Mumbai’s beloved Parsi café, Jimmy Boy, which has stood proudly at Horniman Circle in Fort for nearly a century,...
Food and Beverage Articles
A Historic Moment for Parsi Cuisine: Niloufer Mavalvala Honored at the Gourmand Awards in Portugal
Cascais, Portugal – Parsi cuisine took center stage at one of the world's most prestigious culinary events this past...
Cookbooks and Documenting Our Food: Not Just Dhansak Ep 04 Featuring Niloufer Mavalvala
On this episode, Bawi Bride Perzen Patel discusses documentation of the Parsi Food with author and food blogger, Niloufer Mavalvala. Niloufer shares her journey of starting a blog, creating a...
Home Chefs – The Parsi Food Custodians: Not Just Dhansak Ep 03 Featuring Gulrukh Irani and Furrokh Regina
On this episode, Bawi Bride Perzen Patel talks to home chefs Gulrukh Irani and Furrokh Regina and discusses why people like them are the true custodians of Parsi food. They discuss their childhood...
Cooking with the Time & Talents Club
The smell of dried Bombay duck infiltrates the air.Mum is making the Parsi dish Tarapori Patio, a ruddy pickle made from the quintessentially Bombay fish, the curiously-named Bombay duck,...
Batasas and the Parsi Bakery: Not Just Dhansak Ep 02 Featuring Cyrus Dotiwala
On this episode, Bawi Bride Perzen Patel is in conversation with the sixth generation owner of the very famous Dotivala Bakery in Surat, Cyrus Dotivala. Cyrus shares the story of how bread traveled...
A Bid to Maintain One of the World’s Oldest Culinary Traditions
For the ever dwindling Parsi community of western India, food is both pleasure and heritage — and a secret language in danger of dying out. TO TASTE DHANSAK at the Ripon Club in Mumbai — whose...
Irani Cafes: A fading love story
The little culinary revolution that Mumbai’s tiny Iranian diaspora began a 100 years ago is now quickly dwindling“Agar teer e aalambejombad be jay. Na barradragi, gar nakhwaahadkhodaay (Even if the...
What is Parsi Food, Really: Not Just Dhansak Ep 01 Featuring Kurush Dalal
On the first episode of our Parsi food show, Not Just Dhansak, our host Perzen Patel, popularly known as the Bawi Bride, is in conversation with archaeologist and food historian, Kurush Dalal. When...
Celebrated Parsi chef Anahita N Dhondy is today the toast of Asia
Chef Anahita N Dhondy was selected in the 'Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia 2019' list for her contribution towards food sustainability and for popularising the Parsi cuisine. Chef Anahita N Dhondy was at a...
Arashasp Shroff Conferred Ontario Hostelry’s ‘Top 30 Under 30 Award’
We are really proud to hear that our dear buddy Arashasp Shroff has been selected as one of the Top 30 Under 30 Hospitality professionals in Ontario, Canada.Per Parsi Times: On March 28, 2019,...
5 Delicious Parsi Dishes and Where to Eat them in Mumbai this Navroze
Navroze, The Persian New Year is right around the corner and that can only mean a celebration full of great food. For those of you who do not have Parsi or Irani friends willing to feed, you don't...
5 Ways Parsi Cuisine Evolved In India
From Malvani and Gujarati to English, find these influences in Parsi foodThe Parsis of India are people from the Zoroastrian community that migrated from Persia (now Iran) in the 7th century and...
Down memory lane with Shelley Subawala’s magic from Grandma’s kitchen
Nostalgia is a definitive by-product of grandmothers’ cooking, triggering memories of food made with love, intuition and authority. It pales the experience of swift and perfunctory ease of “ordering...
Cillie’s – A sweet token from the Parsis of Karachi
The Parsi community in Karachi has always been a minority, but one that has left an inimitable legacy. Late Jehangir Framroze Punthakey, in his book, The Karachi Zoroastrian Calendar, called the...
From Candles To Turkeys – How Zoroastrians Celebrate Thanksgiving In Style In Karachi
Karachi has always gone out of its way to pay respects to its Zoroastrian community. We have been blessed with a home here, given opportunities to self-actualize and to nurture our future...
Meet Chef Delzad Khurshed Avari whose signature dish is the barbecued pulled pork
Chef Delzad Avari's pulled pork is one for all seasons: it can be cuddled between breads, bundled in rotis or tucked in with rice.Delzad Avari, 30, wanted to cook since the time he couldn't reach...
Perfect Letter for All Eeda (Egg) Loving Bawajis
A write up by a parsi mother to her son!Perfect letter for all eeda (Eggs) loving bawas!!Dear Son,Today I am writing to you about a strange topic. Eggs. After all, what kind of a Parsi caterer would...
Inside House of Daaruwala, the café inspired by a Mumbai institution
The all-day café in Andheri pays homage to the legacy of Irani cafés that once dotted every prominent corner of the cityArticle by Kermin Bhot | Architectural DigestMumbai's House of Daaruwala is a...
Month-long feast in Colaba celebrates Parsi lagan fare
Oct 30, 2018, 07:59 IST | The pop-up curated by Perzen Patel, known for her catering service The Bawi Bride Kitchen, will feature dishes authentic to the community and common to a Parsi wedding...
Chef Anahita Dhondy at the United Nations Week 2018 in New York
Our regular reader and friend Rusi Sorabji sent us this write up about A young Parsi Lady Chef at the UN week 2018Last week of September, World leaders, Queens, Presidents, Vice Presidents, Prime...
A Brown Kitchen: India meets Persia in seductive Parsi pickles
A first cookbook is like a first love, the first boy that you meet and fall in love with. You might not end up spending your life with him, but you might always remember the relationship fondly.That...
Tête-à-Tête With Iconic Mumbai Eatery Britannia’s Owner
On a warm on Saturday afternoon in the city of dreams - Mumbai, when masses rejoice their weekend, a Parsi family gears up to welcome their customers at their iconic eatery Britannia & Co. The...
Zavera Shahuna: The Parsi platter
Zavera Shahuna’s kitchen speaks volumes of her love for order.Zavera Shahuna’s kitchen speaks volumes of her love for order. Glassware is neatly stacked on the shelves, a tray exclusively for sauce...
The Mango and Parsi Cooking: Niloufer Mavalvala
Our dear friend and cookbook author and chef extraordinaire Niloufer Mavalvala was recently featured on a cooking show that is making the rounds of public broadcast in the United States. On the 4th...
Why Urban Food Fortnight is good for business
Cyrus Todiwala is the founder and owner of Café Spice Namaste, a Sustain Patron, long-time London Food Link supporter and JE reader. Here he shares his thoughts on how Urban Food Fortnight helps the...
‘There is no gender in the kitchen, we are all equals’ – Chef Anahita Dhondy
Anahita Dhondy doesn’t like being called ‘female’ or 'celebrity' chef, though she fits both definitions. Over a couple of rushed phone calls and food orders, we talk to this 28-year-old on why there...
Spenses: In The Age Of Colas, This Parsi Family Survives In Biz Of Fizz
When the Parsis first landed in India sometime in the 7th century to escape persecution in Iran, they promised King Jadhav Rana that they would sweeten the Indian community as sugar sweetens milk....
5 Questions with Food and Travel Writer Meher Mirza
Meher Mirza is one of the guest speakers at the Gather event organised by BARO, Bombay Perfumery, and Paper Planes. The event, amongst other things, also celebrates the release of the new issue of...
5 Questions with Archeologist and Food Writer Kurush Dalal
TCS: There’s something about “gymkhana grub” that a certain generation will remember with great fondness. Your mum Katy ran kitchens for a few clubs herself – what are your memories of the food...
In the Kitchen: Nowruz celebrates spring
Last month was the Chinese (Lunar) New Year, and now March brings the celebration of the Persian/Iranian New Year, Nowruz, which starts on the vernal equinox (March 20 this year in the...
Parsika’s classic delicacies tickle Parsi palettes
Launched on September 1 last year, Parsika is an effort by four Zoroastrians to help our community do what it does best - eat to its heart's content. As their Facebook page so honestly puts it -...
Akuri & A Pinch Of Hope
Akuri & A Pinch Of Hope: A Feel Good Short Film That'll Leave You With A Lingering Smile Two men stumble upon each other at an Irani Cafe and what happens next will leave you with a warm, fuzzy...
Dorabjee & Sons: Oldest Parsi restaurant in Pune
Before Ambedkar Bose and Nehru were born; when India was under the British rule, Sorabjee Dorabjee started the Dorabjee & Sons. The restaurant was established in the year 1878. Sorabjee Dorabjee...
The Life and Death of Bombay’s Irani Chai
In the streets of South Bombay (I still refer to the city as Bombay, as the name didn’t change to Mumbai until after I left the country), hidden from plain sight by a thick veil of traffic and...
Food Paves a Parsi-Jewish Passage to India
Food’s power to educate people about cultures united Parsi chef Meherwan Irani (owner of Chai Pani), Jewish chefs Todd Ginsberg (The General Muir) and Eli Kirshtein (formerly The Luminary), and...
Shelley Subawalla: Founder Of Zarin’s Secrets In Conversation
Tell us about yourself and your background It is always so difficult to talk about oneself. I am a 40-year-old Parsi (Zoroastrian) lady residing in New Delhi, India. A married mother-of-two, I...
The Disappearing Cuisine of an Ancient Religion
Mumbai’s beloved Parsi restaurants are struggling to survive. It all began with a milkshake. After the Arab conquest of Persia in the mid seventh century, adherents to Zoroastrianism, which may be...
Chopped N’ Stewed in Houston: Kaiser Lashkari of Himalaya Restaurant & Catering
Located in the Olympic Center shopping strip directly off of Hillcroft and Southwest Freeway, right at the Mahatma Gandhi District, Himalaya Restaurant & Catering is perched atop a mountain of...
PAC: This Little Counter Serves The Most Delicious Parsi Snacks In Mumbai
The Parsi Amelioration Committee-run shop at Nana Chowk may be tiny but is a formidable threat to your waistline thanks to its shelves of Parsi snacks, most of which are golden brown and deep-fried....
Meet the Most Sustainable Chef in NYC: Jehangir Mehta
Our dear friend Jehangir Mehta is named by the famed Michelin as NYC’s most sustainable chefguide.michelin.com | Oct 30th 2017 “I almost say you can compare umami to the first time seeing someone...
The scent of a loaf: Kayani Bakery Pune
Kayani Bakery in Pune has been dishing out fresh shrewsbury biscuits, sourdough breads and mawa cakes since 1955 It’s 7.30 am on a Saturday and one of the oldest bakeries in Pune Camp’s East Street...
Kayani Bakery’s cakes and bakes causing a ‘sugar rush’ since 1955
It's early in the afternoon, definitely past the unusual office rush-hour, but no one seems to have informed people on East Street. There is serious traffic jam here. Apart from the vehicles, there...
The tummy trilogy: A repository of traditional Parsi recipes
The first thing I ever cooked came from my mother’s tattered old copy of the Time & Talents cookbook. It was an omelette savoyarde, and I was an enthusiastic 12-year-old, armed with saucepan and...
Into the pantry with food entrepreneur Perzen Patel
Perzen Patel’s online moniker is the Bawi Bride (Bawi means Parsi woman) and true to its name, her pantry is a repository of secrets and traditions of the Parsi kitchen. At the outset she points to...
K RUSTOM Is The King Of Ice Cream Sandwiches
K Rustom opened its doors to the public in Churchgate in 1953. Since then it has been a favourite amongst ice-cream lovers partly, because of a spectrum of delicate flavours and partly because it is...
How Grilling Fish Wrapped in Banana Leaves Teaches You to Trust Your Intuition
Patra Ni Machhi — fish with green coconut chutney grilled in banana leaves. Walking down the wide rows of the Mercado de Medellín in Mexico City last summer, I was mesmerized by a vendor selling...
Lily Has Left the Kitchen: The last Parsi cook in Ahmedabad looks back at better days
The kitchen of the Zoroastrian Ladies Cooperative Society (ZLCS), in a busy lane in Khanpur in the walled city of Ahmedabad, is brimming with activity. In a corner of the impeccably clean kitchen is...
Parsi food is more than dhansak
For a culinary tapestry as rich and diverse, Parsi cuisine has for a long time remained circumscribed by stereotypes, identified largely by the dhansak-sali boti routine popularized by Mumbai’s...
Dan Boman named 2017 American Culinary Federation Western Region Pastry Chef of the Year
Dan Boman, CEPC, Named 2017 American Culinary Federation Western Region Pastry Chef of the Year St. Augustine, Fla., March 3, 2017—Dan Boman, CEPC, chef instructor, Art Institute of Phoenix, was...
The Persian Table: Kadimi New Year Food Orders from Bawi Bride Kitchen
Our dear friend Perzen Patel a.k.a Bawi Bride informs us… Irani Zoroastrians in India will next week be celebrating the Kadmi New Year. Since all Zoroastrian celebrations involve indulging in good...
Parsi Dairy Farm: Mumbai’s Gold Standard in Milk & Milk-Based Products
I was at a modern food superstore in Bandra, Mumbai’s swish suburb, the other day. I walked past rows of imported gourmet cheeses, pastas and meats when I suddenly spotted a group of blue coloured...
