About

Maryam Mounajed was born in the city of Melbourne to her British mum and Lebanese father. She has had a passion for food from a very young age, having faced hardships and struggles in her young years, cooking, playing with flavours and presenting food became her favourite past time.

Maryam’s father was a chef and sadly passed away when she was only one and a half years old. Maryam’s mother, also in her young years, had an unfortunate car accident which left her mother unable to use her arm for a year. From these experiences, at only eight years old, Maryam was forced to learn how to cook, as her mother would read out recipes and instructions for her to follow. This is when her desire and pure passion for cooking began.

Maryam studied at North Sydney’s Billy Blue Design College and began work at William Blue Dining, in the fine dining training restaurant. Maryam later landed a job at Aria, catering for the renowned Aussie chef, Matt Moran. She then went on to learn more skills at her local steak house, having further tested herself by
then running a friend’s café. She has also worked alongside Aussie chef Peter Kuruvita, chef of Sydney’s Flying Fish restaurant.

Maryam is now married to her high school sweetheart and has a son. Shortly after she had her son, she began her new business venture, Halal Bubs. Maryam went on to be a proud achiever of Australia’s very first Halal award-winning baby food brand.

In recent years Maryam has shared her own recipes and food posts on Instagram and has now started up her very own blog, Chef It Up. On her platform, she is able to help teach people how to cook, provide grocery lists, as well as showcase all of her amazing cooking skills on a social platform. For Maryam, taste, is an absolute priority when it comes to cooking in the food industry. She wants to make recipes that are easy to follow, flavourful, healthy, presentable, and most importantly truly tasty.