Hamed Allahyari - Salamati: Hameds Persian kitchen; recipes and stories from Iran to the other side of the world

By eating my food, you come into my family.
You are sitting with me, with my grandparents, parents and cousins,
talking, sharing and enjoying the feeling of being together.

Hamed Allahyari cooks to connect - for that joyful moment you can say Salamati (Persian for health and cheers) around the table. A restaurateur in Iran, it was natural for Hamed to gravitate to food after a long and perilous journey to settlement in Melbourne. He road-tested his dishes at hundreds of cooking classes, eventually launching his heartfelt cafe and SalamaTea restaurant. With every swipe of warm pita through herbed dadami dip, every bite of braised lamb with dried lime and saffron rice, every sip of homemade sour cherry tea, Hamed shines a light on his past in his native Tehran and continues to build an optimistic Australian future.

This book is a gateway to Persian culinary culture, with recipes that are simple, celebratory and appealing, flexible and full of flavour. Wherever you live and whatever your background, you are invited to join the feast.

Foreword

The reason I love writing about food, the reason its so enriching and everlastingly interesting, is that it connects me with wonderful people through a topic that is at the core of who they are. Its direct and meaningful. So it was when I first met Hamed and felt the poignant immersion in culture that he expresses in his cooking. To be able to go deeper, to write with him, to help him bring his story to life, has been an honour and a privilege. Ive learnt so much. Not just about saffron and rice and eggplant and herbs, but also about fortitude and resilience and spirit. Hamed fled Iran suddenly, with nothing. The recipes in his heart and hands became key belongings, a refugees anchor to home and hopeful gift to his new country.

To work on this book during a pandemic was a particular challenge: we did a lot on the phone, I sent Hamed photos of dishes Id cooked, and when we could finally be together in person for the photoshoot, it was a joyous rush of sights, smells and textures, shared at last. To write this book has been Hameds dream for a long time. I feel so lucky to be part of it.

DANI VALENT

Dani Valent and Hamed Allahyari

Introduction

Hamed Allahyari cooks to connect. The food of his native Iran is a resonant and delicious gift to Australia and a way of staying bonded to a country he hasnt returned to for a decade. With every swipe of warm lavash through herbed dadami dip, every bite of braised lamb with dried lime and saffron rice and every sip of house-made sour cherry tea, Hamed shines a light on his Persian past as he continues to build an optimistic Australian future.

In Iran, Hamed was a chef and restaurateur when a crisis of faith imperilled his life. Atheism is illegal in the Islamic Republic and disobeying the tenets of Islam is a crime. One day Hamed was seen smoking a cigarette during Ramadan he was arrested and received 80 lashes. Once idealistic and hopeful, by 2012 Hamed came to realise that leaving his country immediately was his only option.

There was no time to tell his family but he met his girlfriend Elahe to say goodbye. She greeted him with a positive pregnancy test and in the moment they decided to leave together. They travelled to Indonesia where they were stuck for two uncertain months, then sailed by rickety fishing boat towards Australia where they were detained on Christmas Island. After five months of detention, Hamed and Elahe were released into the Melbourne community and a few months after that their daughter Nikan Rose was born.

It was natural for Hamed to gravitate towards food after his perilous escape and journey to Australia.