FOOD OF LIFE: ANCIENT PERSIAN AND MODERN IRANIAN COOKING AND CEREMONIES

**25TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION** BY NAJMIEH BATMANGLIJ

“Guru of Persian Cooking,” Acclaimed Cook and Cookbook Author

EXPANDED, UPDATED & REDESIGNED 640 PAGES, 330 COLOR PHOTOS, NEW RECIPES & SECTIONS

The full-color Food of Life 25th Anniversary Edition contains 50% more pages than its 2009 predecessor and special added features:

*New Recipes adapted from Sixteenth-Century Persian cookbooks
*Added vegetarian section for most recipes
*Comprehensive dictionary of all ingredients
*A glance at a few thousand years of the history of Persian Cooking
*Master recipes with photos illustrating the steps.
*Color photos of most recipes with tips on presentation
*Updated section on Persian stores and Internet suppliers
*Fahrenheit and Centigrade temperatures for all recipes
*Choices for cooking recipes such as “kuku” in oven or on stovetop.
*Encourages use of seasonal and local ingredients from farmers markets, Community Supported Agriculture (CSAs) sources or one’s own backyard

Batmanglij’s cookbooks reflect the tradition and culture of her Persian background and the multi-tasking demands of a busy mother and professional. She views preparing a meal not only as a culinary experience, but also as a means to bring family and friends together. She encourages her readers to do as she was taught in Iran: to cook, to laugh, to tell jokes and stories, and to recite poetry. Over the past quarter century, Batmanglij’s books have acted as both a beacon and a bible to Iranian-American and mixed-ethnicity families in the English-speaking world. Food of Life is one of the few volumes whose breadth ranges from the exacting measures that go into cooking a perfect bowl of rice to the intricacies of a traditional ancient Persian marriage ceremony. Her life and her work meet at the vortex of feminism, tradition, ceremony, and the nourishment of body and mind, proving that none of these concepts need be foreign to one another.

Najmieh Batmanglij, hailed as “the guru of Persian cuisine” by The Washington Post, is an acclaimed American chef, cooking instructor and best-selling cookbook author. Her previous edition of this book was called “The definitive book of Persian cooking” by the Los Angeles Times. Silk Road Cooking: A Vegetarian Journey was selected as one of the 10 best Vegetarian Cookbooks of 2004 by the New York Times. From Persia to Napa: Wine at the Persian Table was awarded the Gourmand Prize for the best wine history book of 2007 and Happy Nowruz: Cooking with Children to Celebrate the Persian New Year, published in 2008, was called, “Of great value” by Booklist.

She has spent much of the past 30 years traveling, teaching cooking, and adapting authentic Persian recipes to tastes and techniques in the West. Batmanglij is a member of Les Dames d'Escoffier and the International Association of Culinary Professionals, and has taught and lectured throughout the United States. She lives in Washington, DC, with her husband Mohammad Batmanglij, publisher and editor of Mage, a leading publisher of Persian literature and culture in English. She teaches master classes in Persian and Silk Road cooking and uses her skills as a cook to fundraise for local charities. She is the mother of Zal Batmanglij, acclaimed filmmaker of “Sound of My Voice” which premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival and Rostam Batmanglij, the producer and one of the songwriters in the Grammy-nominated band, “Vampire Weekend