Award-winning author Dina Macki has been working in the food and beverage industry since 2019, beginning with pop-ups in London and Oman. She now works with international brands to develop recipes and consult for restaurants and hotels in the Gulf Cooperation Council states. Macki is also a food presenter and writer, with her debut award-winning cookbook, Bahari, signed to DK Books and released in February 2024. 

Macki’s food is heavily influenced by her Middle Eastern background and particularly by Oman’s geographical position, along with its maritime history, allowing Macki to combine the best of Asian spices with the abundance of beautifully colored produce from Iran as well as the home comforts of the Middle East and East Africa with the delicate touch of the West. Alongside this, Macki’s British upbringing with her travels reflects a lot within her hybrid creations. 

Born and raised in the United Kingdom to an Omani and Zanzibari family, Macki has constantly been surrounded by an eclectic mix of food. Although not ashamed to devour a whole bowl of freshly cooked rice every day, she did spend her youth embarrassed by the rice-odored house that her friends would come to.  

It wasn’t until she went to university, when leaving home for the big city to study fashion and marketing that she realized her student loan didn’t cater to fine dining every day … so from a la carte to the kitchen, all the years of helping her mother and grandmother make dinner finally paid off, and she was able to start experimenting and using her housemates as guinea pigs to embark on “Dine With Dina.” To say the least, they became well fed students, and everyone knew which house to come to should they miss home cooking (oh, and Dina became so proud when they’d comment on the rice aroma!).