Experiencing the cuisine of Persia is a pleasing journey throughout the palate, as well as through history that takes one back more than 3,000 years into one of the world’s oldest and most influential cultures. The origins of most traditional Persian dishes are so old that their recipes had to be inscribed on clay tablets. The enduring appeal of these dishes is legendary, prompting Cyrus the Great to conclude that the ancient Persians could conquer other tribes as much with their cooking as with their prowess.

Some 200 years later when Alexander the Great conquered the Persian empire. His Macedonian soldiers, on their return home, carried with them into the Mediterranean area the exotic foods of the Persians, enabling the Greeks and later the Romans to enliven their foods with saffron, lemons, pomegranates, and pistachios. Later Persia crossed paths with other world cultures – the Oriental in the 13th century with the invasion of the Moghuls, and the European in the 12th-13th centuries with the arrival of the Crusaders.