Silvena Rowe

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

Silvena Rowe
Born	Silvena Lauta 1964 (age 60–61) Plovdiv, Bulgaria
Spouse	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 [citation or source needed?] 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.^{[citation needed]}

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

• 2007: Glenfiddich Food and Drink Award-London
• 2011: Gourmand Award - Paris^{[citation needed]}
• 2017: Commitment to Healthy Eating, Time Out Dubai Restaurant Awards- Dubai^{[citation needed]}

Television appearances

• Food Network"Chopped" guest judge S18 Episode 225 05/13/2014
• BBC One's Saturday Kitchen, a regular guest
• BBC Two's Country Show Cook Off S01 E16-20 (2013)
• ITV This Morning
• Let's Dance for Comic Relief
• Screen expert/judge on BBC Young Chef of the Year (2009)
• Come Dine with Me
• Great Food Live
• Soapstar Superchef
• Time Machine Chefs
• A bit of salt - bTV (2013)
• Masterchef Bulgaria on bTV - Judge in Season 5 (2019), Season 6 (2020) and Season 7 (2021)

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)
• My Kitchen (Моята кухня), A&T Publishing, (ISBN 9786197430516, 2021)