Silvena Rowe

Silvena Rowe (née Lauta, born in Plovdiv, Bulgaria) is a British chef, food writer, television personality and restaurateur.[1]

Silvena Rowe
Born
Silvena Lauta

1967 (age 53–54)
Plovdiv, Bulgaria
Spouse(s)Malcolm Rowe

Biography

Rowe was born in Plovdiv to a Bulgarian mother and a Turkish father.[2] Rowe's father, who was a newspaper editor of the largest Bulgarian newspaper, Bulgarianised his name due to Bulgaria's communist government.[2] He instilled in Rowe a love of cooking and passed down the traditions of the Ottoman cuisine.[3] At the age of 19, she moved to London.[1][4] Silvena cooked in the kitchen of the Notting Hill bookshop Books for Cooks, which led her to cook for Princess Michael of Kent, Ruby Wax and Tina Turner.[1] She also met Malcolm Gluck and the two began to write a regular food column for The Guardian newspaper.[1] In 2007, she was the food consultant on David Cronenberg’s 2007 film Eastern Promises.[1] She has become a regular guest on the BBC's Saturday Kitchen and ITV's This Morning. In 2007, her book Feasts won the Glenfiddich Food and Drink Award.[3] After her father's death she wanted to rediscover her heritage so she travelled through Turkey, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan tracing her Ottoman roots; this resulted in her cookbook Purple Citrus and Sweet Perfume.

On 7 June 2011, her restaurant Quince opened at The May Fair Hotel in Mayfair, London.[5][6] Her restaurant is influenced by her Turkish heritage- homage to her grandfather Mehmed, who used to cook the dishes for her father.[7] Currently Silvena shares her time between Dubai, Sofia, New York and London.

Silvena Rowe is also a Charlton Athletic Supporter.

Awards

Television appearances


Books
  • Supergrub: Dinner-party Bliss on a Budget, HarperCollins, (ISBN 9780007176120, 2004)
  • Feasts: Food for Sharing from Central and Eastern Europe, Mitchell Beazley, (ISBN 9781845331566, 2006)
  • The Eastern and Central European Kitchen: Contemporary & Classic Recipes, Interlink, (ISBN 1566566789, 2008)
  • Purple Citrus and Sweet Perfume: Cuisine of the Eastern Mediterranean, Hutchinson, (ISBN 9780091930967, 2010)
  • Orient Express, Hutchinson, (ISBN 9780091930950, 2011)

References
  1. The New York Times (2010-07-27). "A London Chef Looks to a Different East". Retrieved 2011-06-25. ON the BBC’s Saturday morning cooking show, “Saturday Kitchen,” last month, the British chef Silvena Rowe,
  2. The Guardian (2010-05-16). "Silvena Rowe's meze recipes". London. Retrieved 2011-06-03. Like so many ethnic Turks, Rowe's father, a highly regarded newspaper editor, Bulgarianised his name. But in the kitchen at home he remained Turkish. "My father would come back from work for lunch and cook the most amazing things," Rowe says. "Börek of thinly sliced aubergine sandwiching cheese, then deep fried, or of course the baklava, which he had learnt from my grandmother."
  3. Harper Collins. "Silvena Rowe". Retrieved 2011-06-03.
  4. BBC. "Silvena Rowe". Retrieved 2011-06-03.
  5. The Commercial Kitchen. "Quince opens at the May Fair for Silvena Rowe". Archived from the original on 2012-03-26. Retrieved 2011-06-03.
  6. The Independent. "Quince, The Mayfair Hotel Stratton Street, London W1". Retrieved 2011-06-03.
  7. Visit London. "Quince Restaurant Launches at The May Fair". Retrieved 2011-06-03.
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