Our story · Chef Tarek Thoma BEM · Middlesbrough
This is Bazaar.
Fire. Craft. Theatre. A restaurant built around the belief that dinner should be something you remember.
✧ 01 / Chef-led ✧
The story behind the food.
Bazaar is an Arab-French kitchen: the generous, shared flavours of the Middle East, cooked with the discipline of classical French technique.
Chef Tarek Thoma BEM learned to cook in his mother's kitchen in Cairo, where food was always the main topic of conversation. He took his first professional kitchen job at 15, as a pizza chef in a hotel during the summer holidays, and has been in kitchens ever since.
He came to the UK in 1990, studied at Wimbledon School of Art, then trained in two Michelin-starred kitchens in London and Kent. He has cooked for President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair, opened his own restaurant business in the North East in 2005, received the British Empire Medal in 2021 for supporting vulnerable people during the pandemic, and was a guest at the Coronation at Westminster Abbey in 2023. Stocks, breads, cultured butter and ice creams are all made in-house.
It is not simply Arab cuisine or French cuisine. It is Bazaar's Arab-French kitchen.
The journey so far
A lifetime in kitchens. One crowning achievement.
1991–93
Wimbledon School of Art
1994–96
L’Escargot, London, and Chapter One, Kent — each holding one Michelin star
2003
Lead chef for President George W. Bush’s state visit, cooking for the President and Prime Minister Tony Blair
12 June 2021
Awarded the British Empire Medal, for service to the community
6 May 2023
Guest at the Coronation of King Charles III and Queen Camilla, Westminster Abbey
2024
Bazaar Restaurant, Captain Cook Square — an Arab-French kitchen with a 5-star food hygiene rating, and “my crowning achievement”
Coming soon
The Bazaar Cook Book — recipes from Tarek’s kitchen
“I’m not sharing this to boast. I’m sharing it to say thank you. None of it would have happened without the people of Middlesbrough and the North East, who have sat at my tables and supported my restaurants for so many years.” — Tarek Thoma BEM
02 / The kitchen
Fire makes the difference.
Oak, charcoal and intense heat create char, smoke and an unmistakable depth of flavour.
Our open kitchen brings you closer to the work — from the heat of the grill to the finishing touches at the pass.
✳ A closer look
Craft you can get close to.
Select a part of our kitchen to discover what makes it special.
We give our steaks time to develop depth, texture and flavour in our own dry-ageing cabinet.
The Josper combines charcoal heat with an enclosed oven, delivering a beautifully controlled sear and distinctive smoky flavour.
One of the restaurant’s defining features. Fierce heat, hand-prepared dough and the character of real wood-fire cooking.
Art, architectural forms, lighting and texture make the room feel as distinctive as the food.
03 / Designed to be experienced
A room with its own character.
Artwork, texture, lighting and architecture have been considered together to create a setting that is theatrical but still welcoming. Designers Cocoon & Bauer drew on the energy of Cirque du Soleil, the warmth of flames and the bustle of Middle Eastern markets.
Come for the food. Stay for the feeling.
Inside the ageing room →