Hazer Amani

Hazer Amani — Biography

Hazer Amani was born in 1977 in Ankara to a Turkish mother and an Iranian father. After attending TED Ankara College, he graduated from the Sociology Department of Middle East Technical University.

Drawn to cooking from his student days, he travelled to South Africa, where he trained at Cordon Bleu for three years and then spent a further four years at his internship placement, rising to head chef. Introduced to Chilai's partner Yusuf Köksal while working at a hotel, he returned to Turkey to continue his career at the Chilai restaurant in Bebek and was named the year's most creative chef in 2011. Wanting to pair his cooking knowledge with wine, Amani completed a four-year wine and viticulture programme at the Cape Wine Academy, and once cooked for a 600-guest event attended by Nelson Mandela among other notable figures. He names British chef Marco Pierre White as his idol.

He currently serves as a judge on the TV8 competition show MasterChef alongside Mehmet Yalçınkaya and Somer Sivrioğlu.