Cookbooks that explore a country or a region’s cuisine – the ones that unlock the secrets of a particular way of shopping, cooking and eating – are most often written by someone who has lived there all their life, soaking up the knowledge that comes with bringing countless dishes to the table.
It might come as a surprise then, to learn that Persiana: Recipes from the Middle East and Beyond, the food publishing sensation that got legions of people excited about and cooking Iranian food, was written – "in three weeks, in a hotel bedroom in an industrial estate in Birmingham", by a cook who has lived in the UK since she was two and is entirely self-taught.
"I had a couple of weeks work at the BBC Good Food Show at the NEC, and as soon as I had finished my shift, I went straight to my room and knocked out the recipes. But I had about 70 of them already, because I was teaching them," says Sabrina Ghayour, whose debut was the Observer Food Monthly's book of the year, and who has just released her second cookbook, Sirocco: Fabulous Flavours from the East.
"It is very different from Persiana, in the sense that it's no longer authentic Middle Eastern food. I chose the name Sirocco because it's a Saharan wind that starts in the east and blows west, and my flavour palette is very eastern-based, but combined with the everyday western produce I grew up with," says Ghayour.
She came to the UK with her mother – who had studied there – in 1979. When war broke out in Iran the following year, they stayed on and have lived in London ever since.
“We’re more like sisters, she’s only 19 years older than me and she’s not really mumsy. I’m very lucky, she’s supercool, laid back,” Ghayour says. But they don’t bond over recipes in the kitchen of their west London flat, because her mother “just can’t cook anything”.
“I had to literally teach myself. Growing up, in my late teens and 20s, I would try and find Persian books and order them at great expense – £70 or £80 each – from the States.” She explored Iranian food “because my culture is very important to me”, but was, and still is, equally interested in other cuisines.
Her talent in the kitchen paid off when she was made redundant from her high-level events management job in 2011, in her mid-30s.
New direction came when a random comment she made on Twitter, about the price (£250) of the Thomas Keller French Laundry restaurant pop-up in London, and how she could do a cut-price version and call it the French Launderette, went viral. She went ahead and did it, raising £4,000 for Action Against Hunger and setting in motion events that gave her a new career as a supper club host, food writer and tutor.
An editor and a publicist came to one of her supper clubs, and liked what was on their plates so much they offered her a book deal for what was to become Persiana, with a fast-tracked deadline, hence those feverish nights at the computer in Birmingham.
She's had lots more time to plan and write Sirocco, and she's not sure that's a good thing, having "more time to think about things ... to wonder if I should have done this, or that, differently". The pre-publication jitters are understandable, but unfounded.
It’s another bright, engaging recipe collection with bestseller stamped all over its colourful, reflective metallic cover – a design feature the author is delighted with. “It sort of winks at you as you walk past it.”
If she were to pick one recipe from the book that she’d like to tell people about, it’s the vine-wrapped feta. “People are always overwhelmed by this one – vine wrapped feta drizzled with garlic oil, lemon zest, Turkish chilli flakes and fresh thyme, baked for 20 minutes. It’s so simple, but so delicious; you could eat the whole block, with some bread.”
But, if her previous book is aything to go by, it’s unlikely that readers will stop at one recipe. “I really hope people will still have that same sense of adventure they had with Persiana – the ‘I’m going to tackle seven ... eight recipes over the weekend’ kind of thing.”
Sirocco, by Sabrina Ghayour, with photographs by Haarala Hamilton, is published by Mitchell Beazley
Sabrina Ghayour on ... ingredients: “This book goes hand in hand with ‘Persiana’, it’s just new inspiration with pretty much the same tools – still as uncomplicated, still as interchangeable. . I’m showing people how to use pickled chillies and pul biber with pasta. You don’t have to use it in Middle Eastern recipes.”
SG on ... appetite: “I used to be a big girl, and I realised that when you give in to what your body wants, at the time it wants it, in a small dose, you’re not craving it any more.”
SG on ... Ireland and the Persians: There’s quite a bit of Irish in my family, it’s a popular combination, Irish and Persian. I have several cousins who are half Irish, half Persian.”
SG on ... junk food: “I rarely end up eating my own food when I am cooking for other people, you just lose your appetite, and then end up eating a Pot Noodle or some rubbish. People seem to like that I will still reach for the utter crap sometimes.”
Irish Times Reader Event
Irish Times readers can avail of a 40% discount on tickets for a demonstration and tasting with Sabrina Ghayour in Cooks Academy on May 18th. See here for more details
