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Food

Nof: The secret chef of M&S

An Israeli MasterChef champion has been teaching the British store how to conquer one of the fastest-growing markets: Arabic food.

April 20, 2018 14:17
Nof Atamna-Ismaeel
2 min read

Some of the newest products in the Marks & Spencer food range began life in a most unlikely setting: a family home in northern Israel. But you will not find the products in question among M&S’s heimishe products. The Israeli contribution is in a section that has grown as Britain’s Arab population has increased — Arabic food.

“I can’t tell you too much, but I can say that during the past year, 2017, I helped to develop the Arabic food lines in Marks & Spencer’s food, and for me it was one of the most interesting culinary experiences of my life,” says the top Israeli chef Nof Atamna-Ismaeel.

Her relationship with M&S started when some of the company’s staff showed up at a cooking class she was running in Israel. “We met and it started a whole great project together. Then I went to London and we did fine-tuning of products there,” she says.

The 37-year-old mum developed some of the lines, which are now produced in the UK and sold in stores nationwide, in her home in an Israeli-Arab town, where she juggles work and caring for her three young children.