Arto Haroutunian was born in 1940 in Aleppo, Syria of Armenian parents. In 1952 the Haroutunian family settled in the north of England where his father was the head of the Armenian Apostolic Church. Arto qualified as an architect from Manchester University and established a career designing restaurants, hotels and clubs. In 1970 he branched out into ... Read morecatering by opening, with his brother Koko, an Armenian restaurant in Manchester. This developed in time into a successful chain of restaurants and hotels. It was a natural progression that he should then begin to write Middle Eastern Cookery books as they combined his love of food with his great interest in the history and culture of that whole region. In total he wrote 12 cookery books, several of which were translated into foreign languages. He also contributed articles to many magazines. Arto died suddenly in 1987 at the age of 47 and is survived by his wife Frances and his son Raffi. Show Less