Israeli chef Assaf Granit retained his Michelin star for a fifth consecutive year on Monday for his Paris restaurant Shabour, which blends Jerusalem-inspired flavors with French culinary techniques.
The star was awarded at a prestigious ceremony in Paris attended by top chefs from across France. Granit’s restaurant, located in the 1st arrondissement of the French capital, first earned the coveted Michelin distinction in 2020, just months after opening at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In honor of the occasion, Granit made his social media debut, opening an Instagram account after years of avoiding public exposure online. “The Machneyuda Group was never just a restaurant group, but a creative home — fertile ground for the madness that brings people together,” Granit said.
“And if we’re already talking about shared madness — after years of saying I’d never open Instagram, I broke down. Enjoy.”
Shabour’s menu, which changes weekly, merges seasonal French ingredients and techniques with bold, Jerusalem-style seasoning. Among its standout dishes are kubbeh hamusta with oysters and fish in tahini sauce. Granit shares ownership of the restaurant with chefs Uri Navon, Dan Yosha and Tomer Lanzman. Yosha, known from the Israeli cooking show Game of Chefs, serves as the restaurant’s head chef.
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Granit, already known in Paris for his earlier restaurant Balagan, has won acclaim in both France and the UK, where he operates three additional restaurants in London. Just one month after Shabour opened in 2019, Forbes magazine ranked it as the top restaurant among dozens of new openings in Paris and predicted a Michelin star was imminent — an accurate forecast.
The following month, Le Fooding magazine awarded Shabour one of its top culinary prizes. French media have continued to praise Granit’s work, often highlighting the tattooed Israeli chef’s distinctive ability to bring the spirit and flavors of Jerusalem to the heart of Paris.
In an interview with Le Figaro, Granit said his vision for Shabour was to evoke his grandmother’s cooking and the lively atmosphere of a market. “The chef might walk past you to grab a zucchini from a basket behind your seat — to make you zucchini risotto,” he said.