Fiesta Farms Video Shoot #3: Meeting Zahra

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I spent today with Zahra who cooked up a fab­u­lous Iran­ian dish Zeresh Polo. While myself, Eamonn and Marc are always very focused on shoot­ing, as soon as the smell of saf­fron and onions started waft­ing through the kitchen, we were ready to eat.

Zahra’s cook­ing was not only deli­cious but incred­i­bly vibrant. The ingre­di­ents were cho­sen for their flavour and for the visual dimen­sion they bring to the dish; green pis­ta­chios, bright orangy-yellow saf­fron, and bright red dried berries. When Zahra fin­ished prepar­ing her rice dish, I ques­tioned whether I’d ever eat plain brown rice slopped in a bowl again. Her rice was a piece of art. And as she told us, each per­son adds their own flour­ishes to the dish to make it look just ‘so.’

The con­nec­tion between food and art is incred­i­bly expressed by Megan Fizell an artist and blog­ger whose blog is appro­pri­ately titled Feast­ing on Art. In the blog, Mea­gan pairs her love of visual art with her love of cook­ing. And the results are mouth water­ing. Check out her lat­est pair­ing; a sen­sual paint­ing of a mound of but­ter by Antoine Vol­lon and a recipe for parme­san mus­tard short­bread (Oh my god!).

Cook­ing with Zahra was also a lovely pair­ing; a warm and friendly home, and deli­cious beau­ti­ful food to match. Thanks Zahra.

Tom­r­row, I meet my friend Arlene’s Oma Wanda. Stay tuned.