Announcing my cookbook "Pomegranates & Artichokes"

Proud to present "Pomegranates & Artichokes: Recipes and Memories of a Journey from Iran to Italy"

Feb 04, 2023

I am extremely excited, nervous, happy and proud to FINALLY present you my first cookbook: Pomegranates & Artichokes: Recipes and memories of a journey from Iran to Italy. It will be published on May 4th and it’s now available for pre-order here.

“Refreshingly unusual in its concept and geographical spread, filled with heady pleasure, deep locality and genuine know-how, Pomegranates & Artichokes is also quite possibly the most beautiful cookbook I have ever seen.”
— Caroline Eden, author of Red Sands, Black Sea and Samarkand

THE STORY – AND THE FOOD – OF A FLUID, MOVING HOME

There are so many things I have to say about this book, about its genesis in January 2017, about how I turned down no less than 3 publishing offers on books that I did not want to write, because I knew I wanted to write specifically this book, and about its arduous road to publication. But these are stories for another time.

Pomegranates & Artichokes is not a cookbook about an “exotice Persia”, from the point of view of a nostalgic exile. Nor is it a cookbook about the dolce vita in Italy. It’s a journey (my own journey, of course), that starts in Iran, then travels west through the Levant and the Eastern Mediterranean, finally arriving in Italy. It’s a quest for things that link the people of these lands, rather than separate them. Recipes, ingredients, techniques, stories. You'll be amazed at the amount of similarities between these apparently distant cultures and their cuisine.

FROM MY PUBLISHER:

“Divided into three sections representing stops on Saghar's culinary 'road trip' - Iran, In Between and Italy - this book features more than 80 recipes celebrating the foods of these regions. Among the highlights are a simple Iranian breakfast platter, a celebratory Persian feast, Sicilian-style stuffed artichokes, guinea hen braised with pomegranate, sweet-sour meatballs from Aleppo, a Roman ricotta and wild cherry pie and a velvety Middle Eastern milk pudding.

Illustrated with Saghar's own beautiful photography, and peppered with personal insights and experiences, Pomegranates & Artichokes tells the story of two food cultures, and the delicious space in between.”

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IN SEARCH OF SHARED HUMANITY (AND RECIPES)

Over and over again the question of borders and freedom of movement is raised throughout the book, for in fact, more than anything Pomegranates & Artichokes is about migrations. And consequently it’s also a book about identity.

Each of the three chapters of Iran, In Between, and Italy starts with an essay and its own pantry section. The recipes too are accompanied by historical facts, personal anecdotes and insights, particularly highlighting the similarities of context or technique to other recipes in the book.

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“Saghar's food and story is rich with culture, history and beauty. I cannot wait to cook from it and lose myself in its pages.”
— Olia Hercules, author of Mamushka, Summer Kitchens and Home Food

PRE-ORDERS ARE IMPORTANT

Writing and selling books in the digital age is a strange game. For example, a lot of success and sales of a book depends on the amount of pre-orders it gets, long before anyway has read it. It sends a signal to the market and the retailers about how the book is going to sell in the future. So if you want to support me and my work, please pre-order Pomegranates & Artichokes.

THE SOUNDTRACK

In order to get in the mood for Pomegranates & Artichokes, I have curated a meticulous playlist that mimics the chapters of the book; it starts in Iran, then travels west through Turkey, Lebanon, Syria, Greece etc, and then arrives in Italy. Just like the recipes in the book these tracks have been chosen because of their regionality and free spirit. Let’s discover something beautiful about a place we don’t know.

“I want to [get] lost in her photography, find connections that transcend physical places and pore over the kind of food that I want to immediately cook for friends and neighbours”.
— Emiko Davies, author of Florentine, Tortellini at Midnight and Cinnamon and Salt