Chef Nir Zook - a senior Israeli chef, food columnist for the news paper ‘ Yediot Aharonot’, the author of cookbooks and host of many cooking programs on television.

Chef Nir Zook began his culinary career at the age of 13, in various kitchens around his parents' house located on ‘Kfar Warburg’, a village in southern Israel. At age 16 he moved to Tel Aviv and worked at the restaurant Fabio, with Chef Avner Avraham, pioneer of Italian cuisine in Israel. After a while, Nir Zook became a sue chef of the restaurant .

After two years he began working in the restaurant "Al Hamaim" in Herzeliya, where he began his love affair with seafood and fish.

During those years a culinary scene had began to bloom in Israel, Chef Nir Zook decided to enrich himself and moved, to specialize, in San-Francisco and Paris, where he worked in La Dybelyak, fish and seafood restaurant decorated with two Michelin stars, and with famous confectioner Ge’rard Mulot.

A year later he returned from Paris and decided to open the door to his house in Jaffa for people to dine. There were four impressive tables and he submitted a magical tasting meal, a meal inspired by the restaurants and Chefs he was acquainted with during his stay in Paris. This meal had moved with him, by 1999, to a larger restaurant - the famous Cordelia Restaurant – Chef Restaurant.

Two years after the opening of a restaurant Cordelia, chef Nir Zook opened a bistro named Noa, as befits a French tradition - the french open a bistro next to the chef restaurants. Noa Bistro – lower prices and layed back atmosphere, relying on the chef restaurant's kitchen products. There for high quality food in low prices.

Two years later chef Nir Zook opened, across the road from Cordelia restaurant, a bar. In a gesture to the city he loves he called the bar - Jaffe Bar. There, along with high quality alcohol, he also serves magical dishes from the chef's kitchen. And almost without noticing, the charming alley on old Jaffa became a dining area of chef Nir Zook.

Around the time he established the compound, the chef worked on two more levels - television, and literature. He hosted the program ‘Zookaria’ , broadcast on Channel 2 and channel of good living. In addition he hosted two specials.

Chef Nir Zook published two cookbooks - "Skipping between the pots” - in 2005, and “Nir Zook cooks - recipes from the program ‘Zookaria’” - in 2007.

Towards the end of 2009, a decade after the establishment of a restaurant in Cordelia, Chef Nir Zook started to broadcast a new television program called "A Chef by surprise”. The unique format is an invention of the Chef himself, when he searches in different cities for a family who would agree to let him cook for them a meal in their homes, but only from the products in their kitchen and gardens. The program is broadcast on Channel 10 on Friday at 18:00.

Simultaneously, Chef Nir Zook opened, along with Chef Liran Gruda, the patisserie- ‘Napoleon’ - located within walking distance of Chef Nir Zook compound, near the famous ‘ Ilana Goor Museum’, watching over the magical boardwalk built along the coast in Jaffa.

Chef Nir Zook also represents Israel on Foreign Ministry events, including - cooking dinner with a German chef to mark 40 years of diplomatic relations between the countries in the presence of Garman Chancellor and Israel’s Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. He also cooked a gourmet meal to promote relations between Israel and Kazakhstan; And represented Israel at the Fall Festival, in Linz, Austria.

Chef Nir Zook was elected by the State Department to represent the culinary culture of Israel in the book ‘Face Of Israel’, as one of the leading chefs in Israel.