Isabella Nefar on combining cooking with acting for 'My English Persian Kitchen'

Food has always had a transcendent quality. Marcel Proust knew that when the scent of a madeleine sent him time-travelling back to his childhood. Likewise for the restaurant critic in Ratatouille. A new show takes that idea and transports the audience to the sights, sounds, smells, and tastes of Iran every night.

Many shows these days come with a content warning. This is a rare one with an allergy warning.

Written by Hannah Khalil, ‘My English Persian Kitchen’ tells the true story of Atoosa Sepehr, an Iranian woman who fled her Tehran home to escape domestic violence. Now in London, Sepehr’s past and present are brought together through the medium of cooking.

In Khalil’s play, this act of Persian nostalgia is told through an outstanding performance from solo actor Isabella Nefar who doesn’t just explain, but takes the audience to the streets of Tehran via a live cooking demo.

‘My English Persian Kitchen’ debuted at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe where its sold-out run played to great acclaim. We named it one of our top recommendations for the Fringe. Now, the show is about to transfer to London for a three-week run at the Soho Theatre.

Ahead of its London transfer, we sat down with actor Isabella Nefar to discuss bringing Persian culture to the stage and the kitchen.

Part of what makes ‘My English Persian Kitchen’ such an impressive piece of theatre is the way it seamlessly blends together Sepehr’s fraught personal story of leaving her family behind to escape her violent husband with a celebration of Persian culture.

Nefar’s narrator brings Iran to life for the audience as she depicts the joys of Sepehr’s familial and friendly interaction, the satisfaction of her business career in Tehran, and the oppression of her marriage