Persiana

The cookbook that turned Sabrina Ghayour from a London supper club host into an international food star. Persiana collects over 100 recipes from across the Middle East, with a strong foundation in Persian cooking, and presents them in a way that feels celebratory without being intimidating. It won the Observer Food Monthly Best Cookbook award in 2014, was named Book of the Year at the 2015 Food & Travel Awards, and launched a career that has produced six bestselling books.

Why Start Here

Persiana is the natural entry point because it captures everything that makes Ghayour’s cooking distinctive: warmth, generosity, bold spicing, and a deep understanding that great food brings people together. The recipes are organized by course, from snacks and salads through mains and desserts, making it easy to build entire meals or just pick one dish to brighten a weeknight dinner.

Starting here also gives you the foundation for everything she has written since. Her later books, including Sirocco, Bazaar, and Simply, expand her range into different cuisines and dietary approaches, but Persiana remains the purest expression of her philosophy. If you connect with her use of sumac, pomegranate, saffron, and rose, you will find yourself returning to this book for years.

What to Expect

A 240-page cookbook with vibrant photography by Liz and Max Haarala Hamilton. The recipes are designed for home cooks who want impressive results without excessive effort. You will want to stock your pantry with sumac, za’atar, saffron, dried limes, pomegranate molasses, and good-quality tahini. Dishes like the lamb and sour cherry meatballs, chicken with preserved lemon and olive tagine, and the spiced carrot, pistachio, and coconut cake have become modern classics. The tone throughout is encouraging and joyful, like cooking with a friend who genuinely wants you to succeed.