Sami Tamimi

Coming Up

A kitchen career often starts with proximity before authority, and Sami Tamimi began in Jerusalem as a porter at Mount Zion hotel in Jerusalem, then moved into the kitchen as chef at Mount Zion hotel in Jerusalem. That sequence matters: it places him first within the working rhythm of service, then inside the discipline that service demands. He went on to become head chef at Lilith in Tel Aviv, adding another layer to a practice built through repetition, pace, and responsibility. In 1997, he took the helm as head chef at Baker & Spice in London, where the role confirmed the range of a chef already moving with control across cities and kitchens. By 2002, Sami had become partner at Ottolenghi in Notting Hill, London, shifting from execution to shared ownership. Since 2002 he has been co-owner of Ottolenghi group (six delis and restaurants, including Rovi and Nopi), a position that reflects continuity rather than rupture: the same standards extended across a larger operation. Read together, the roles map a progression from porter to chef, head chef to partner and co-owner, each step adding responsibility without changing the central concern: how to carry a food culture forward in contemporary London.

Where They Are Now

At Ottolenghi in London, Sami’s cooking is associated with plant-forward dishes that are abundant, full of flavor, and deeply rooted in Palestinian cooking. The style is direct in its pleasures: vegetables, herbs, and spice handled with generosity, so the plate reads as composed but not mannered. It is work that keeps faith with origin without treating tradition as fixed, and that makes room for color, texture, and sharing. He has also put that approach into words: "This is me being resilient as a Palestinian but also recognizing that I am privileged to have a voice and talking about our food is a way of keeping it alive." The point is plain. For Tamimi, the chef’s job includes preservation, not just production. Food becomes a working archive, a way of keeping Palestinian cooking visible in the present tense.

Signature

Sami's signature dishes include Boustany, Falastin, Jerusalem, and Ottolenghi. Each title locates the work in a specific field of reference, linking the cooking to place, memory, and the terms through which identity is carried. Taken together, they show a practice that treats naming itself as part of the plate: a way of anchoring flavor to geography and belonging.

In Their Words “This is me being resilient as a Palestinian but also recognizing that I am privileged to have a voice and talking about our food is a way of keeping it alive.”