Najmieh Batmanglij

Najmieh Khalili Batmanglij (, ) is an Iranian-American chef and cookbook author. "The Washington Post" hailed her as "the grande dame of Iranian Cooking."
Biography.
Najmieh Khalili was born in Tehran, Iran in 1947. She received her undergraduate and master's degrees in education in the United States. She returned to Iran after her education in America but was forced into exile in 1979, because of the Iranian Revolution. She and her husband fled to Vence, France as refugees, where she studied cooking and began translating her mother's recipes into French resulting in her first cookbook, "Ma Cuisine d'Iran".
In the 1980s Batmanglij permanently relocated to Washington, DC where she wrote her celebrated book, "Food of Life". After the success of that book, Batmanglij went on to write five more cookbooks, including "From Persia to Napa: Wine at the Persian Table", which won a Gourmand Cookbook Award. and "Silk Road Cooking: A Vegetarian Journey", which The New York Times compared to reading "a good novel—once you start, it's hard to put down." Batmanglij has appeared on "The Martha Stewart Show" and also teaches Persian cooking. She is a member of Les Dames d'Escoffier, a society of professional women involved in the food, wine, and hospitality industries.
For many years she has taught at the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone in Napa Valley, California during the "World of Flavors Conference".
Honors and awards.
On February 15, 2013, in his weekly article for the "Guardian" newspaper, Yotam Ottolenghi included a recipe that was inspired by a recipe in "Food of Life", about which he said: "One of the most exciting cookbooks I've seen in a while, "Food Of Life: Ancient Persian And Modern Iranian Cooking And Ceremonies", by Najmieh Batmanglij–I highly recommend it to anyone with an interest in Iran's glorious food culture."
On April 6, 2016, she was the guest chef at First Lady Michelle Obama's White House Nowruz Celebration and Lunch. Julia Moskin of The New York Times wrote about her latest cookbook, "...Magisterial...An engrossing visual feast of modern Iran..."Cooking in Iran" is an essential new book" and selected it as one of The 19 Best Cookbooks of Fall 2018.
Publishers Weekly called the cookbook, "A massive and thorough guide to Persian cuisine...terrific, reverential, and accessible."
On November 5, 2018 The Washington Post published an article about her written by James Beard Award winning writer Mayukh Sen with the headline " Najmieh Batmanglij is the grande dame of Iranian cooking. It’s time you knew her name."
Personal life.
She is married to book publisher, Mohammad Batmanglij. Her sons are Zal Batmanglij, a film director and screenwriter whose projects include "Sound of My Voice", "The East," and "The OA"; and Rostam Batmanglij, a producer, songwriter and composer who was a founding member of the indie-pop band Vampire Weekend.