Kamil Bouloot was born and raised in the village of Edbel in Akkar, Lebanon, on the 24th of May 1976. He has 4 siblings and attended Les Soeurs de La Sainte Famille Libanaise Ecole in Halba. He completed his schooling in 1991 and enrolled at the Ab Nader Technical Institute and School in Deddeh, Koura, to study hotel management. It was during this time that he acquired his passion for food and the culinary arts. Upon graduating in 1994, he left his village and moved to the town of Zouk and then Jeita, both in the Keserwan district, to pursue his professional career.
Kamil enjoys travelling and he constantly travels the world, exploring new locations, seeking new ideas and working with the industries’ best, to acquire new knowledge and incorporate it into his personal as well as professional life.
Kamil currently resides in Dubai, United Arab Emirates and often visits his family in Lebanon.
Professional Career
Kamil is a Lebanese chef and restaurateur with almost 30 years of hands-on food production and service experience within the hospitality industry.
He began his culinary journey in his native Lebanon while still studying, in 1992, at the Portemilio Hotel & Resort, at the time, one of the country’s largest Mediterranean Sea resort.
He subsequently worked with some of Lebanon’s most prestigious hotels and upscale food service establishments, including Faqra Club as a demi-chef de partie from 1993 to 1994, Century Park Hotel as a chef de partie from 1995 to 2000 and again as sous chef from 2001 to 2002, Phoenicia Intercontinental Hotel as a senior production chef for all banqueting operations from 2000 to 2001, Mövenpick Hotel and Resort-Beirut as a senior sous chef from 2003 to 2005, and Le Royal Hotel, as an executive sous chef from 2003 to 2005.
In 2005, Kamil decided to veer his career towards the restaurant chain and franchise business, when he was asked to join Rotana Holding as corporate executive chef.
In 2011, Kamil was scouted by Ghia Holding, one of Lebanon’s leading restaurant groups which owns Abd El Wahab, Ahwak, Duo, Fabrk Lounge, Beirut by Grill, El Denye Hek and MED Restaurants. He joined the company as corporate executive chef for five of its leading restaurant brands. During this time, Kamil created a multitude of new concepts and played his part in more than 50 restaurant openings, both locally and abroad.
In 2019, Kamil joined Seagrass Boutique Hospitality Group, an Australia-based hospitality group currently operating seven brands – Meat & Wine Co, Five Guys, 6 HEAD, Ribs & Burgers, Italian Street Kitchen, Alma’s Mezze & Charcoal, and Hunter & Barrel – as head of culinary for the Middle East, based in Dubai. His role is to direct the opening, in 2021, of four branches of the award-winning Hunter & Barrel concept, in UAE’s premium dining scene, and then to lead the group’s rapid multi-brand regional expansion initiatives, in the coming years.
Consultancy Services
With his ability to spot emerging market trends and cutting edge creativity, Kamil founded Mangetout Cuisine in 2009, a catering consultancy firm, providing hospitality organizations with culinary advisory services – be it for a boutique concept or a large, nationally recognized chain, both in Lebanon and overseas.
Teaching & Workshops
Being a results-oriented chef/restaurateur, Kamil is also head of culinary arts at L’Université Saint-Joseph in Lebanon, where he has taught courses in food production since 2005. Furthermore, in order to broaden his knowledge and expertise, he has attended numerous industry workshops and seminars with such prestigious organizations as L’Académie National de Cuisine, the Alliance by Insitut Paul Bocuse, the Cordon Bleu and Institut Alain Ducasse.
Cooking Festivals & Exhibitions
Association Membership & Judging
An active member of L’Academie Nationale de Cuisine since 2002, Kamil regularly participates in judging panels of numerous local and international culinary competitions, most notably serving as a judge at the Hospitality Salon Culinaire HORECA Lebanon and Jordan. He was also part of the judging panel for the Qatar Salon Culinaire in 2019, in Doha, Qatar.
TV Shows
In 2012, Kamil appeared in LBCI’s daily cooking show hosted by Carla Younes, Kol w Shkor, where he cooked alongside the famous Lebanese actress and singer, Aline Lahoud, a traditional Lebanese dish, on location in the Abdel Wahab Restaurant kitchen.
In 2018, he was asked to join the television series Dabbir Aklek, the Arabic version of the BBC action-adventure cooking contest entitled “No Kitchen Required,” which premiered on Quest Arabiya TV on 28 October. The show took 5 prominent regional chefs out of the comfort of their kitchen and dropped them into remote areas in the UAE, Romania, Jordon, Morocco, Oman and Saudi Arabia. There, they had to work together with locals to hunt, gather and cook meals using traditional methods. Kamil’s role, as consultant chef, was to prepare and guide all culinary and logistical requirements behind the scenes.
