Chef Ya’coub Boutros Salbis is a renowned Palestinian chef who has been active on the culinary scene since the early 1980s. He has held several challenging positions as executive chef and his contributions in the field are many. Salbis was born in Jerusalem in 1958. After completing his secondary education at the Mennonite School in Beit Jala in 1974 he attended Tadmor College in Ein Karem and graduated in 1976 with a degree in food production. Soon after graduation, Salbis spent a few years in the southern resort city of Eilat working and assisting some very renowned chefs who were employed at the city’s many five-star hotels. He also worked at numerous eateries in Eilat, from fish and seafood restaurants to Hungarian, Italian and Mongolian ones. He did a stint at several San Francisco restaurants. This wide exposure allowed him to gain invaluable experience that enabled him to become executive chef later on. Salbis managed to become the chef de cuisine at the Notre Dame of Jerusalem Guesthouse and the Three Arches Hotel at the YMCA in West Jerusalem. He was the executive chef for the opening of the Grand Park Hotel in Ramallah, and executive chef at the Jerusalem Hotel and many other local hotels and restaurants.

With his vast experience it was inevitable that Salbis would be involved in the educational part of the food industry. Salbis was personally involved in the establishment of the Professional Promotion Hospitality Section at the Notre Dame of Jerusalem Center where he was the Middle Eastern cuisine chef instructor for over a decade, graduating dozens of Palestinian cooks. He was also the chief instructor for a course organised together with the Palestinian Authority and held at the Notre Dame Center to equip ex-detainees with a profession in the food industry. Salbis also hosted a local TV and radio programme for three years in which he portrayed and talked about the techniques of Middle Eastern cooking. Salbis is a firm believer in peace and believes that peace among Palestinians and Israelis could also be achieved through food. He was therefore a pillar in establishing Chefs for Peace, an organization that includes Palestinian and Israeli chefs who work together to support peace activities among both peoples. The organization meets periodically and holds functions at which Palestinian and Israeli chefs work side by side, learning from one another and about one another. Salbis is a member of the Israeli Panel of Chefs. Salbis was chosen to represent Palestine at numerous food shows and competitions. In 2001 he won the first prize at the International Couscous Festival in Sicily, Italy, where Palestine beat chefs from the dish’s native country, Morocco, and other North African nations such as Tunisia and Algeria. Salbis also participated in activities with international chefs in Ireland, France and the USA. Salbis is married and has one daughter.