Sami Tamimi

Sami Tamimi is a Palestinian chef and author living in London. He is the co-owner of six delis and restaurants in London. Tamimi is also the co-author of several bestselling cookbooks, including Ottolenghi (2008), Jerusalem (2012) and Falastin (2020).

In 1999 while Tamimi was running Baker & Spice, Yotam Ottolenghi visited the store. “It was completely magical,” Ottolenghi said. “I saw all these walls and counters covered with a marvelous mix of food. There were Middle Eastern salads, Italian Caprese salads, rotisserie chickens, even char-grilled broccoli.” Soon after Ottolenghi started working there. Tamimi was in charge of the savories and Ottolenghi was in charge of the pastries. The two became friends and talked about going into business together. In 2002 Tamimi became partners with Noam Bar and Yotam Ottolenghi in the deli Ottolenghi in Notting Hill. They have expanded to more locations and now this group runs the restaurants Rovi and Nopi. Tamimi and Ottolenghi have written two critically acclaimed cookbooks, Ottolenghi and Jerusalem. The latter has won many awards, including the International Book Award from the James Beard Foundation in 2013, and it has been credited with starting many cookbook clubs. Tamimi and Tara Wigley coauthored the cookbook Falastin.

Tamimi grew up in a Muslim family in the Old City of East Jerusalem. Tamimi moved out of his family home at 17. He started his career as a porter at Mount Zion, a Jerusalem hotel. Tamimi quickly became a chef at Mount Zion and after a number of jobs he became head chef of Lilith in Tel Aviv. An English customer at Lilith offered Tamimi a job. He accepted and in 1997 he moved to London to run the kitchen at the bakery Baker & Spice.