A native of Iran who once dreamed of becoming a judge, Nasim Alikhani’s road to chefdom and proprietorship has been a circuitous one, to say the least. But she’s more than made up for lost time at her hit Brooklyn restaurant Sofreh, where she serves her personal take on Persian cuisine. As the restaurant settles into the second half of its first decade, Nasim has also just this week seen her first cookbook published: Sofreh: A Contemporary Approach to Classic Persian Cuisine (written in collaboration with Theresa Gambacorta). In this episode, Nasim sits down with Andrew to share her story, the meaning of sofreh to both restaurant and book, some distinct characteristics of Persian food, and the lessons she’s learned along the way.
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