Nilou Motamed

Food Editor

About This Expert

Nilou Motamed boarded her first airplane when she was 4 months old, lived at Paris’ legendary George V hotel at age 7, and spoke three languages by her 10th birthday. She’s had the travel bug ever since.

Fluent in English, Spanish, French, and Farsi, Nilou has crisscrossed the globe a dozen times over, staying in hundreds of hotels and eating in the world’s top dining rooms—as well as the best down-and-dirty food markets and street stalls. Her travels have taken her from Italy to Indonesia, Mexico to Mauritius, always in search of the elusive secret find.

As Food Editor and Features Director for Travel + Leisure, Nilou covers subjects ranging from hotels, restaurants, and shopping to global trends in travel, culture, and style. Nilou is the driving force behind Travel + Leisure’s Food & Travel issue and also oversees the magazine’s signature “It List,” an annual roundup of the world’s hottest hotels and resorts.

Nilou regularly shares her travel expertise on NBC’s “Today,” as well as “The NBC Nightly News,” “Good Morning America,” “The Early Show,” CNN, and E!, among others. She was the host of Ultra HD’s restaurant series “Reservations Required” and was a host of the Travel Channel series “Travel Spies.”