The son killed in the accident and the divorcee who died of cancer: Irkeli Gonshvili knew quite a few tragedies in his life • In "Master Chef" he hopes for a sweeter sequel
"If the late Kobi, my son, had seen that Eyal Shani complimented me - he would have been proud of me." Gonshvili
Photo:
Kfir Ziv
Life and destiny did not always brighten the face of Irkali Gonshvili.
But just like in his kitchen, the beloved participant from "Master Chef" makes sure to look at the full half of the glass, even if it does not have a lot of sugar in it.
"This is life, what will we do? We will do the best we can and we will live," Gonshvili repeated the mantra during the interview.
With this optimistic attitude he succeeded everything, but when the name of the late Kobi is mentioned, his son who died at the age of 11 in a horrific home accident, his voice suddenly breaks, and Gonshvili is unable to speak.
"My Kobi passed away six years ago, when he fell from a bunk bed.
He broke his wrist, "he recalls in tears." We were very close to each other.
He was my little son, and now he's gone.
It's not easy for me to talk about it.
"I'm not a father like all fathers. I'm with my children like a friend. When I broke my back from a workload, and was in pain, I waited to get compensation. I said to myself, I'll get the compensation money, get back on my feet - and we'll all go on a family trip together. Everything went Kibinimt in one day. "
What actually happened?
"The last day Kobe was at my house he said to me, 'Dad, save a lot of money, I want to do a big bar mitzvah celebration.' He said that sentence on Friday, and on Sunday the disaster happened at his mother's house. Tell me, how can you? To continue living after such a thing? "
Do you dream about him?
"Once, a few years ago. It was the first time he came to me in a dream. He stood with his back to me, but I could hear his voice. He said to me, 'Dad I'm hungry.'
" That day I woke up and felt bad.
I arrived at the hospital, where my gallbladder was removed.
During that year I was hospitalized no less than seven times.
what can I say?
The children should bury the parents - and not the other way around. "
Did you try to think what he would say if he saw you starring on TV?
" Kobe would always come to me with his friends, seven or eight children, and they would play together while I stood and prepared food for them.
They would eat a waste of time.
If Kobe were alive, he would be very happy to see me.
He is always happy to see his father. "
You went through a major bereavement crisis from him.
" When you lose the person closest to you, there are two types of pain: one mental and one physical.
In the body everything you want has been done to me.
I have no organ that has not been injured.
But mental pain?
All in your head.
You control your thoughts, it's you with your life.
I, when I have to think, I go to the sea.
Every wave that passes reminds me of a story, and there I relax. "
* * *
The loss of his little son is just one cruel drop in the life laden with challenges and tragedies that Irkley has experienced so far, and that in fact he is known as the "job" of the successful television cooking show.
He is 51 years old, born and raised in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia.
His father, Rezo, a businessman, passed away 20 years ago, and his mother, Valentina, a housewife, passed away six years ago.
"My mother stayed in Georgia, and I would fly every year to see her," he recalls.
He immigrated to Israel at the age of 25, with his wife at the time, Maya, and the two children he had given birth to by then: his eldest daughter, Meital (28), who was crippled from the age of three months after undergoing failed wheelchair surgery;
The late son Kobi was born in Israel.
"When you pick up a can of cola, is it hard for you?
The answer is no, "he tries to explain his feelings." That's my approach to any situation.
This is life, and what needs to be done is done.
Meital does not know anything else, and she is functional and independent.
My dream is that she will stand on her feet, and that at her wedding I will dance with her.
We are very close, and she consults with me in everything. "
The cousin is married and the father of Michael, Gonshvili's only grandson.
"I and Michael have a good relationship. Luckily, I have children with respect, because I raised and educated them."
How was your immigration to Israel?
"Civil war was raging in Georgia at the time, and it was dangerous to stay there. We were not afraid, but I wanted to immigrate to Israel, so that my children could grow up here. When we got to a stinking hotel in Haifa. We had no one here. We were like sheep. 'Go here, come there '.
"It may sound unpleasant, but for me it was actually a spin.
You are a human, and if you are thrown into the jungle, will you not survive?
Obviously you will survive.
Slowly we learned the language and learned to live.
When we landed in the country, I swear to you, I thought I was in heaven.
Although all.
It was so much fun and happy.
After Haifa, we moved to Holon, to the house I live in to this day, God willing. "
He never considered moving or changing his name." Do you think so?
No way.
My father gave me the name Irkeli.
How can I change? "
His complex life reached a low point in 2004, when he divorced Maya - a move that led him to live on the street." My divorce is the thing I regret most in my life.
First woman came, as they say, from God.
Everyone should maintain the integrity of their family and should be respected, "he sighed.
So why did you get divorced?
" We broke up because I had no money.
There were severe financial problems because I was at home for a long time, after having back surgery.
I could not even walk, and I used a cane.
I did not work, and I am not a person who will ask others for money, because we have respect.
We say, 'It is better to break your head for yourself instead of spoiling your father's name.'
One day Maya told me 'let's get divorced', and I did not fight for it.
I told her, 'Well, let's get divorced.'
I took the bag and left the house. "
Where?
" I left and moved to the street.
For quite a few years I lived on the street.
I slept in the stadium. "
Not taking anything with you when you left the house?
" What suddenly.
After all, it was my children's home. "
So how did you live?
" What God gave - I got along with it.
I left the house, and one day I became a king for nothing.
I went out with a bag with socks, shoes and underwear in it. "
Did you collect alms?
" Are you crazy?
Never.
Walla, I did not ask for a single penny and do not want to ask. "
So what did you do during the rainy and cold winter days?
" There is nothing to do. "
Your children did not take care of you?
" They were still small children, how could they help me?
Anyway, do you think I told them I lived on the street?
When they wanted to meet me I would tell them I was busy.
I have not seen them for several months.
you know why?
Because if we met and David, say, wanted a lollipop from me that cost only a shekel - I had no way to buy it.
So I refrained from meeting them. "Were
they angry with you?
" I had no other choice.
I was not an ordinary person.
Within them they realized that I was in a difficult time.
They were angry with me, but also understood.
What I went through, in the worst movie you can imagine you would not see. "
How would you get food?
" I would eat, do not worry.
On the street you learn to get along. "
How does that fit in with the respect, that you are so careful to maintain?
" None of my relatives knew where I was.
I kept worrying about being clean and not dirty.
If I had seen me in those days, you would not have guessed I was sleeping on a bench.
As you build your palace - this is how you live.
And the big lesson: if you want to be a king, make sure you have a queen's house. "
There were years when you and Maya lived in love.
" There are several types of women.
One is like the wife of a king who is going to fight, and she stands behind him so that they will not attack him.
My Maya was like that, she was a supportive woman.
I was very strong, but without her support I could not.
She was a woman of honor.
She had a very difficult time with me in Georgia, but together we succeeded. "
Seven years ago, Maya contracted cancer, and Gonshvili volunteered to treat her and feed her. After less than a year, she passed away. He describes another challenging period he went through in those difficult days." Maya got the disease, And my son, David, had a motorcycle accident at the same time and injured his knee.
You can not imagine what I went through.
My son was hospitalized in Wolfson, and Maya was hospitalized in Ichilov.
I would move from her to him and back, running from hospital to hospital. "
You treated her for her illness, even though you were already divorced.
" Sure, for me she was still my wife, I did not forget that, and I wanted to support her.
The doctors did not always want me to come, because I was a little crazy about my demands.
But I would come to check that she was being treated properly. "
Did you have a hard time with her death?
" You see a person close to you walking away from you, and you can do nothing.
So how will you feel?
I did not move from her for a whole year, I stayed beside her until her last breath.
I told her everything I wanted to say.
I talked to her about the mistakes we made along the way.
Anyone who makes a mistake in life, then he suffers a lot.
That's exactly what happened to me. "
Are you sorry for breaking up the family?
" Of course I'm sorry, how can I not?
Imagine that your home is full of family and everything you need, and in one day you have nothing.
"I miss Maya, talk to her all the time in my head. I go to the cemetery and tell her things. She and my Kobi are buried in the same cemetery, but not next to each other. I go to them all the time. Tell them about what I'm going through and how I feel."
Did you tell them you cooked while watching TV records?
"Yes. I told them 'I know you will not believe, but I'm on TV, I'm on the team."
* * *
Gonshvili's first job in Israel was as a team leader in a national food distribution line.
He later worked in similar jobs, until his body betrayed him - he said as a result of the physical work and transportation of heavy products.
From then on he got into a tangle of orthopedic surgeries and difficult treatments.
"I underwent surgery from the legs to the head. Two lower back surgeries, one leg operation, four hand surgeries, two heart attacks and a stroke - complete," he recalls.
"Whatever you want, I went through. But this is life, what shall we do?"
Sounds terribly difficult.
"What's hard? You see me here in front of you? So everything's fine. This is life, and what needs to go through you will go through."
Did you not have any moments of despair?
"No, friends would come to visit me every day to be with me and see that I'm fine. In this world, if you do not eat, they will eat you. If you lower your head, they will give you a slap, and if you do not - no one else will do for you. "This is life. Depression is a matter of 'everything in mind'."
And yet, you describe a life that can support some tearful telenovelas.
"What we are told about life, and what we think it will be, in the end it does not turn out that way. My son passed away, after that my wife, followed by my mother. Everyone left me within two years. I said to myself, what is this life? "Concrete on the head and the story will end. It is obviously not easy, but we must continue."
Are you mentally treated professionally?
"I went to a psychologist once, and that's it. What do I have to talk to him about? I understand my life better than he does. What can he tell me I do not know? He studied at university, and I learned from life itself. What I went through he will never understand, nor No matter how much he learns. "
How do you find peace of mind?
"I go fishing, or spend time with my grandson. Michael gave me a new life. After so many bad cases, he is my blessing. A baby who comes into the house brings good things with him. I wish I had more grandchildren, and as many as possible.
" I also smoke. Two or three boxes of cigarettes a day, to relax.
I know it's unhealthy, but I have no choice.
Do you know what it's like to smoke in Master Chef?
Do not ask, there are no breaks.
I also like to drink wine, but I really should not, because I have high blood pressure. "
What does your house look like?
" I have a full and clean house.
I really like to see a clean plate, a clean fork, clean and fresh food.
If not here's a new product just for you!
I clean the house, and my son and wife, who live with me, also take care of cleaning.
You will never find dishes in the sink with us.
The shoes in their place.
I really like clean.
"When you come to my house, you will sit like a human being. Would you like a glass of wine? Please. Would you like a glass of cognac? Please. When you come to my house, you will not go out until you eat and drink. We have nothing else."
Apparently the grandson helped you recover from the beatings.
"For two years I did not shave the beard I had. In the first year because of the mourning for son Kobe, and another year because of the mourning for Maya. When Michael was born, I went into the house, showered and shaved - and went to see him for the first time. I do not know how to describe it, but there was I have a chill from my head to my toes.
"From that day on, I gained strength.
I picked up the baby and said to myself, 'Today I am starting a new life'.
I put the depression aside and said, 'I'm starting to live.'
If I show my children that I am weak, they will take a bad example from me.
How can I show them I'm weak?
What did you do for children if you could not give them a good example? "
Would you like a new relationship today?
" With whom?
Everyone I met just wanted money.
The first question is, 'Where do you work and how much is your salary?' "
For the past two years, he has been working in the sanitation department of the Petah Tikva municipality.
After all, I do not have a millionaire grandfather, and I have no choices.
If I could, I would sit in front of the sea all day. "
* * *
He does not sit in front of the sea, but he easily won the heart of prime time, as one of the most prominent contestants in the flagship reality show of Keshet 12 (Saturday and Sunday evenings).
"David, my son, signed me up for auditions. He told me, 'Daddy try, maybe you'll succeed and we'll see.' God gave me a chance and luck, and I got on the team," he recalls.
"Already after the first audition, they told me, 'Come on, come on.' They asked me to make two dishes. I made them chachpuri and another dish of nuts and bread, which is actually a French baguette. The way they tasted - they told me 'you were accepted'.
" Part.
In general, it is very difficult to get me excited.
Why should I get excited?
We are all ultimately people.
the judges?
They are human beings who eat and drink like me and you. "
When did you even start cooking?
" As a child I would sit next to my mother when she would prepare food, and she would give me tasks to do.
She would cook the classic Georgian cuisine, and I helped her with chores.
She would let me peel potatoes and other things like that, that I could do.
She then underwent surgery and was in critical condition, so I needed more help at home.
My dad and my older brother would go to work - and I would stay to take care of the cooking.
I like to play with Georgian cuisine. "
In previous seasons of" Master Chef "he did not watch." I do not watch TV at all, so I did not watch any season. "
Not every day a chef in the caliber of Eyal Shani tells you" If I were soup - I would Waiting for generations to come and prepare me. "Haim Cohen and Michal Ansky were also enthusiastic about you.
" It's flattering, but everyone who tastes my food - never forgets it in life. "
What reactions did you get to the program?
"I'm a person whose whole life is home and work, and my friends did not even know I was going to the show. When they saw me, they were happy for me. There was one funny moment, when a municipal worker who came to dump garbage at my job, at six-thirty in the morning, asked to be photographed with me. With him a picture. It's not nice to say no. "
Do you believe exposure will advance you?
"No, I do not need advertising. I am a normal person."
And if they offer you to work in the kitchen of a leading restaurant?
"I have a problem standing on my feet for long hours. If I stand for more than two hours, I have to take painkillers. Today I mostly drive a car and supervise the work of others."
You do not feel a miss that you did not persevere from your youth in culinary?
"Opening a restaurant is not easy. You need a lot of money for it. While I was on my feet and healthy, I tried to initiate things in that direction, but I could not get to it."
You will probably be offered to star in an advertising campaign soon.
"Do you think so? I just miss it. Do you want me to be laughed at?"
Why laugh?
good income.
"Depends on what advertisement. I already told you that respect is important to me, and I will not do anything that does not suit me."
erans@israelhayom.co.il