Tala Bashmi ( ar, تاله بشمي; born 1988 or 1989) is a Bahraini chef and restaurateur. Since 2017, she has been

chef patron A chef de cuisine (, French for ''head of kitchen'') or head chef is a chef that leads and manages the kitchen and chefs of a restaurant or hotel A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities ...

of Fusions by Tala, a restaurant within the Gulf Hotel Bahrain Convention & Spa in

Manama Manama ( ar, المنامة ', Bahrani Arabic, Bahrani pronunciation: ) is the capital and largest city of Bahrain, with an approximate population of 200,000 people as of 2020. Long an important trading center in the Persian Gulf, Manama is h ...

. She has also appeared on cooking television shows, notably a 2019 appearance on ''

Top Chef Middle East ''Top Chef'' is an Arabic-language reality competition series based on the American television series of the same name. The contestants compete against each another in culinary challenges and are judged by the show presenter Siham Tueni, head che ...

''.

Biography

Bashmi was born in Bahrain in 1988 or 1989. Growing up, Bashmi's father, who was a writer, often took her to marketplaces to buy food and taught her how to cook with local ingredients. She recalls that her father would introduce her to "weird things and strange dishes" such as pigeon, which encouraged her to experiment and try new foods. Bashmi played for the

Bahrain women's national football team The Bahrain women's national football team was first formed in 2003. The team represents Bahrain in international women's football and thus falls under the governance of the Bahrain Football Association; more specifically run by the women's co ...

for seven years. Afterwards, she studied art in university and opened a

home business A home business or home-based business (HBB) is a small business that operates from the business owner's home office. In addition to location, home businesses are usually defined by having a very small number of employees, usually all immediate f ...

called Baked by T, which sold desserts and reportedly "became an instant hit" in the country according to '' Harper's Bazaar Arabia''. She began her culinary career as a trainee at the Gulf Hotel Bahrain Convention & Spa, a hotel in

. While obtaining a master's degree at the

Culinary Arts Academy Switzerland Culinary Arts Academy Switzerland is a culinary school located in Switzerland and a member school of Swiss Education Group. Bachelor students are based at the Le Bouveret campus in French-speaking Switzerland, on the shores of Lake Geneva. Maste ...

, she trained at the Hotel Les Trois Rois and Restaurant Prisma. She moved back to Bahrain in 2014. Bashmi became

of Fusions, a restaurant in the Gulf Hotel, in 2017. She was a runner-up on the fourth season of the cooking competition show ''

'' in 2019. The following year, Bashmi's restaurant reopened under a new name, Fusions by Tala, after a menu redesign and expansion of restaurant capacity and staff. In December 2021, The World's 50 Best Restaurants awarded Bashmi their

MENA MENA, an acronym in the English language, refers to a grouping of countries situated in and around the Middle East and North Africa. It is also known as WANA, SWANA, or NAWA, which alternatively refers to the Middle East as Western Asia (or a ...

's Best Female Chef Award 2022. Danielle Doporto in '' The National'' wrote in 2022 that the restaurant menu was reflective of "Bashmi's prestigious training, her love for global street eats and nostalgic home cooking, and most of all, her passion for imbuing food with Middle Eastern flair."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bashmi, Tala 1980s births Living people 21st-century Bahraini people 21st-century Bahraini women Bahraini businesspeople Bahraini women's footballers Women chefs Women restaurateurs Women's association football players not categorized by position