Persian food is as rich in spice as it is in folklore and tradition. With an elegant touch, Zohreh Shahrabi’s cooking shows that each ingredient has a purpose beyond flavour, says colleague Niki Kopcke There is something very special about cooking with others. It is in the kinship we find and the stories we tell that food changes from something our stomachs need to something our hearts crave. This, I think, is what sets Mazi Mas apart from other restaurants: we cook not just to feed, but also to narrate, and to unite. When I stop by the Mazi Mas kitchen during prep shifts, I often feel like I’m walking into scenes of my childhood: women clustered around the kitchen table, heads bowed, absorbed in chatter. Someone offers tea and everyone pauses, rearranging; Zohreh, our Iranian chef, produces a sleeve of biscuits and hands it round. I decline tea, but she won’t let me have a glass of water because, she explains solemnly, cold water causes cancer. In an instant I am back in Greece with my godmother, sitting at the table as she stirs a pot of artichokes with lemon and gravely insists: artichokes cure cancer. Continue reading...
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