graduate degree in French literature and general studies.

Journalism Career
From 1989-1993, Hovav worked in the newspaper Hadashot as a reporter in the Shabbat supplement, criticizing restaurants and culture. Then he worked for the newspapers Ha'ir and "Haaretz" as a restaurant critic. In his early years he also worked as a restaurant reviewer for Yedioth Ahronoth.

In 2000, he founded the book publishing house "Toad", which publishes the cookbooks, novels, and collections of short stories that he wrote and compiled.

Television Career
Hovav presented and wrote several cooking programs on television. These include the first two seasons of the food series Garlic, Pepper and Olive Oil on Channel 1 (2000-1998), "Ushim Shuk" on the Channel 2  concessionaire Telad (2001),  "Captain Cook" on the Channel 10 (2002-2003), "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" (2009-2011).

In 2009, he began presenting the program "Food for thought" on Channel 23, in which he interviewed numerous noble laureates including John Nash and Elie Wiesel. On the show, he met with interviewees in their home, cooked dishes from literary classics, and took his interviewees to a bookstore where they discussed their favorite books. The program ended its broadcast in 2013.

In 2011, the IDF airwaves began airing the "Roaring Night Birds". The program was dropped a year later.

In 2013, he presented the program "Meals that made history" on Channel 23. Each episode depicted a recipe related to a historical period covered in the episode and featured interviews with historians and archaeologists.

In 2017, he directed the tourism program "Open Skies" in request 12.

In 2019, he started presenting the "Ochle Israel" podcast belonging to the Making History Network. The podcast includes restaurant recommendations, recipes and other food related tips.

Personal Life
Hovav lives in Tel Aviv with his partner Professor Danny Halperin, a computer scientist at Tel Aviv University. They have a daughter whose mother is Deborah Frishberg (a former basketball player in Hapoel Haifa and the Israeli national team and a member of Kibbutz Ein Dor).

Written Works

 * Kitch (קיטש) : Jerusalem, Keter. 1995
 * 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)
 * Making a business at a young age (Together with Tzipi Lavi; photos - Billy and Aviram) (Toad Publishing, 2001)
 * 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)
 * Red, white and everything in between: wine for people like you and me (Ther, 2004)
 * Gil Hovav and the Extras: The Recipe Book of the TV Show (Toad, 2005)
 * Candies from Heaven (In Hebrew) (illustrations - Noam Nadav) (Toad, 2007)
 * The Sweets of Gil Hovav (photos - Moti Fishbein) (Toad, 2008)
 * Grandma's food (dish photography - Itiel Zion; portrait photography - Reli Abrahami; recipe research and editing - Eli Hoffner) (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)
 * A Little Book About the Big World (Moden, 2020)
 * Closer from afar: Short stories and novella. (2021)