Keepers of the flame: Galit nabbed a Michelin star ‘for hummus, falafel and pita’ — and it’s just getting started

If simplicity is an illusion, then Galit is a magic show.

Many diners at this Lincoln Park restaurant have no clue the hummus is prepared over multiple days, that the falafel involves dozens of steps, that the foie gras blintz had countless predecessors, or that Zachary Engel — the chef behind it all — tastes every batch.

“That’s why it’s good: No shortcuts,” Engel says. “People often say, ‘That’s the best version of this I’ve ever had.’ ”

Average doesn’t cut it for Engel. After winning the James Beard award for Rising Star Chef of the Year in 2017 at Shaya, a modern Israeli restaurant in New Orleans, he wanted to create his own Middle Eastern menu from scratch. Naming it after his daughter, Margalit, he opened the bright white storefront on Lincoln Avenue in 2019 with general manager and co-owner Andrés Clavero, his friend and former classmate. It won its first Michelin star earlier this year.

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Engel wears his heart on his menu: a story of the plates and techniques he’s pursued to perfection throughout his culinary career in Philadelphia, Israel, California and New Orleans. It all fits on a four-course, $78 price-fixe menu that takes the tongue on a tour from Turkey to Yemen, across the Middle East.

“People call this Israeli food. I’m not Israeli. My business partner is part Palestinian,” Engel says. “This is an approach to Middle Eastern cuisine from a personal perspective, utilizing as much of the bounty the Midwest has to offer.”

Dishes such as Bubbe’s Brisket and the Armenian-meets-Lower-East-Side pastrami pay homage to Engel’s Jewish upbringing, which was defined by food, or lack thereof. As the son of a rabbi too busy to cook and a mother too uninterested, Engel was alone in his culinary keenness. So, he befriended the kitchen.

“I had to pursue it,” he says. “When we would travel to places, I would eat really great food. My parents weren’t opposed to going out and trying great stuff. They just didn’t know what they were doing in the kitchen.”

After graduating from Tulane University in 2010 and cooking throughout college, Engel took his business degree straight to the kitchen. He began working in Israeli food from the get-go, first at Zahav in Philadelphia, and then at Stagiaire in Tel Aviv. He attributes forming an intimate relationship with the cuisine early on as a catalyst for Galit’s success.

“The truth is, it’s all about reps. You have to get in the reps to know what you’re capable of in terms of creative thought, execution and dishes,” Engel says. “People who don’t want to do the reps don’t understand what their limits are, or how limitless they are.”

While Galit’s DNA is interfaith, Engel said he’s proud his identity is still part of the equation. His self-curated wine menu, for example, features Jewish winemakers in the Middle East, a friendly reminder about the lands and people underpinning the restaurant’s philosophy. And its mix of Lebanese, Palestinian and Israeli grapes make the cellar one of Chicago’s most unique.

“I don’t think that I’m a representative of Jews everywhere,” he says. “But people do know me as Jewish, so I think showcasing it in a way that’s not a Larry David show is a good thing.”

As a dad, Engel says opening Galit was like raising a child all its own. He almost lost it during the pandemic, when safety eclipsed pleasure and spenders stayed inside. To keep the lights on, he met them halfway by humbly redesigning Galit’s menu to go.

“Nobody gives a s— if you’re a celebrity chef when you’re doing takeout,” Engel says. “The only thing that kept this restaurant afloat, by and large, was that we continued to put out the best possible food we could.”

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Engel no longer frets about “external validation,” collecting high praise or putting plaques on the wall. He’s concerned about the “not sexy” parts of an award-winning restaurant: getting the vents cleaned, making sure employees have health insurance and earning enough to support his family.

“If I’m not doing that, then none of the other stuff matters,” he says.

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But ego aside, he still revels in Galit’s success and the odyssey it took to get here.

“People say all the time that the restaurant’s not as good as everyone else makes it out to be. All I really need is the (Michelin) star on the wall,” he says. “We got it for hummus, falafel and pita.”

Engel’s confidence in Galit’s longevity is rapturous. After spending years under other chefs who strove for the same, now, he says, it’s his turn to settle in for good.

“I’m not interested in opening a restaurant for five years and then not making it. My point of opening a restaurant in a city like Chicago is to open a restaurant that’s iconic,” he says. “What are you in this for if you’re not trying to do that?”

2429 N. Lincoln Ave., 773-360-8755, galitrestaurant.com

[ Read more about our Keepers of the Flame series here ]

Max Abrams is a freelance writer.

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