Asaf Granit Responds to Anna Aronov for the First Time: “Do You Really Think That’s How I Recruit Employees? Give Me More Credit!”

Last month, a storm erupted on social media and gossip sites when Anna Aronov turned on her camera and, in a series of stories, told her followers that her ex, chef Asaf Granit, had tried to recruit a cook who works at the wine bar owned by her husband, Eyal Elgabi. “I’m burning with anger!” Aronov declared angrily. “Asaf Granit came to our small, cute wine bar to steal employees. What is this disgusting method?” Aronov did not stop there and elaborated, “The moment our cook went outside, his employee approached him and asked if he wanted to work abroad. What kind of nerve is that? It’s disgusting! And you’re brazen! It makes me furious, ew.” She concluded, “Granit, being a human being is not the main thing, it’s better to be a good human being. Pfft.” Granit, for his part, did not respond, until now. As a professional who knows the business and the potential for a good headline here, he saved his first reaction for a photo shoot day for a new campaign for the olive oil and Galilean products brand “Saba Habib.”

“When you know you’re behaving correctly, it doesn’t affect me in any way,” he says now to Pplus about the drama surrounding him. “It works to put my name in headlines, and that’s also part of the game.” But did you really try to steal their cook? “It’s a very funny story! I had a meeting with a colleague who asked to meet in North Tel Aviv because it was convenient for him, and I came to that meeting with my partner Tomer Lanzman. The cook who prepared the food for us went outside, and it’s important to note that he’s a good-looking guy. Tomer noticed him, wanted to hit on him, and, in an attempt to impress him, suggested that maybe he should come work for him at his restaurants abroad. At that moment I had no idea any of this was happening, and that I was in Anna’s restaurant. Just before we left, Anna’s husband, Eyal, arrived, and I didn’t recognize him at all. They introduced us.”

When did you realize there was an issue? “We were in the car and my phone started getting bombarded. I asked Tomer, ‘What did you do? What did you say to the cook when you were standing with him outside?’ and then I understood what happened.”

How does it look from your side when something like this blows up online? “I understand how this developed and became public, but you have to understand, I have 32 restaurants in seven different countries. Do you really think that’s how I recruit employees? Give me more credit. I’m not going to restaurants in Israel, sit down in them and recruit employees, that’s not how I work.”

Have you spoken with Anna since? “No, but now everyone knows where Anna’s place is and that I need employees, everyone won.”

This is not the first time the chef’s name has been linked to similar circumstances. In November 2025, restaurateur Ruti Brodo said on the podcast “Leshat Takeh” that Granit was a regular customer at her restaurants and used to “hunt” her employees. Granit rejected the claims and explained that these were workers who had finished their employment in Brodo’s restaurant group and only afterward came to work for his chain. “I think Ruti is an amazing professional and I respect her more than I respect many people in this field in the country. She has made a tremendous contribution to Israel’s culinary and hospitality industry. On a personal level, we don’t have personal circles. There is no beef between us,” he said.

The tensions between Granit and Aronov were not the only ones to make headlines recently. Chef and fellow MasterChef judge Haim Cohen appeared to throw what seemed like a jab at Granit, who stars on Channel 13’s competing show HaShagririm, The Chef’s Game. “On The Chef’s Game there is one dictator,” he wrote, adding humorously that on his show there are “four dictators, but there is democracy.” Granit actually did respond to that, with a supportive story offering an olive branch and praising Cohen for his work. Now Granit explains to us: “We need to go back to what Haim actually said. We talk all the time. He didn’t even respond to me, and not to Yossi Shitrit’s move to them either. He was talking about a culinary podcast in which they discussed the transition from The Chef’s Game to MasterChef, and there was an implication of a generational change and that Haim Cohen is training Yossi so he can replace him. I can understand why that upset Haim. No one is replacing Haim, he is a cornerstone of Israeli cuisine.”