Yasmin Khan, the best-selling author of cookbooksĀ The Saffron TalesĀ andĀ Zaitoun, has not had a conventional route to food writing. Born in London to a Pakistani father and an Iranian mother, Khan studied law at university, earned a masterās in social policy, and then worked in the non-profit sector for 10 years.
But, she says, throughout it all, her mission hasnāt changed. āWhen I was a human rights campaigner, what I realized made the most difference was storytelling and building empathy,ā she reflectsĀ over video. āThatās the exact same premise as I have with my cookbooksāso Iām sharing stories of olive farmers in the West Bank, or Syrian doctors in a Greek refugee camp, or hip-hop musicians in Tehran. Humans have more that unites us than divides us, and food is such a great vehicle to tell those stories.ā
Itās clear, even through a laptop screen, thatĀ KhanĀ has a gift for connecting with people. She smiles often and talks with passion about everything from 1980s movies to her yoga nidra practice, which sheās been using to help her throughout these difficult times. Sheās also been relying on food to improve her well beingāno surprise, really.
āObviously, healthy eating is really crucial,ā says Khan, who bemoans the lack of the UKās public health messaging around immune-boosting foods. āI am a big follower of Eastern food traditions, so I employ a lot of Traditional Chinese Medicine andĀ ayurvedicĀ principles into the foods I eat.ā
For Khan, the daughter of a nutritionist, that means putting together meals that help her feel healthier and stronger, or mentally calmer and more grounded. Having said that, sheās no moralist.
āThe kitchen can be a very meditative space, and I think thatās why we saw people making banana bread or makingĀ sourdoughĀ [at the start of the pandemic]. In that way, food has been very comforting to a lot of people. But I donāt want to over-egg that, because I also think that peopleās relationship with food can be determined by their mental health,ā she says. āWhen Iām particularly anxious or stressed, I actually donāt want to cook. Thatās when Iām just eating cheese toasties, you know? So while everyone has been like, āLetās embrace cooking in the lockdown,ā itās also okay if that isnāt your thing. Sometimes, especially with Instagram, food cultureās become a bit performative.ā
Besides pulling back the curtain on social media foodies, Khan is all about dismantling stereotypes.
āI think the common misperception is that people in the Middle East are sitting on the floor in headscarves, rolling out bread with their bare hands,ā she says wryly. āThe modernity and the youth culture of the Middle East is just not really represented at all. What I tryĀ to do in my books is show a modern slice of life in Iran or Palestine or Turkey.ā
To that end, she likes to share stories about frozen yogurt shops in Tehran or vegan bakeries in Istanbulāor places like Taybeh, which is the Middle Eastās first microbrewery.
HerĀ third book,Ā Ripe Figs, comes out in April 2021. āI traveled around Greece, Turkey, and Cyprus cooking and eating with people from all walks of life,ā says Khan, who describes the book as her most ambitious one to date. In it, she imagines the possibilities of a world without borders.
āThe focus of my conversations at the kitchen table were very much around identity, migration, and how we deal with it,ā she explains. āBecause that area has seen the largest influx of people since the Second World War, with huge numbers of refugees coming from North Africa and the Middle East.ā She adds, āThere are some really hopeful stories in it, but thereās a lot of sadness in the book as well. Sometimes I think food writing can be a bit fake, as if all travel writing is just, like, wonderful. This book flips that on its head.ā
And so, through food and through stories, Khan brings us together, at least in spirit. In an increasingly isolated world, we need that connection now more than ever.