Parsis have a long and storied history with delicious and sumptuous food and elaborate banquet spreads, from Sunday family Dhansak lunches to elaborate Parsi lagan nu bhonu (wedding feast) on a banana leaf. Any person from South/ Central Mumbai, Surat/ Navsari or Pune will fondly speak of their experience at a Parsi wedding replete with a multi-course sit-down dinner, including mutton, chicken and fish, and daru! Hence, this session which was held at the Zoroastrian Association of Houston (https://zah.org/) center had a very special ring to it for the Houston Parsis. This two-day event was held on Friday and Saturday, Oct 9 and 10, 2026. The event was hosted by the ZAH Library, home of FIRES, which continues to foster community engagement through literature, culture, heritage, and learning.
Article by Zubin Mory
The FIRES- 26th Annual Speaker Series—The Flavors of Faith, Food, & Community—featured presentations by celebrated chefs and academics:
Chef Zal Taleyarkhan (Corporate R&D Chef at Charlie Baggs Culinary Innovations) “A Living Heritage – From Persepolis Rations to Dhunsak: Zoroastrian Foodways Across 2,500 Years”
Chef Jehangir Mehta (famous for East Village restaurant Graffiti, participant in Food Network’s Next Iron Chef Redemption 2012, the runner-up at the Next Iron Chef 2009, and author of the cookbook, Mantra, The Rules of Indulgence) “The Transcendent Graffiti”
Dr. Mariano Errichiello (Department of Religions, Executive Director of the Shapoorji Pallonji Institute of Zoroastrian Studies at SOAS University of London) “Zoroastrian Studies Today: From Research to Community”.
On Friday, various local Parsi chefs who have served delicious and high-quality food to the community over the years were publicly honored and thanked. This included amateur chefs that cook for small groups and professionals like Naushad Mehta (owner of Cillie’s Cake Shop) and Chef Lashkari (owner of Himalaya Restaurant). These “amateur cooks” serve a critical function in the community as guardians of famous recipes and an honored culture that needs to be passed on to the next generation, while making them aware of their rich culinary history. The professionals obviously deserve accolades and have their stories told, but it’s the amateurs that form integral links in the chain that passes down inter-generational knowledge. This memorable evening ended with a traditional Parsi dinner of Chicken Pulao Dal and Cutlets.
Saturday morning included presentations from the three featured speakers. There were many dozens of people in attendance at the ZAH center, and a similar number joined the presentations via Zoom.
The main crux of Chef Zal’s presentation was about scientifically tracing flavors over a 2,500-year time frame. He discussed how the origins of balancing flavors in our modern cooking, like sweet/sour or spicy/tangy, can be traced back over centuries, and how Persian and Parsi cooking can be documented historically from Achaemenian and Sassanian times to the modern era.
Chef Jehangir’s take on food and recipes equates them simply yet powerfully with “memories.” His encouraging take on cooking is to be comfortable making changes to age-old recipes to reflect one’s own choices, since in cooking, like in life, change is the essence of moving forward.
The last speaker was Dr. Mariano, whose presentation involved academic research on Zoroastrians and Parsis. His work started with the Parsis of India, documenting different religious thoughts and streams. He has researched competition and rituals among these groups in British India and beyond, and currently works with the Zoroastrian diaspora across the USA, UK, and other countries. He also shared his encounter with the last Parsis in Zanzibar and Mombasa. His PowerPoint included a short film segment of an opera song featuring a very important and popular Zoroastrian prayer ‘Manashni, Gavashni, Kunashni’, which captivated the audience. He outlined other ongoing Zoroastrian studies initiatives at SOAS University of London, emphasizing that this proud culture and heritage are in safe hands.
The FIRES 26th annual lecture then came to an end, leaving an enchanted audience longing for more and looking forward to the 27th annual lecture. This current session will be tough to top!
Published in the Indo American News and reprinted here with permission of the author
