Ansari is not your typical cookbook author. Before she was recipe-testing in her Hackney kitchen, she was an international trade and customs attorney in New York, navigating cross-border negotiations of a different sort. Now, she’s translating that global sensibility into a vibrant culinary narrative — one that stretches from the spice bazaars of Tehran to the noodle shops of Xi’an, and all the way to her East London flat, where she lives with her husband, toddler, and cat.
If Diana Henry and Olia Hercules had a love child raised on tahdig, cumin, and curiosity, it might be Anna Ansari. Her book reads like a travelogue stitched with memory: saffron and sumac meet soy and sesame; dumplings morph from manti to momo to mantou. “I’m fascinated by the way flavours and ingredients migrate — tucked into pockets, passed from one kitchen to the next,” Ansari says.
Born in Detroit to Iranian-American parents, Ansari studied Middle Eastern and Asian Languages and Cultures at Barnard College, followed by an MA in East Asian Studies from Yale, before pivoting (as one does) into law at Brooklyn Law School. But the call of the kitchen — and the stories behind it — proved irresistible.
Her essays have appeared in Pit Magazine, Eaten, and Fillerzine, where she writes with a deft hand about the intersection of food, family, and history — and the quiet power of the immigrant kitchen. Each piece feels like a conversation over tea: smart, tender, a little bit hungry.
In Silk Roads, Ansari charts a sensory map of the Asian continent through recipes that feel both scholarly and deeply personal. There’s a pistachio-studded pilaf inspired by her grandmother’s kitchen, a soy-braised lamb dish that echoes a trip through Gansu, and a pomegranate-glazed aubergine that tastes like border-crossing itself.
You can follow her cooking adventures on Instagram at @thisplacetastesdelicious and her newsletter Where in the World Is Anna Ansari on Substack — but it’s Silk Roads that promises to cement her as one of London’s most exciting new food voices.
Pre-order Silk Roads: A Flavour Odyssey from Baku to Beijing now — and prepare to travel without leaving your kitchen.
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