In “Sofreh,” Nasim Alikhani shares the beauty of modern Iranian food

Persian food is one of the great cuisines of the world, with geographic and cultural roots that run deep. Here in Los Angeles, we’re lucky to have such food represented generously. New York has Nasim Alikhani and her Brooklyn restaurant Sofreh, where she puts something unique on diners’ plates. Sofreh: A Contemporary Approach to Classic Persian Cuisine is her cookbook. 

Evan Kleiman: The name of your restaurant, and the title of your cookbook is Sofreh. Tell us what that means.

Nasim Alikhani: Sofreh literally means a piece of cloth that many years ago, when I was a kid, we used to spread it on the carpet, and later on, move to the table and we serve a meal over it. But sofreh is so much deeper than that. There are so many other lovely cultural words attached to it, like Persian New Year, sofreh haft-seen. Or when we make charitable food for large groups of people to be donated, we call it sofreh-naz. Or when someone is getting married, there is a beautiful arrangement in front we call it sofreh-aghd. So for me, sofreh is not just a place that we eat, but there’s also lots of cultural backdrop that comes to it. They all have community gathering, togetherness and sharing a bite, and all these different interpretations of sofreh, they all have some kind of a food component to it. 

Nasim Alikhani insisted that her mother’s leg of lamb was “100% Persian” only to discover she used a French technique. Photo by Quentin Bacon.

There’s something also about sofreh where the world of art and creativity and the urge for hospitality seem to come together.

Definitely, you can’t talk about food of Iran without immediately going to the beauty aspects of it, the ingredients we use, from pomegranates to barberry to roses to pistachios. So that gives a platform that every dinner party, every wedding party, every ceremony, you just can’t take your eyes off that, that beauty. And then people go completely nuts about it, how they’re going to top each other by decoration, by basically putting all kinds of artistic elements. 

But also for me, representing that over the years in my original, very humble, one-room apartment, to later on, [when] I had a big house, was always a point that I was very proudly showing a little bit of who we are through my food, just making sure that every sense is covered, from the eyes to the smell to the scent to taste. I really tried to capture that in Sofreh in Brooklyn, too. That was my whole intention, just showcasing a touch of, in my humble way, a touch of what I know exists in Iran.

You discovered your passion for cooking in your 20s, but you didn’t realize your dream of opening a restaurant until 25 years later. Tell us a little bit about what your life was like in between.

Originally, when I came to [the] US, I was supposed to become a judge. But then, like every immigrant, when you land in a newfound country, you just figure out who you are and basically survive. So the first five, six years of my life, I survived being a fulltime student, making sure I kept my status and worked all kinds of odd jobs. One thing that brought always a comfort and a sense of belonging to me was food, either a simple lentil rice that I cook for me in my one pot over one flame stovetop, or just sharing that simple food to my classmates. So it was just always food that I was focusing on. 

In between. I did all kinds of things. I was a nanny, I was a waitress, I became a shop owner. I finished a couple of degrees, master degrees, and worked for the UN, became a mother, but I don’t think I ever stopped literally cooking almost every day. And when my life allowed me, entertaining all the time, massive parties, doing massive catering projects, but eventually I had to do what was being called for me to do, and that was just I needed to have my own restaurant.

Upon arriving in the US, Nasim Alkhani opened her palate to chilies and other international flavors. Photo by Quentin Bacon.

 I understand that feeling. Here in LA, many of us are exposed to the canon of five or six of the most famous Persian stews, the rice tahdig, and kebabs. How would you describe your culinary point of view? In your restaurant, you serve your food in a more modern way. Can you talk a bit about your approach and how it comes through also in the cookbook? 

I traveled extensively, both for research and also for pure joy. I live and breathe food, and when you travel so much, you learn so much through different interpretations. Even just for being in New York, by eating all kinds of nationalities’ food, your eyes open up as a cook, and your palate expands. And I wanted to see some of the things that fascinated me in my cooking, and started actually adapting some of it. I didn’t know much about chilies until I discovered various chilies here from Asia to Mexico. And then, I started loving chilies in my food. So Iranian food and chili, not quite, as you know. I have an excessive palate for savory and lots of lemon, more than typical Iranians, lots of acid.

But one thing that I didn’t want to do, I didn’t want to do kebab. I’m not against kebab. I just think kebab has been done by Persians, for sure, and the entire world. Tahdig is iconic the way we do it, Persians, but so many other nations also have a variation of crispy rice — Koreans, Colombians, Brazilians. I can go on and on and on. So I wanted to show the regionality of Iranian cuisine. 

North is a vast country. North to south has completely different types of food. People will be shocked to see two dishes side by side, both eggplants and some condiments. They have nothing to do with each other because they come from two different regions of Iran. I am from Isfahan, so right in the middle. I have extensive research and knowledge about Iranian food. I want to showcase a little bit of this regionality and the vastness of what we can deliver in terms of flavor profile. 

And some dishes, they are so iconic, as you said, some of these stews, for example, ghormeh sabzi or fesenjoon or ash reshteh, these are iconic Iranian dishes. I would not touch these dishes. I’m not going to introduce chili or anything else that I learned from other people or other cuisines into them. However, I have a dish, tahini date salad that is so popular. This salad doesn’t exist in Iran. It’s just my own creation, and it has dates and it has yogurt. These are all Persian stuff, but it has sesame seeds and lots of leafy greens. So refreshing, so lovely but it’s spicy. It’s very, very spicy. And that brings joy to me then, and I can find a little room for the chilies that I love so much to introduce. 

I really love chilies. So one of these dishes, I think I could be wrong, maybe this is a traditional dish, but in the book, you have a Roasted Leg of Lamb “Gigot” that is visually striking and looks delicious. Could you describe it?

Iran has a lot of French influence. There are so many of our words, our French words, which are kind of recent additions. My mother always served that and she called it “gigot.” For the longest time, I was so defending that this is 100% Persian, until I learned later on that gigot is a French word for a leg of lamb, for the same concept. 

But the way we do it, and I think this is something about Iranians in general, we adapt so well. We take something from someone like we did, all the spices from India, and we make it our own. This gigot is an example of that. Yes, the origin of this dish is probably 99% French but the way my mother cooked it is completely Iranian. My recipe, you taste it, has nothing to do with the gigot I had in France. I was very dismayed, like, “I think they should come and learn our version.” And my husband said, “You’re so arrogant.” I’m like, “Honestly, it’s so much nicer.”

“Sofreh” is the word for a cloth on a table setting but has deeper meanings in Persian culture, all related to food. Photo courtesy of Knopf.

But it isn’t presented in the same way that one would see the whole leg of lamb, with the bone, maybe with rosemary and slivers of garlic in a French setting. Describe what’s on top of it and what it’s cooked with. 

Yeah, it’s cooked first of all with a ton of garlic. When you see how much garlic is poked in that leg, you will be like, “My God, I will be smelling garlic for a whole month!” But first, the main thing is garlic, then lots and lots of onion I use in my cooking. Excessive amount of onions. To me, the onions are the sauce, but I caramelize them a lot, so they reduce. Onions are like, what is it? 75% water. So when you caramelize them, they really shrink a lot, but they give the depth of flavor, and then turmeric and cinnamon and a ton of tomato paste, and cooked very slowly in that sauce for a very long time, and then that sauce is very thick, then I like to pour it. I like to showcase the beauty of every dish as is. When you have this magnificent leg of lamb, in my opinion, it doesn’t need a ton of things. You can put some dishes around it, like a rice or salad or something. But let’s let the beauty of the dish speak for itself.

Leave us with something sweet.

People expect me to say rice pudding or baklava or this and that, but something that I really, really treasure. As soon as [its] September, October, beautiful dates are coming from California to New York. These beautiful, large dates are coming. I like to stuff them with walnuts and put them face down on a tray. You create a very delicate batter with flour and butter and saffron and cardamom and a little bit of cinnamon, then you can garnish it with more nuts or more pistachio. We call it ranginak, and it’s my all-time favorite, little healthiest snack that I can always have.