Tala Bashmi
Guest Chef at Restaurant Smör
Tala Bashmi is a Bahraini chef celebrated for redefining Khaleeji cuisine by marrying regional flavours with contemporary and global techniques. Driven by a childhood passion for cooking, she earned a master’s degree from the Culinary Arts Academy Switzerland and refined her skills at the Grand Hotel Les Trois Rois and the restaurant Prisma. In 2020, she took the helm at Fusions by Tala, a fine-dining restaurant in a five-star Bahraini hotel, leading it to three consecutive top-10 rankings in MENA’s 50 Best Restaurants before departing in late 2024. A 2019 Top Chef Middle East finalist, she has since received numerous honours, including Middle East & North Africa Best Female Chef (MENA’s 50 Best, 2022), the Rising Star (2023) and Three Knives (2024) from The Best Chef Awards and the Estrella Damm N.A. Chefs’ Choice Award (MENA’s 50 Best, 2025). In 2024, she was appointed Gastronomy Ambassador by the UN World Tourism Organisation, championing Bahrain’s culinary heritage worldwide.
Why do you work in the culinary industry?
I work in the culinary industry because it's my language and the most honest way I know to tell stories, preserve memory and fight for identity, while passing it all on to future generations.
What sparks your passion for creating and collaborating on culinary experiences?
Collaboration excites me because it brings new perspectives and growth. It challenges and sharpens my mind and helps me push my creativity even further while discovering different cultures, cuisines and ingredients.
What matters most to you when it comes to dining?
Dining, for me, is a moment when guests can forget the outside world and fully surrender to the present moment – through emotion, memory and flavour.
Your food philosophy:
I reimagine Bahraini and Gulf cuisine through a modern lens rooted in memory, identity and reinterpretation. My cooking preserves tradition by challenging it, telling stories through flavour and creating space for new narratives in our region’s food.
Your favourite drink in the evening or when going out to relax:
A Negroni or a vodka dirty martini.
Your favourite pizza:
Either a classic Margherita or a Neapolitan-style pizza with ’nduja, stracciatella and rucola.
Restaurant
Smör
At Smör, our food focuses on Nordic ingredients and traditional preparation methods. Smör is the perfect combination of classic and modern gourmet. We serve two tasting menus curated by our kitchen team: the full-length Smör signature menu and a more compact four-course option. Each dish is crafted to make your taste buds dance and your eyes delight in culinary beauty. Click to learn more!
