Chef Sarig grew up on a small collective farm on the northern coast of Israel. He spent his youth swimming and fishing in the Mediterranean Sea and cultivating citrus fruit, olives and figs. Growing up in the land of milk and honey, he grew to appreciate the bounty of the earth and the importance of freshness. In 1988 Sarig married Nancy and moved to New York. While Nancy went to school and got her MBA from NYU, Sarig worked in a wide variety of restaurant jobs. In 1991 Sarig enrolled at the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco and, upon graduation, went back to New York to cook fish with the great David Bouley at his namesake restaurant.  Later, he worked with Gray Kunz of Lespinasse where he learned to integrate global ingredients into his fresh cooking.

Sarig and Nancy relocated to Raleigh in the spring of 1996 to raise a family. Sarig worked as sous chef with Scott Howell at his Durham restaurant, Nana's, for two and a half years. In January 1999, they opened their first gourmet fine dining restaurant, Butterflies, in North Raleigh. After a few years in North Raleigh, Sarig decided to move to the more trendy and popular downtown area with a new concept that was more casual and had a greater selection of dishes to choose from. In 2004, Chef Sarig and Nancy teamed up with local technology entrepreneur and long time customer Richard Holcomb to create Zely & Ritz.

Chef Sarig's food is "innovative French with Mediterranean and Middle Eastern flavors." He calls it French because he uses classical French techniques but you could just as easily call it New American with regional influences since so much of the ingredients are local to North Carolina.

Sarig is also an active runner who manages to put in almost 50 miles per week in additional to all the time he spends preparing the best food in Raleigh .  Sarig's secret is that he takes his time in the kitchen, but he doesn't waste anytime on the road.  Sarig ran the New York marathon and the Boston marathon in 3 hours 1 minute, making him one of the fastest runners in the country for his age group.  His goal was to beat the 3:00 time and he recently accomplished this by turning in a time of just 2 hours and 55 minutes.  As a runner, Sarig knows that athletes need a special diet while training.  Ask your server for the Chef Sarig Athlete's Special if you're in training when you dine with us.