Najmieh Batmanglij, hailed as “the guru of Persian cuisine” by The Washington Post, has spent the past 30 years cooking, traveling, and adapting authentic Persian recipes to tastes and techniques in the West. Her cookbook "New Food of Life: Ancient Persian and Modern Iranian Cooking and Ceremonies," was called “The definitive book of Persian cooking” by the Los Angeles Times; a revised edition of
this beloved book, containing over three hundred recipes, is slated for release in March 2011. Her "Silk Road Cooking: A Vegetarian Journey" was selected as “One of the ten best vegetarian cookbooks of the year” by The New York Times; and her "From Persia to Napa: Wine at the Persian Table" won the Gourmand Cookbook Award for the world’s best wine history book of 2007. She is a member of Les Dames d’Escoffier and lives in Washington, DC, where she teaches Persian and Silk Road cooking, lectures, and consults with restaurants around the world. Her most recent book is "Happy Nowruz: Cooking with Children to Celebrate the Persian New Year." "New Food of Life: Ancient Persian and Modern Iranian Cooking and Ceremonies" is a treasury of 240 classical and regional Iranian recipes. 120 color photographs intertwined with descriptions of ancient and modern ceremonies, poetry, folk tales, travelogue excerpts, and anecdotes make this not just a collection of recipes but also an introduction to Persian art and culture. Food-related pieces from such classics as the 10th century Book of Kings, and 1,001 Nights to the miniatures of Mir Mussavar and Aq Mirak, from the poetry of Omar Khayyam to the humor of Mulla Nasruddin are all included. Each recipe is presented in a format that is brilliantly logical and marvelously easy to follow. You will learn how to cook rice, the jewel of Persian cooking, simply yet deliciously. And by combining it with a little meat, fowl, or fish, vegetables, fruits, and herbs, you'll have a balanced diet.
