Yasmin Khan, author, Zaitoun: Recipes from the Palestinian Kitchen
Saturday, February 16, 2019, 12:00 pm - 12:45 pm
Stop by the CUESA Classroom for a cooking demo featuring the seasonal bounty of the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market, followed by a book signing at Book Passage in the Ferry Building Marketplace.
Yasmin Khan is a best-selling author, campaigner and cook who is passionate about sharing people’s stories through food. A frequent flyer whose passport is never too far away from her pocket, Yasmin read Law at Sheffield University and then gained an MSc in Social Policy from the London School of Economics. After studying, she spent a decade working as a human rights campaigner for NGOs and grassroots groups, running high-profile national and international campaigns with a special focus on conflict in the Middle East. Born in London to a Pakistani father and an Iranian mother, Yasmin spent her childhood travelling back and forth to Iran, with long stretches of time spent on her grandparents’ rice farm on the shores of the Caspian Sea. In 2013, after suffering a burnout and having to step back from her human rights work, Yasmin switched careers and turned to food as a tool through which to share people’s stories. She ran a Kickstarter to write a book that would offer a window into Iran, the result of which was her best-selling debut book The Saffron Tales: Recipes From the Persian Kitchen (Bloomsbury, 2016). Yasmin’s second book Zaitoun: Recipes and Stories from the Palestinian Kitchen was published in July 2018 and immediately became a number 1 best-seller on Amazon. The book is a collection of recipes and stories gathered from her travels through Israel, the West Bank and Gaza and was named by the Guardian, The Observer and the BBC Food Programme as one of the best cookbooks of the year.
All demos take place in the CUESA Classroom (under the CUESA tents in front of the Ferry Building) and are free to the public, with recipes and samples for all.
Photo by Matt Russell