Sami Tamimi

Sami Tamini was born and raised in Jerusalem and was immersed in food from childhood. He started his career as commis-chef in a Jerusalem hotel and worked his way up, through many restaurants and ethnic traditions, to become head chef of Lilith, one of the top restaurants in Tel Aviv in the 1990s.

Sami moved to London in 1997 and worked at Baker and Spice as head chef, where he set up a traiteur section with a rich Middle-eastern and Mediterranean spread. In 2002 he partnered with Noam Bar and Yotam Ottolenghi to set up Ottolenghi in Notting Hill.

Sami is co-author of three internationally bestselling cookbooks: Ottolenghi: The Cookbook, Jerusalem and Falastin. He is currently at work on his first solo authored cookbook, Boustany, which will be published by Ebury.