Tom’s story
Tom comes from a proud linage of chefs. His late grandfather, Zareh, began cooking professionally after migrating to Melbourne from Egypt. And Tom’s father Haigo is also a chef, still cooking professionally in Melbourne today. Tom was inspired to book at a young age, but formally started his career cooking at The Stokehouse when he was 18. It was during his break one day that he picked up SAHA, by Greg and Lucy Malouf, and was so inspired seeing the food he grew up eating at home presented with so much finesse. Tom reached out to Greg Malouf and went to work and learn from him at Momo before moving to London to work with him at Petersham Nurseries.
From there, Tom went on to work at St John and Moro, before travelling to Egypt, Armenia, Lebanon and Iran before returning home to Melbourne and becoming the head chef at Rumi.
He ran the kitchen at Bar Saracen, where he developed his own cooking style and won the hearts of diners. Producing dishes like his signature hummus with spanner crab and king prawns, an Arab take on the classic gilda, fish fatteh, chicken shish kebab with fenugreek, turmeric, pickled chillis and toum, aish baladi breads, cheese mammoul with sesame and fig jam, fried okra with cumin salt, kafta nayyeh with fried pita and radishes, octopus kebab with batata harra, pineapple sorbet with arak and basil olive oil.
Since then, Tom has brought his signature hummus, toum and harissa to homes across Victoria by launching his own product line, Sarafian. He has also popped up in kitchens across Australia such as Free to Feed, Babas Place, Aalia, Cumulus, Sonny, Lee Ho Fook, Bar Liberty and at the Australian Open.
Tom is now taking these years of experience, passion and love to open what will be his first venue, named after his grandfather who inspired it all, ZAREH.