Speaker Profile

Meet Hamed Allahyari, the founder of Salamatea Cafe (Hameds Persian Kitchen).

Hamed was born in Iran’s capital, Tehran. He migrated to Australia in 2012 and has called Melbourne home since. His life revolves around food and sharing his Persian cultural and culinary heritage with the local community.

Hamed previously ran cooking classes with Free to Feed, a not-for-profit social enterprise cooking school, where he was able to share his love for food with the wider community. From this experience, he was inspired to open up a similar enterprise to empower refugees, asylum seekers and new migrants facing the same problems he did when he first arrived in Australia. Hamed released his first cookbook, Salamati, in 2022, sharing traditional Persian recipes coincided with culinary culture as well as his journey from Iran to his new home, Australia.