Car­om Za’atar

Born in the diverse and cul­tur­al­ly eclec­tic city of Mon­tréal, Cana­da, Melanie believes that she was des­tined to have an obses­sion with food. Her upbring­ing in a large, food-cen­tric fam­i­ly fos­tered an enthu­si­asm for cook­ing and graz­ing. Her Moroc­can her­itage taught her about the beau­ty of Mezze and its cus­tom of shar­ing small plates of fresh sal­ads and spreads, and her Jew­ish ances­try influ­enced a deep appre­ci­a­tion for brunch.

Melanie’s trav­els to Bhopal, India, where she lived and worked in an Ayurvedic clin­ic ignit­ed her pas­sion to learn about the mag­i­cal flavours and well­ness ben­e­fits of herbs and spices. This knowl­edge of and enthu­si­asm for the pow­er of plants con­tin­ues to be the foun­da­tion of her cook­ing style. It was in Bhopal as well where Melanie learned to cook nour­ish­ing and deli­cious Indi­an food.

Melanie has lived in the UK since 2011, except for one year spent in Toron­to, Cana­da, where she found­ed her own busi­ness, ​“Spice and Green”, which crafts hand­made, small batch spice blends and spe­cial­ty food.

A qual­i­fied Nutri­tion­al Con­sul­tant, Melanie enjoys tak­ing all of the diverse lessons she has learned over the years by putting this knowl­edge into action through her busi­ness, cater­ing, com­mu­ni­ty cook­ing work­shops and nutri­tion­al con­sult­ing services.