Sami Tamimi 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 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 & 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.

Alongside Yotam Ottolenghi, Sami Tamimi is co-author of two bestselling cookbooks: Ottolenghi: The Cookbook and Jerusalem: A Cookbook, which the New York Times recently named as one of the 25 most influential cookbooks from the last 100 years. Sami's third cookbook Falastin is co-authored with Tara Wigley and won the Fortnum & Mason Cookery Book of the Year 2021. Sami's first solo cookbook, Boustany, will be published in 2025.