Tony Karim

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Tony Alal Karim Khan, known as Tony Karim, was born on June 9, 1961, in Khulna, then East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). He is a Bangladeshi chef and hotelier who has worked around the world and earned awards in cooking. He studied in Khulna and Dhaka, then trained as an apprentice chef in Singapore. He also studied economics in Singapore in 1978, earned a degree in human nutrition from the University of Sydney in 1992, and studied HACCP at RMIT University in Melbourne in 1998.

Karim began his kitchen career as a sous chef at the Sheraton Ayers Rock Hotel (now Voyages Ayers Rock Resort) in 1982. He later served as Executive Chef and Food & Beverage developer on the Carnival Cruise Line (1994–1999). He worked in Saudi Arabia at Hyatt Regency, then from 2003 to 2006 oversaw ten five-star hotels as Executive Chef and Corporate Executive Chef at InterContinental Hotels. He returned to Bangladesh in 2006 to work as Executive Chef and F&B at Radisson Blu Water Garden Hotel, Dhaka, followed by leading The Westin Dhaka as executive chef and F&B manager from 2009 to 2012.

Since May 2013 he has been at Grand Sultan Tea Resort and Golf in Sreemangal, serving as General Manager, Director of Food & Beverages and Executive Chef. In 2015 he started Tony Karim's Culinary Institute to train aspiring chefs. He has also served as a judge in culinary competitions, and since 2015 he has been an External Verifier for City & Guilds, appointed by the International Labour Organization.

Beyond kitchens, Karim helped place intellectually disabled people in restaurant jobs in Nunawading, Australia in 1989. He is a founding member and President of the Bangladesh Chef’s Association, and has held honorary roles in other chefs’ associations. He has contributed recipes to cookbooks and spoken at gastronomy events.

Karim has received several honors, including being named one of the 10 Best Chefs in the World by The Daily Star and being named Chef of the Year in 1991 by the South Pacific Tourism Board. In March 2020 he received a Special Recognition award at the Asian Restaurant Awards in London.