Chef Nour Tillo

Nour Tillo, owner and Executive Chef of Village Mediterranean Rim restaurant was born in the exciting, ancient city of Damascus, which is among the oldest continually inhabited cities in the world. He first fell in love with Mediterranean-style cooking during his early travels to Italy where he spent time cooking with a local chef in the Tuscan town of Lucca, shopping for fresh produce at the daily markets. “I’ve always been fascinated with Italian cooking,” Tillo says. Italians will take four or five–always fresh– ingredients and mix them perfectly, but they keep it simple, they don’t complicate things.”
Following this tradition of using fresh produce with simplicity, Tillo is a true artist. “I don’t decide on a certain recipe, and then buy the ingredients,” Tillo explains. “No, I enjoy searching for special ingredients at the height of their season, and then using them to create a new recipe. I love variety and the challenge of offering unique dishes to delight and surprise my guests,” adds Tillo with a smile.

Spending time in Italy, and then to Morocco, followed by Hong Kong, Tillo added more recipes to his repertoire, allowing him to move within multiple cuisines, always with a light hand to ensure subtlety and harmony. “I love the all the arts,” explains Tillo. “I studied architecture, and then had the opportunity to design interiors for hospitality projects around the world. Along the way, I became a Triathlon competitor and focused on a fresh, healthy, organic diet.” His focus on health led Tillo to open a gourmet restaurant with non-dairy, macrobiotic and organic products in Brentwood and he soon built a chain of 5 restaurants. After selling the restaurants and taking time to regroup, Nour opened Village Mediterranean Rim. “Now I enjoy bringing the world’s cuisine to San Clemente,” says Tillo. “I have time to ride my bike and enjoy the wonderful ‘Mediterranean climate’ of the Southern California Dream.”