Full of Eastern promise

ARTO DER HAROUTUNIAN’S name may not be familiar to many but for those with a penchant for North African food, it’s a name worth noting. Arto was born in Aleppo, Syria in 1940 and grew up in the Levant but came to Britain with his parents as a child and remained there for most of his life.

He studied architecture, painted, composed music and established a career designing restaurants, clubs and hotels. He opened the first Armenian restaurant in Manchester in 1970. He combined his love of food with his interest in culture and food history. He died in 1987 at the untimely age of 47.

Given his passion for food it was a natural progression that he should begin to write cookbooks that combined his love of food with his great interest in the history and culture of the Middle East.