Louise discovered Syria and the Middle East through her day job at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.  She learnt Arabic in Egypt and has travelled extensively through North Africa and the Levant, including several years living in Libya and in Turkey.  Guttingly, she has never actually been to Syria, but fell in love with Syrian food and her Syrian friends while working on international assistance projects to help those affected by the conflict in Syria from Gaziantep, Southern Turkey.  Now back in London, she is eager to find a way to keep supporting the incredibly resilient and courageous Syrians she met in Turkey, and the Syrian Supper Club seemed like the perfect opportunity to do so.

You won’t find Louise in the kitchen – she leaves the cooking to the real experts Geoff and Nat! – but she loves welcoming guests and waiting tables and making sure it all works smoothly behind the scenes.

Charlotte visited Syria in 2010 and fell in love with the people, the Souqs, the desert and the food. Syria inspired her to seek more adventures abroad so she became a diplomat. She was one of the first British representatives to serve in Mogadishu in 20 years; and then ate sushi for Queen and Country during a posting in Tokyo. Recently she has returned to working on her first love – the Middle East – but this time from London. She prefers to let Geoff and Nat do their thing in the kitchen but is in control of the bar, whipping up a mean cocktail.

Geoff studied Arabic at Exeter University and spent a year living in Damascus. It was here that he really fell in love with the region and the food; quince and lamb, baklava, mulberry juice, and the near daily lunch of hummous, fattoush and tabbouleh. After playing rugby for Syria and time working in Libya, Geoff reluctantly decided to end his international rugby career, opting instead for life as an analyst and researcher on North Africa. Alongside his job at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Geoff also works as a chef at the Music at Albignac Summer festival and organises a concert series in Peckham.

You might not see that much of Geoff at a supper club, but rest assured he will be in the kitchen wrestling with industrial quantities of parsley, chick peas and rose water. He tells us this is only marginally less demanding than playing Jordan at rugby.

Jess is a Chef at the River Cafe in Hammersmith. She studied modern languages at the University of Edinburgh which sparked a lifelong enthusiasm for travel; she has spent a great deal of time in the Middle East, where she fell in love with the food, culture and climate. Although her day to day is filled with Italian cooking, she has an insatiable appetite for Middle Eastern cuisine - on her days off she can be found scorching aubergines for baba ghanoush, drenching herself in date syrup or making baklava.