Hello to Sabzi!

One of the great pleasures of writing this blog is meeting people and discovering their amazing talents. Four years ago (to the day!) I met Kate Atlee when I was invited to her house for her inaugural Persian Supper Club, she then went on to be a Quarterfinalist of Masterchef, and last night her new venture, Sabzi opened in Walsingham Place to great acclaim.

‘Sabzi’ is the Farsi word for ‘Herb’ and Kate’s vision is to bring big flavour and colour to food. Whereas we ight be tempted to use herbs as a garnish, Kate’s cooking shines a spotlight on dill, mint (dried and fresh), and of course, liberal amounts of parsley. Her Persian heritage will inform the variety of dishes in the deli and commitment to quality and obvious passion is sure to delight foodies in Truro. I’m particularly excited about her daily Dahl and I’m looking forward to trying the coffee from Rising Ground in Wadebridge.

Well done Kate - so excited for this next part of the journey!

Reproduced BELOW is the blog post I wrote 4 years ago.

A celebration of life!

First published 28 Nov 2015

This week on the Jeremy Vine show, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall from River Cottage, read out his essay on ‘What makes us human’.  Vine has had many guests on his show sharing their particular version on how we differ from animals, but Hugh’s was quite simple. It was Food and cooking. From celebration meals and the rituals of how we eat, Hugh described the very human activity of sharing food. Last week, Matthew and I shared food in a very different setting, we were invited to be part of the first Persian supper club in Cornwall, The Arjomandi Kitchen.

Supper clubs are part of a growing trend for crowdsourcing.  This social revolution is one in which we (AKA; you and I, the general public) are in the driving seat.  Think AirBnB, Uber & Crowdfunder – all non-traditional ways of obtaining goods and services. A supper club, therefore is the next logical step.  A restaurant which isn’t a restaurant.  A feast night in someone’s home.

As far as we know, supper clubs are relatively unknown in Cornwall and with a rich heritage of Persian cooking, Kate Atlee was keen to start her own.  I was introduced to Kate via a business contact, John Harvey.  John is a great connector of people and knows that Secret Truro likes to seek out new ventures and interesting events, so I was delighted to get an introduction.

It was exciting to arrive at someone’s house and not quite know what to expect.  Particularly as we didn’t know who else would be there.  We needn’t have worried, as soon as we turned up we were warmly welcomed in by Kate and her husband Will with a glass of Prosecco.   There was a delicious aroma of dinner cooking, laughter coming from the house and we soon found ourselves chatting and mingling with the other guests.  (As it happened we did know someone and then found lots of mutual friends with the other guests – after this IS Cornwall!)

Starters were served as canapes on huge platters.  Delicious Kuku sazbi – a delicious herb omelette, and Persian bruschetta topped with Aubergine and radish.  Kate was on hand to tell us all about the food we were eating and explained the importance of each dish within the Iranian culture.

We were then seated at tables for the main course, which included Ghormeh Sazbi, a lamb stew full of fresh green herbs, Khoresh e-Bademjan, a meltingly soft Aubergine and tomato stew, a traditional salad, rice and a type of Persian tzatsiki.  Kate had also made a delicious Naan Barbari which was topped with Nigella seeds.

As the wine (chosen and provided by Old Chapel Cellars) was poured and the food consumed, the conversation flowed.  Stories were exchanged, connections made and by the end of the night, someone peering in through the window would have seen what looked like a bunch of friends sharing supper together.

Pudding was in the form of Persian Love Cake, a densely beautiful cake delicately flavoured with rosewater and lime which is hard to describe (I obviously need to try this again!).  It was a good time to swap places and catch up with those you hadn’t quite had time to meet.

Kate and Will did an absolutely superb job and the welcome into their house was warm and genuine  Kate’s knowledge, passion and heritage together with superb cooking skills made for a fantastic foodie evening out.

Food can be functional, clinical even;  broken down into its component parts, protein for muscle growth, carbohydrates for energy, fluid for hydration.  But a meal, prepared with love and passion, functions in an entirely different and life-affirming way. It brings people, sometimes strangers, together where we find our similarities and differences, a place where we share experiences, celebrate success or empathise over disappointments.  Hugh was right, the cooking and sharing of food does, indeed, make us human.