[music: Luscious Jackson - Citysong]

Alison Stewart:  This is All Of It. I'm Alison Stewart live from the WNYC studios in Soho. Thank you for sharing part of your day with us. The James Beard nominated chef and restaurant owner Nasim Alikhani, left her home country of Iran, when she was just 23 years old, not speaking much English, and with very little cash.

She'd studied law at home, but when she got to New York City, she worked as a nanny. She cooked for friends, did some catering, raised her own kids, and after building a life for herself here, she noticed that while New Yorkers had a diverse palette, it seemed most people only associated Persian cuisine with kebabs.

Armed with a family of recipes and a determination to introduce New Yorkers to authentic Persian food, Nasim opened her restaurant, Sofreh, in 2018. As a profile, The New York Times put it, "At 59, a gutsy chef makes her restaurant debut." That restaurant, Sofreh, has quickly become one of the dining spots in Brooklyn, and Nasim's cuisine earned her a James Beard Award nomination this year for Best New York Chef. She's cooked at the White House and for the Met Gala.

Now, Nasim is bringing her food back to where it all began, home kitchens with home cooks. Her new cookbook, Sofreh: A Contemporary Approach to Classic Persian Cuisine, it teaches experts and newcomers how to make traditional tahdig, stews, and takes readers on a tour of Iran through food. Nasim writes, "If you are not Iranian along the way, ask yourself, 'Who are these people who make this bread, these stews, this rice?' Use this book as a springboard to dig deeper and ask questions about the Iranian people, our food, and our culture."

Nasim will be speaking tonight at Books Are Magic with Helen Rosner and tomorrow night, she'll be at Rizzoli Books in Manhattan. First, she joins me here in the studio to discuss Sofreh: A Contemporary Approach to Classic Persian Cuisine, which will come out tomorrow. Nasim and her husband are good friends of New York Public Radio, so we're so happy to have you in studio.

Nasim Alikhani: Thank you so much, Such a honor to be here. Thank you.

Alison: There are three people this book is dedicated to, your mom, [unintelligible 00:02:07]. I don't speak Farsi, so, please, correct my pronunciations, [chuckles] and your dad, [unintelligible 00:02:11] and you write, "Gave me the tools and the foundation from which to build life." What is one of those life lessons that helps you in the past five years, start this restaurant, get it up and running, that you learned from your parents?

Nasim: Everything I do is because of my parents. Just to summarize it, my dad was a kind of man that when we had dinner parties, he would-- before people even finish their meals, he was hovering over them to my incredible-- like my mother's anger, he was hovering over them, collecting the leftover rice, the bones, this and that because the rice belonged to the birds, and the leftover bread were for the fish, and the leftover bones for the dogs, the stray dogs. Nothing goes to waste. Everything is precious. Everything has value.

That's the lesson that I have in restaurant. I am extremely frugal the way I cook, but also, my mother, another thing, the love of cooking. I enjoy cooking so much because I woke up as a 8-year-old, 12-year-old, 15-year-old, whatever age I was, I woke up to the smell of onion simmering. My mother had been awakened before all of us, maybe 5:00 AM, and preparing our lunch, so when we come back home, we have a warm meal. It was just like--

I was, sometimes, dreaming in a school. I was hoping the school, the class ends, so I just can get to my mother's [chuckles] food. When you grew up with all that sensation being awakened in you, I want to transport some of that, the sense of-- I really meant it when I said just pay attention to who we are. I think every nation has an incredible history that maybe not everybody gets a chance to say it. I am just so honored to be able to just tell a little bit of it through food that I treasure so much.

My parents, my mother, thank God she's with me now, right now as we speak. She lives in the apartment above Sofreh. My dad passed away, but literally, his lessons of preservation, caring for every living, being, extending love and joy to all beings, and taking care of everything. He always said, "Live every place better than you found it." All of it, it's just in Sofreh, at least I try. I hope I try.

Alison: The other person you dedicate the book to is your husband, who you said, "Who provided the safety instructor from which to realize my dreams."

Nasim: Yes. My father always said he is a saint, before even getting to know him. I got a little bit annoyed at some point, "You haven't even met him." He said, "Just for putting up with you, he's a saint."

[laughter]

He's so much more. He has been truly my life support since day one. Since we met, I have put our family through crazy adventures, and he is coming along. Then, when the boat starts sinking, he comes and rescue. He is-- and especially that has been his role, not just for me, for his company, for his family, but particularly, for me, because who would--? What kind of a rational person--? He's very rational and logical man. He's a scientist.

When they tell him I was in my early 50s, that I'm opening a restaurant, and he just looked at me, and he said, "You're crazy, but you have always been crazy." [chuckles] Of course, I don't think he was elated that at the age that everybody's retiring, I'm going to go to work 16 hours a day in one of the hardest industry. He knew that he has to support me. I'm going to do it. I'm going to probably collapse without him. He better enjoys-- He comes along and he did. He's there every day. He does plumbing, fixes electricity, pays our bills. He does so much. Sofreh and I wouldn't be who I am without him.

Alison: Someone has called in who knows you, who wants to say hello. This is Lori calling in from Brooklyn. Hi, Lori.

Lori: [laughs] Hi. I'm so surprised to be on the air. I love your show. I just want to say, I don't know if you remember me, but we swam together at the Chinatown Y.

Nasim: Oh, yes. I do.

Lori: All the time, you were planning-- We talked about the twins, and we talked about food and planning your restaurant. I'm so thrilled for your success. I'm so thrilled for the James Beard Nomination. I can't wait to see your book. You gave me the best advice for another woman who works in the food industry was to make sure to pamper myself and get a foot [chuckles] massage every week.

[laughter]

Nasim: Well, I wish I could have stated that advice myself. [chuckles] It's a really important advice for all the chefs and people who stand on their feet. Yes. That once-a-week foot massage is crucial for nervous system.

Alison: Well, let's talk about that. At 59, you decide you were going to enter one of the most rigorous businesses there can be. What question did you ask yourself before you started?

Nasim: Lots of question. Am I fit to do this? I didn't mean just cooking. Am I fit because I had a mission of representing my people and my food. Am I qualified to do this? Am I good enough to do this? Am I young enough to do this? The answer to all of it was just-- filled me with lot of fear. Every time I got filled with all that, I talked about it so much that I almost had to do it. There was no way backing down. [chuckles] When you invest everything you have in a brownstone to make a restaurant happening, no backing down.

That doesn't mean I was not working night long, filled with fear, and anxiety. With all these questions, am I good enough, da, da, da, all that? I don't even have an experience in the industry. How am I going to do it? One thing I always quiet myself down that as long as you do the best you can, and I know that I'm going to give everything I've got, that's all I've got, and I did. I'm still doing it every single day.

Yes, it's tasking on the body and in mind. That's why we have amazing acupuncturist and [chuckles] food massage and also therapist and lovely family members who went. Yes. You survive. As long as I think you do everything in your capacity to the max, and you sleep knowing you've done it all. The rest is up to universe, how it receives it, and how it gets back to you.

Alison: It's interesting. People are calling in, so without even giving their number.

Nasim: Sure. Of course.

Alison: We'll give out the number.

Nasim: Of course.

Alison: Listeners, are you of Persian descent and you want to share your favorite family recipe with us and with Chef Nasim Alikhani, or perhaps you've been to Sofreh and you want to talk about your experience, what you enjoyed eating, or maybe you have a question for Chef Nasim about her cooking and cuisine, 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692. You can call us on that number. You can text us on that number now, or you can reach out on social media. The name of the new book out tomorrow, Sofreh-- Sofreh, excuse me, A Contemporary Approach to Classic Persian Cuisine. What does Sofreh mean?

Nasim: Sofreh means literally a piece of cloth that we spread before eating meal. Sofreh, this is such a common word, not just for Iranians, but our Middle-Eastern neighbors have the same word, Turkish people, many people understand this word.

For me, and for Iranians, it's so much more than just a tablecloth. Of course, it's not just, it's everyday word that you hear in every Iranian home. Instead of set a table, you say, "[Farsi language]." That's the word that commonly is heard, at least two, three times a day in Iranian home.

In our culture, we also have lot of traditions that are associated with the Sofreh, and they all have a special connotation. One is Persian New Year, we call it, Sofreh Nowruz, haftsin. One is a wedding ceremony that has Sofreh Aghd, which is a special cloth with beautiful ornate decorations that people put in front of the bride and groom before getting married.

There is one particular one. I'm a secular person, but I love this interpretation of Sofreh. It's called Sofreh Nazr, is when someone makes a wish, and if their wish come true, they usually do a massive amount of cooking. All the food goes out to neighbors, people who are in need.

Usually, this was a job of children when we were young. My family, my mother, and my aunts were cooking massive, massive pots of things. We were the one who were donating. We were going around the neighborhood, running to people, knocking their doors, and handing them over. It was nothing more joyous for a child to open the door, and then, people greet you so warmly. That is called Sofreh Nazr.

To summarize all that words for me, that Sofreh means, for me, community, gathering, food, and also, a sense of belonging with all of it. Nazr, Aghde, Aghd, or Haft-sin, it's also tradition. That's why I called it Sofreh. Sofreh encompasses all that bits and pieces of our history and culture into one word.

Alison: On line one, we have someone who goes by the name Ukulele Jake. Hi, Jake, Ukulele Jake, you're on the line.

Ukelele Jake: Hey, Alison. Hi, Alison. Hi, Nasim.

Nasim: Hi.

Ukelele Jake: I just wanted to say a couple of few quick things. First, Alison, you are an absolute legend, so it's an honor to be on the line with you.

Alison: [laughs] Wow.

Ukelele Jake: [chuckles] Second, Nasim, I had the distinct pleasure of meeting you and hanging out with your brother right before the James Beard Awards. I just want to say as a Persian musician and comedian in Brooklyn, I find you extremely inspiring, and just really proud of you. Lastly, I have a question. I want to hear about Amir, your brother. Hi, Amir. [chuckles] He's definitely listening. I want to hear how he makes [unintelligible 00:12:47] got into the mix. Thanks for having me, guys.

Nasim: Well, thank you so much for all the kind words. It's lovely to hear from another fellow traveler. Amir is my younger brother who was in finance and computer. Due to the layoff of his company, he just decided-- He lives on top of Sofreh. There was just-- He had to be a part of this. We both grew up in a house that we had a lot of parties and our parents were entertaining a lot.

Amir, I was the hardworking one and Amir was the fun one. He still is the same role. Amir is the party guy. Amir just gathers people, and he enters a room and room lights up. That's Amir's role. To this day, he functions in the same capacity. [chuckles] I do the kitchen work, and he just entertains like a prince of charming as you can see.

Alison: You said you do the kitchen work, I wanted to ask you. We're going to get into recipes and a little bit of your back story. I was watching a video you did for Food Network and you get in there with your hands.

Nasim: Oh, I do.

Alison: You were making this turkey meatball, [unintelligible 00:13:55]. No, lamb meatballs. There was something. Well, you were making meatballs of a kind.

Nasim: Yes. That was lamb meatball.

Alison: Yes. You would just go right in with your hands. You can tell, I mean, there wasn't any sense of, "I need to get a spoon, I need to--" You weren't precious about it at all. What is it about cooking with your hands that you like?

Nasim: It's senses, the texture of the meat. At Food Network, they told me, "Don't wear gloves." I don't think my guests should think that I get in with my hands, but we wear gloves [chuckles] in the kitchen, but I insist my staff to touch and sense, touch, smell, taste, all of it, and even color, everything, all of these comprise of what we are looking for.

I teach myself to feel the meat, to taste the meat, to smell, to look at the color, and combination of all of that is my guiding tools to my outcome, how much texture I want, how much work I have to-- Do I want really work my meat so much to become stretchy or not stretchy because I have a different purpose. Sometimes, I want my meatball to be sticky. Sometimes, I don't. I don't want to work my meat. How would I know if I didn't use my hands? Yes. Hands, eyes, sense, smell, they're all part of my cooking.

Alison: Before one begins to make anything in this cookbook, or-- I'm going to switch it because people might not-- I don't want to make people think they can't do this. If someone should walk into the average kitchen of a Persian cook, of someone of Iranian descent, what will you find for sure? What are the staples that you will find?

Nasim: Onion, turmeric, garlic. If they are fancy, some saffron.

Alison: [chuckles] Why if you're fancy?

Nasim: It's expensive. [laughs]

Alison: Oh, there we go.

Nasim: It's expensive. Yes. Basically onion. I start every day by-- At my home, onions are the biggest things I shop. I just go and buy five pounds of onions. Sounds like a lot, I finish it in two days, so I go back again. Onions, turmeric, some garlic, and that's what you begin.

By the time the aroma fills, you can add beans, you can add herbs, you can add your chicken or fish or lamb. It's really a approachable cuisine. It may have-- some of these recipes may have a lot of ingredients and a lot of steps, but it isn't really. You start with onion, [chuckles] you add turmeric, and you begin, as simple as that.

Alison: You write, you use this book as a springboard to dig deeper and ask questions about the Iranian people, our food, our culture. How is food a good springboard for conversation about culture?

Nasim: Food is amazing. I was just thinking, this morning I was talking to my doctor. I was thinking about it, instead of putting politicians in a boardroom to talk about solving board problems, just gather them in a very simple place, not those fancy dinners they go, just have them share each other's meal, and converse over the meal, and I wonder if they're going to fight again over some nonsense.

Food is the best ambassador to bring understanding, even people who have no knowledge of outsiders. We always, as human beings, we scare of others, but then, once we start tasting their food, sitting with them in a table, breaking bread, they're no longer outsiders.

I think food is the best ambassador for diplomacy, [chuckles] for breaking-- even when families fight. Sometimes, I was angry at my kids, once we would sit down, we were shouting before, and then, we sit down, time to eat, people quiet down, energy changes, and then, it's just such a power into food, especially authentic food that is made with love.

That's very important because nowadays, food has become a state of art and it's so fancy. I have nothing against that, but a food that is cooked with love and authenticity and some knowledge of history and back, to me, it tastes different, whether if it's cheese and a humble bread. That food can bring so much calmness to the room, to the environment.

When I'm asking my readers to think about who these people are, and I don't mean just Irans today on the media they hear, or the Irans in the '80s when they heard a bunch of hostage takers, or when they were presented in Hollywood a stereotype of this angry bearded man killing, destroying. I just wanted them to see me, my grandmother, my great-grandmother, the typical average woman who feeds her family with very basic means, onion, some rice, some lentils, that's about it.

If they can see that, then, we are not hostage-takers. We are not this foreign element that we just came because those are the things that politics and media wants to say, but people are people all over the world. We need to pay attention to that, not just the food we eat, what we think of those people.

That's why I felt Sofreh, my staff are going crazy by hearing the same playlist of the music. I try to change it, but still, it's more or less Iranian music in their head all the time because I want my guests, when they come in, not to just see the food, eat the food, hear our music, the smell of food fills the room. I just want them for even 10 minutes, half an hour, transport them to an unknown environment, and hopefully, make them think, "Oh, they're not what we were told they are." If I can achieve that one guest at a time, my job is done.

Alison: We've got a text. "We were lucky to be living just down the block when Sofreh opened and enjoyed our meals there immensely. To their credit and success, we couldn't get a reservation [laughs] for 20 days when we-

Nasim: I'm sorry.

Alison: -planned to visit. That is the kind of problem to have." My guest is Nasim Alikhani. She's the executive chef and co-owner of Sofreh. The name of the new book is Sofreh: A Contemporary Approach to Classic Persian Cuisine. It is out tomorrow. We'll talk about a few of the recipes and we'll take more of your calls after a quick break. This is All Of It.

[music]

Alison: You are listening to All Of It on WNYC. I'm Alison Stewart. My guest this hour is chef Nasim Alikhani. She's a co-owner of Sofreh. Her new book is Sofreh: A Contemporary Approach to Classic Persian Cuisine. It is out tomorrow. Before we get into the recipes, you described-- You say in the book that you use Persian and Iranian interchangeably, Persian cooking Iranian food. Can you explain the context for using either Persian or Iranian for people who might be confused.

Nasim: This is a loaded topic [chuckles] among other things. It's somewhat political. I don't want to get into the jest of it. I use it interchangeably, but I mostly say Iranian because I personally feel I may get some flags for that. I personally think it's a more accurate interpretation of what at least I try to do in the book. Persia used to be, like the entire Persian Empire, no longer the case. Iran is a country with borders.

When we say Persia, we only refer to the ethnic Persian food, Persian people, Parsi, some live in India, some live in Tajikistan. They're living all over. Some are still in Iran. We are mix of a lot of people, a lot of-- In Iran, we have so many ethnic groups, and I am cooking some of their foods from north to south.

It's really unfair I call it Persian when I'm really cooking Iranian food from different ethnic groups who speak Farsi and also they have their own language and their culture, but they speak Farsi. They are forced to speak Farsi and go to schools and learn Farsi. They have their clear, distinctive cultural, and cuisine practices. I learned their food, I practice their food, I represent their food, so I want to call my book and myself an Iranian more than anything.

I happen to speak only Farsi, unfortunately. I wish I did. I wish I spoke different languages with that is spoken throughout Iran, but I try to be very educated, conscious, and respectful of that. That's why I use it interchangeably, but mostly, Iran is-- I am Iranian. I'm not Persian only. I could be, but I'm Iranian. My book is a Iranian cuisine representing different cultural practices.

Alison: If you want to taste something delicious, there's many things, but the bread first, can we just start with the bread? [chuckles] The Sofreh bread. Is this an original bread?

Nasim: It is and it's not. Like everything at Sofreh, it is really based on a traditional bread called Sangak, which I learned the recipe from a baker around the corner of my father. The man was gentle enough to let me in his kitchen and it was a source of entertainment for the neighbors to come at 5:00 AM to see this woman dropping every loaf on the floor because it's such a hard bread to make. It's a wet dough, extremely wet dough, and it's called Sangak.

The reason it's called Sangak, it cooks over hot stone. I wanted to bring that oven to Sofreh, but then, I realized it's impossible, so many logistical issues from health codes to the actual oven. I brought that recipe and we practice it in a simple pitta oven, and it became a hybrid. It tastes like Sangak. It looks like barbari and people say, "What is it?" I'm like, "It's Sofreh bread."

[laughter]

Alison: The other thing that is important to your meal is rice. You make a joke in the book, and maybe it's not a joke, that if certain people order a dish, and you don't see rice, that you or someone may come out of the kitchen and be like, "Hey, you got to order rice."

Nasim: Definitely but no, we don't joke about it. This was the beginning issue because people were like, "No. I don't eat lot rice." I'm like, "No, no, no, no. You cannot have a watery stew. How are you going to-- Are you going to slurp your bowl?" I was just literally on the floor like, "This is not happening." When people were adamant about not getting it, I would tell my chef, "Send them a bowl of rice." Without exception, not a grain left.

Now, we don't have this issue anymore. The word is around that you come-- I was joking to some of them. I'm not so joking, like, you go to Italian restaurant and you're not eating pasta, what the hell you are doing then? It's just like you're in an Iranian restaurant, rice is staple food. Sometimes, we call just a plain rice and a yogurt and a pickle, we call it a lunch or dinner for God's sake.

Anyway, no, that's not an issue anymore but it used to be in the beginning, but I'm so glad also people understand that rice is not just this fluffy white thing. We do so much with rice. If I were allowed, I would've put another 20 rice variations in the book, but then, it would become only a book about rice. Maybe I should do that.

[laughter]

Alison: There's the super crispy rice. What is that?

Nasim: Tahdig.

Alison: Tahdig?

Nasim: Tahdig. Yes. Tahdig has become from an unknown word, now I love it. Our guests, I hear they order tahdig, I just filled with joy. It has become almost a household name in Brooklyn, not because of me, thanks to TikTok, and all these young people who are doing amazing gimmicky work on Instagram. There's just so much.

Many cultures have tahdig. I realized that entire South America, Koreans, and Brazilians, they all have a variation of burned rice in the bottom. Iranians took it to a whole different level. We put everything in the bottom from herbs, to potato, to even pasta, actual rice, bread, and we make it crispy. What makes it super delicious, it's not just fried potato. You can make French fries, but what goes in the bottom, it absorbs all the starch from the rice, so it becomes almost buttery and sweet. Who doesn't like something crispy, buttery, caramelized? My God, it's incredible.

Alison: Those are all good words, in my opinion. In my book, those are all good words. There's a lot of fruit recipes in this book. This one I thought was so interesting, prune and spinach stew, which you used to make for your kids when they were young. It's a beef stew, but there's also-- as well as the dried plums. There's also a citrus element, either lime or lemon. What goes into making this dish and what is the role of fruit in Iranian food?

Nasim: Yes. The Iranians, especially in the central part of Iran, which is where I come from, I'm from Isfahan, there's an abundance of incredible fruit. We use them into both, of course, we eat ton of fruits. Iranians love their fruits, but also, when you have so much of it, we use them as a--

When they're unripen, like grapes, for example, there are a lot of raisins in my cooking in the book, but also, there is a use for them when they are just fresh in the season, and they're sour. Sour grape is a major food flavor enhancer in many of my stews.

I am actually going to some neighbors and steal all their sour grapes and freeze them, and throughout the year, use them [chuckles] as a flavor enhancer, same thing with plums. Plums, when they are green, we use them for food. In spring, they are amazing. They're green. They're so tart, so incredible, add so much flavor to stews, but the season is short; two weeks, three weeks. You need to dry. What are you going to do with them?

We dry them and we use them as a stuffing. We use them in the case of spinach. We use them as a just another component to a beautiful herb dish and it adds so much. If you just eat the spinach and all the flavoring, yes, it's good. Once you add the plum, just perfect balance, and with the zest of a lemon and lime, with the perfect balance of sweet and sour, that dish comes to life. It was so popular. I was serving it as Sofreh, too, when we opened, but then, I switched it to another beloved herb. There's so much I can do, but it's super delicious. I hope people get to try that.

Alison: You devote an entire chapter to eggplant.

Nasim: [chuckles] Yes.

Alison: There are people for whom eggplant is a no-go.

Nasim: I know.

Alison: For people who don't believe they might like eggplant, what is a recipe you think could change their mind?

Nasim: Eggplant kashke bademjan, it's eggplant way dip.

Alison: I like the way it sounds.

Nasim: Bademjan is eggplant and the word "jan," in Farsi, is a term of endearment. Think about how much Persians love that to call that bademjan. It's a beloved vegetable in our culture. I hear this all the time at Sofreh, "I'm not for eggplant." I have right now two items in a small menu, two eggplant dish. One is appetizer, one is main.

In a couple of weeks when the farmer's market eggplants are out, I'm going to introduce daily specials of eggplants. One customer, one guest said, "Three eggplants, for God's sake?" I'm like, "Yes. Maybe James Beard one day invite me and they allow me to run the entire dinner of six courses of food plus the dessert."

When people don't like eggplants, I tell them eggplant is understated vegetable that is like a sponge, you can-- absorbs everything. You give it too much oil, like you fry it, all you taste is oil, but you give it attention and a care and love, it gives you back the same attention [chuckles] and love. Treat these eggplant recipes the way I ask you to, and then, write to me if you're still thinking, "Oh, eggplant is not for me."

Alison: You came to this country with very little English, very little money, you were young, 23 years old. If there's someone listening now who's in a similar situation or maybe just starting out and has a dream of a restaurant or has a dream of anything, what advice would you give them?

Nasim: Maybe if I look back to my old self because that's-- I don't know who am I to give advice, but I'm looking at the despair that I felt those years, the sense of hopelessness that I felt. It was dark times. It was New York City 1983, city was bankrupt, prospect of job was limited, crime, poverty, loneliness, all of it.

Life seemed so dark. Then, what at least for me got me out of that dark place was cooking a meal for me, and then sharing it with others, because just eating by myself I still was in a [chuckles] same dark place, except full of stomach. Once I got that little food, and I took it maybe to a school, and I sat in a cafeteria, and people are like, "What's that?" I'm like, "You want to try?"

That took me out of my place. I quickly realized that it's up to us to stay where we are or find ways and tools to get us out of what is not working because simply staying in a poor me situation, this and that, yes, it's just good enough, but snap out of it, just quickly snap out of it. Find ways, tools to get you out, and never, ever stop dreaming, never, just like dreams should never die. I'm still dreaming. I'm dreaming about what more I can do, what better things I can do. I don't know if I answered but I think--

Alison: Never stop dreaming.

Nasim: Never stop dreaming. Also, find tools to get you out of your dark place and they don't let you-- When I was faced with so many rejections with Sofreh, with permits, and all that, a wise friend gave me an advice, which was incredible because I was crying my heart out, why city's so unfair to a small people, blah-blah-blah-blah. She stopped me on my track and she said, "Don't you love to cook?" I said, "Yes." She said, "What's stopping you from cooking for some shelters. Just cook." I said, "What do you mean?" "Just go and sign up. Just keep cooking and while you have nothing better to do instead of waiting and ranting and complaining, do something about it."

I did and it brought so much joy plus an amazing marketing research. Imagine, you feed people, nobody's asking you what you're feeding them, and you watch in the background, and watch how the food is being consumed. What is it they like? What is it they don't like? Who would've known that became my menu, basically those home volunteer cookings for various projects became my menu at Sofreh and it was immediate hit. We don't know these things when we are in our own dark zone. We just don't know that.

Alison: You have to break inertia.

Nasim: Exactly.

Alison: The name of the book is Sofreh: A Contemporary Approach to Classic Persian Cuisine. It is out tomorrow. Nasim will be at Books Are Magic tonight and Rizzoli Bookstore tomorrow. Nasim Alikhani, thank you so much for being with us. We really appreciate it.

Nasim: Thank you so much for having me. You know how but a fan I am. Thank you.

[laughter]

 

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