Michal Ansky


Michal Ansky, is an Israeli gastronomist, food journalist and television personality.
in Tel Aviv Port

Early life and education

Asnky was born and raised in Jerusalem, to Jewish parents. Her father Alex Ansky was born in 1939 in Bulgaria, into a Ladino-speaking household. Her mother Cherry was born in Israel, into a Yiddish-speaking Masorti household. Michal Asnky's mother is a journalist and gastronomist, and her father, an actor and radio presenter. Michal's paternal grandfather, Eliezer Asher Ansky born Abrabanel was the founder and director of the Bimatenu children's theatre and worked in his sixties as an artist, creating a sculpture for the Tel Aviv Rabbinate and creatively restoring a wall mosaic in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, among others.
Ansky attended the Gymnasia Rehavia school in Jerusalem. She then served as an officer in the Israeli military, in the Air Force filming unit. After completing her military service, she continued to do reserve duty as an administrations officer in the Public Relations Unit.

Education

At the age of 17, Ansky wrote a food column for a local Jerusalem newspaper, Kol Ha’ir.
Following the completion of her military service, Ansky wrote a column called "The Missing Piece" for 'Walla' culture website, was part of the all-girl talk show "Girls" which aired on Hot Cable network in 2007, and wrote and presented a historical and culinary segment for the TV show "Quality time" which aired in 2007 on Channel 1.
In 2007, Ansky founded the Farmers Market at the Tel Aviv Port, which she currently continues to manage. The purpose of the market, which exists these days in six locations in Israel. is to bring fresh agricultural produce directly from the farmer to the consumer, thereby eliminating commissions and reducing the cost to the consumer.
In 2008 she worked as a culinary and cultural reporter for Ma'ariv newspaper and also wrote for the gastronomic magazine "The Food Route". In 2009 she participated in "The Dinner Club", which aired on Channel 2, as a field reporter.
Later on that year, Ansky started hosting two TV cooking shows: "As Fresh As It Gets" alongside Chef Omer Miller and "The Queen of the Market", both focusing on local and organic produce. The TV shows aired for 3 seasons on the Israeli Food Channel and Channel 10.
In 2010 Ansky founded "Shuk Hanamal", the first indoor market in Israel at the Tel Aviv port, together with her husband, the architect Roee Hemed, and Shir Halpern.
In 2010 she hosted "Cooking from Books" for the Israeli Food Channel.
In late 2010, Ansky began presenting the Israeli version of Master Chef, alongside Chefs Haim Cohen, Eyal Shani and Rafi Adar in Season 1, and Cohen, Shani and Yonatan Rochfeld in Season 2 and 3. The show's popularity led to Ansky being invited to join Master Chef USA as a guest judge, along with Chef Gordon Ramsay. In April 2012, Ansky hosted the first season of Junior Master Chef Israel, alongside Haim Cohen, Eyal Shani and Yonatan Rochfeld.
Ansky currently presents the radio show, "Ansky and Enzel" together with Efrat Enzel, on the 103FM radio station.
In December 2012, Ansky gave a talk on food and memories at Tedx Jerusalem, an independently organized TED event.
Ansky's first cookbook, titled "'Food from Home", was published in January 2013.
In 2015 she was involved in few joints culinary ventures with Amir Bramly who invested Rubicon Business Group funds. She also invested her own private funds with Amir Bramly's "Kela fund". In November 2015, following Kela fund's financial difficulties she said in a television interview with Channel 2 news that she lost more than a million NIS via these investments. Restaurants which were owned by Bramly's Rubicon Business group but managed and presented under Ansky's name were closed, and some of her planned future joint ventures with Bramly, including a planned food market in New York City were cancelled as a result. However she managed to salvage some of the planned joint ventures with a court approved "divorce" restructuring, so that they reverted fully to her name in return for a 1.2 million NIS payment to Rubicon.

Personal life

Ansky was married to Israeli architect Roee Hemed. Their daughter was born in February 2011. They divorced in 2013.
In 2019 she fell ill Bell's palsy.