Nader Mehravari

Nader Mehravari has been exploring the history, principles, and practices of Persian cookery and Iranian food for over 35 years, initially as a serious side quest and for the past several years as a full-time mission. His current explorations and writings deal with historical, cultural, and social practices relating to the preparation and consumption of food within Persianate societies. He puts the outcomes of his explorations into practice by recreating traditional and authentic Persian dishes in a typical modern western home kitchen, while carefully documenting associated methods behind individual and classes of dishes. He is writing an innovative Persian cookbook where accurate historical information and modern food science techniques are incorporated for modern western home kitchens.

His academic and professional background in science, engineering, and technology allows him to incorporate a structured and scientific approach into his culinary passion. He received his PhD from Cornell University in 1982. He is a retired corporate executive, has taught at Cornell, Syracuse, and Princeton Universities, and has published extensively. He is currently a volunteer Research Associate at the College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences of University of California, Davis. He also volunteers at the Center for Iranian Diaspora Studies at San Francisco State University as the Center’s Foodways Research Fellow. Most recently, his work has been published in Petits Propos Culinaires and presented at Oxford Food Symposium.

Nader's Desert Island Food: Hands down, my desert island food would be a bag of mixed dried fruit: dried figs, white mulberries, sour cherries, barberries, apricots, plums, and golden raisins. They are simple, healthy, long lasting, tasty, and versatile. They are good by themselves not only as snacks but filling enough as main meals and can easily be mixed with other ingredients to create delicious cooked or raw dishes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.