CELEBRITY CHEF Ariana Bundy will be flying into Bahrain to sign her stunning new cookery book and share her passion for the art of Persian fare.
She will be the latest star author to visit Words BookstoreCafé, the brainchild of entrepreneurial mums Rana Aljalahma and Eileen Abuhamad, which is located at Palm Square on Budaiya Highway.
Her latest book Pomegranates and Roses: My Persian Family Recipes evokes the sensual pleasure of Middle Eastern flavours, using pomegranate seeds and juice, rose water and rose petals, fragrant herbs and spices to create enticing dishes full of colour and elegance.
Ariana said: “Persian food is at the same time exotic and familiar! Play on flavour is the key word in Persian cooking such as pomegranates and walnut stew, plums and chicken with saffron with a dash of verjuice or lemon, hearty herb soups with pulses and whey with again a dash of something sour and a topping of caramelised onions.
“There is lots of depth of flavour, it’s delicate to the senses, comforting and healthy when cooked with not too much oil, and beautifully presented. The system of Unani – gram and sari meaning hot and cold – is Iran’s answer to yin and yang. Also, Persian cuisine does not contain any chilli or ginger except for a couple of dishes from the Deep South which incidentally are delicious!
“Not much garlic is used unless the recipes are from the lush green Caspian region in the north.
“Softer spices such as turmeric, cinnamon, rose petals are preferred and used with a very delicate hand so as not to mask the flavours of the main ingredient.”
Ariana left Iran at the age of five, was brought up in New York, London and Switzerland and trained as a chef in Paris.
She inherited her love of food and cooking from her grandparents – merchants and landowners who grew cherries, plums, apricots, apples, sugar beets, wheat and barley, bred sheep and goats for dairy, and had beautiful vineyards producing prized grapes – and from her father, who owned the first fine-dining French restaurant in Iran and later in Beverly Hills.
As head pastry chef for the Mondrian Hotel in Los Angeles she cooked for former president Bill Clinton, actors Tom Hanks, Nicole Kidman and Brad Pitt as well as singer Madonna to name just a few celebrities.
With recipes such as Ice in Heaven and Pomegranate and Walnut Stew with Chicken, Ariana manages to capture the exotic taste of Persian cuisine as well as celebrating the values and traditions cherished by her forefathers.
Their memories of when life was simpler, family mattered above all else, and eating together was of paramount importance provide an evocative leitmotif. In her book, she pays tribute to the rich heritage that has shaped her approach to life, cooking and eating.
She explained: “Both smell and taste trigger powerful memories in me. The smell of steaming rice with heady saffron, the smell of oranges from the Caspian being peeled, the taste of the first fresh pistachios of the season sprinkled with salt, the tangy slightly bitter taste of Omani limes in Khoreshteh Ghormeh Sabzi – a fresh four herb stew with tender pieces of lamb, the smell of rose water and the sticky sweetness of my great-aunt’s Baghlava.”
Ariana has appeared on TV shows such as the BBC’s Good Food Live, Sky’s Taste and Top Billing.
She is also the author of Sweet Alternative, the first gluten, dairy and soy-free dessert cookbook written due to her family’s and her own food intolerances.
“Sweet Alternative came out in 2005 when people had just started to notice this as an issue. Now, of course, many people are either suffering from some form of intolerance or allergy or know someone who also does.
“We all have sensitivities and intolerances in our family. I can’t eat some forms of dairy and recently have a strong sensitivity towards gluten. It is life changing and challenging and has had me with a few tears. Imagine you devote your career towards all things yummy and then have to restrict yourself?
“It’s so amazing that people are coming to terms about food intolerances and allergies. This makes them question where their food comes from, how and if it is tampered with, for example foods derived from genetically modified organisms, and how important a role it plays in your mood or how your child behaves.
“There are wonderful new ingredients such as coconut oil, different nut milks and alternative flours created by passionate people who are looking for new ways around this issue. You really can have your cake and eat it too!”
She now lives between Dubai and Paris with her husband Paul Hughes, a Welsh management consultant, and their four-year-old son Dara-Cyrus.
Ariana is passionate about making meal times a family occasion. She said: “It’s very important to eat as a family, especially in this day and age when everyone is busy, busy, busy!
“The moments I ate with my family are the ones which inspired me to write this cookbook, to relive those memories and to share them with readers.
“It’s those moments which kept me going when I was alone in London or LA eating takeaways all the while longing for my grandmother’s cooking, the sound of tea being stirred and the gossip in the kitchen.
“It’s incredibly powerful to have that unity at the table being nourished by your parents. I’m re-creating this for my son and not only does he love to eat with us but to cook too!”
*Ariana Bundy’s cookbook signing takes place on Saturday at 11am.
