PROFILE
From Iran with love New cookbook celebrates the rich and diverse cuisine of the Persian Jewish culture
Angela Cohan as a baby held by her uncle Amir Sahimi in their family backyard in Tehran, circa 1966
By Danit Schusterman When Angela Cohan was just 9 years old, her family felt compelled to leave Tehran. The year was 1979. The Pahlavi dynasty under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi had been overthrown and replaced with an Islamic Republic under the repressive rule of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Cohan’s family did not at first believe that they were going to leave Tehran permanently. They boarded a direct El Al flight to Israel, and booked a 2-week stay at the Plaza Hotel in Tel Aviv, thinking they would return home once things quieted down in Iran.
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“I remember staying on the third floor of the Plaza Hotel,” Cohan recalls. “It was filled with Persian Jews, all of us anxiously awaiting our return back home.” She says people left all of their belongings in Iran, thinking they will only be away for two weeks. But when weeks turned into months, it was very clear that they would not be going back home.
The majority of Iran’s Jewish population, some 60,000 Jews, emigrated permanently in the aftermath of the overthrow of the Shah. Jews had lived in Iran since 727 BCE, but today, most have been expatriated. Cohan’s mother made the difficult decision to move her family to San Diego for a year. Their extended family stayed in Israel in hopes of returning back to Iran as soon as things calmed down. It was a very difficult time for all of them. “We were the lucky few,” she says, “We left just in time.” Cohan continued her education in southern California, attending UCLA where she studied psychology and achieved Masters’ degrees in Journalism and Mass Communications. She worked as the editor for The Iranian Jewish Chronicle and is currently a contributing writer for Cultural Weekly. When Cohan’s daughter, who was born in Los Angeles, moved back home and asked to share some family recipes with her, Cohan realized the importance of passing down the stories as well as the language,
Angela Cohan (right) with her father Parviz Beroukhim and sister Stella in their front yard in Tehran, circa 1970
history and traditional customs through these treasured recipes. “I realized that if I didn’t document our family recipes and our history, our stories and our rich heritage would soon be forgotten,” says Cohan who is a member of the PEN Center USA literary and human rights organization, Young Story Tellers Foundation and the National Honor Society.
daughter. “I was inspired to compile the specialty recipes of my mother, my late grandmothers, other family members, and friends,” she says. The result is the new 248-page cookbook, “Persian Delicacies: Jewish Foods for Special Occasions,” published by Overcup Press. It is a collection of recipes and designs in which she celebrates the foods of her homeland along with traditions from her Persian Jewish heritage.
Persian cuisine has long been a major influence in food trends, as the royal kitchens of ancient Persian empires were influential and famous for their cooking. Persia, now known as Iran, connects the Middle East with the Far East, and contains influences from ancient Greece, Rome, and many other Asian and Mediterranean influences.
“This book is as much theirs as it is mine,” she says of her extended family circle which contributed traditional recipes. “It is a tribute to my heritage as a Persian Jewish woman as well as an evolution of recipes since living and cooking in the United States for the past three decades.”
Cohan wanted to share that with her
The book features a full spectrum of
