Where the Chefs Eat: Sami Tamini’s favourite restaurants in Umbria

Sitting with Sami Tamini in his beautiful, sunlit London kitchen, his two dogs lying loyally by his side, our conversation is a happy reflection of his own childhood memories. He tells me of the beauty of his homeland in Palestine; the warm and welcoming nature of his relatives and their love of fresh ingredients often cooked in a large boustan (garden).

Boustany (the Arabic word for ‘my garden’) has been released as a stunning collaboration of recipes, but also, as he says, “a journey of self-discovery and a celebration of the connections forged through food. The book is a tribute to the beauty of culinary exploration and the profound impact it can have on our lives.”

Sami Tamini is a Palestinian chef and author living in London

Tamini is a well-known member of Yotam Ottolenghi‘s alumni, having spent two decades managing the operations side of the food and kitchens business. He co-authored the Ottolenghi Cookbook with Ottolenghi himself, as well as the bestseller Jerusalem, and subsequently collaborated with Tara Wigley, one of Ottolenghi’s in-house writers, on Falastin. Tamini has since gone solo and spent about four years thinking about Boustany before it came to be.

It was the isolation and solitude of 2020’s lockdown that gave him the mental space to develop a germinating idea. Tamini and his partner spent eight months of lockdown in the Italian region of Umbria, so he says, “the idea of the book came about there, and I wrote all of it there, too. The weather in the summer in Umbria is very similar to that in Palestine. I would pick all these herbs, fruits, and vegetables during lockdown, finding solace in cooking. And it was a weird time because it made me think of home, and it made me look for comfort, as I’m sure many did. I found myself looking to connect with family who were so far away. I originally thought about doing it as a sort of travel cookbook, but even then, Palestine was always going to be the base.”

Tamini admits that, while the book is optimistic, “it was very difficult for me to write at times, with what is happening [in Palestine]. But actually, I think this is the right time to release it because you hear about Palestine at the moment, and you hear about people being killed and starving. But, as a people, we love life. And we celebrate life. And that’s the culture that I come from.”