Executive Chef, Helen Graham, was born in an Ashkenazi Jewish home in North West London with an interest in cooking from an early age. Her first experience of traditional Middle Eastern flavours came from visiting Golders Green’s traditional Jewish restaurants on weekends with her family. After graduating with a degree in History of Art, Helen followed her passion. She spent a few years in food styling and recipe writing before joining the Middle Eastern restaurant, The Palomar, as Commis Chef.

After fifteen months, Helen left The Palomar and spent the next few years continuing to widen her culinary expertise in favoured London restaurants, including The Good Egg and The Barbary. She worked alongside Yotam Ottolenghi in his test kitchen in 2016, experimenting with new dishes and ingredients and discovering her love of vegetables taking centre stage on the plate.

In 2017 she met business and hospitality entrepreneur Marc Summers, and after a series of successful pop-ups across London, she became Bubala Spitalfields’ Head Chef. In 2022, Helen was appointed Executive Chef and supported Marc with the launch of Bubala Soho. In the same year, Helen was nominated as one of six chefs to watch by Jay Rayner in Observer Food Monthly Magazine.

Helen's food incorporates her Ashkenazi Jewish heritage with Sephardic food traditions and is influenced by her travels across the Middle East.