The Westernization of Iranian Culinary Culture

International Society of Iranian Studies
The Westernization of Iranian Culinary Culture

Author(s): H. E. Chehabi
Source: Iranian Studies, Vol. 36, No. 1 (Mar., 2003), pp. 43-61
Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of International Society of Iranian Studies
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Iranian Studies, volume 36, number 1, March 2003
H.E. Chehabi
The Westernization of Iranian Culinary Culture'
THE LAST TWO DECADES HAVE SEEN THE CONSTRUCTION OF AN IRANIAN "NATIONAL
cuisine" in cookbooks published outside Iran,' while the post-revolutionary migration o
Iranians from their country has led to the opening of Iranian (also called "Persian,"
especially in the United States) restaurants all over the world. The menus of these res-
taurants evince a certain uniformity. Main dishes fall into three categories: chilaw-
kabaib (white rice with grilled meat, widely considered the "national" dish);2 stews
(khurish[t]s) with white rice (chilaw); and colorful rice concoctions incorporating meat,
legumes, vegetables, and occasionally fruits (pulaws).3 The total comes to a maximum
of about twenty dishes, which one could be forgiven for taking to be the corpus of tra-
ditional Iranian cuisine.4 The similarity of restaurant menus everywhere suggests a basic
culinary cohesion, while "tradition" implies that Iranians' eating habits have undergone
minimal change over a long period of time. Both propositions need to be qualified.
The power of eating habits to help crystallize ascriptive groups and provide them
with both internal cohesion and external boundaries is well known: at the Council of
Antioch (A.D. 341) Christians were enjoined to eat pork, despite its prohibition in the
Old Testament, precisely to prevent commensality with Jews.5 A few centuries later,
H. E. Chehabi is Professor of International Relations and History at Boston Unive
* I thank Shademan Akhavan, Farhad Atai, Shirine Baniahmad, Julie Cassiday, Touraj Dar-
yaee, Ali Gheissari, Darra Goldstein, M. Jamil Hanifi, Rudi Matthee, Farzaneh Milani, Philippe
Rochard, Siamak Salehi, Cyrus Schayegh, and Burzine K. Waghmar for their comments and cor-
rections. I alone am responsible for all remaining errors of fact and interpretation.
1. Najmieh Batmanglij, Food of Life (1986, Washington, DC, 1990); Mohammad Ghanoonpar-
var, Persian Cuisine (1984, Costa Mesa, CA, 1994); Nesta Ramazani, Persian Cooking: A Table
of Exotic Delights (1974, Bethesda, MD, 1997); and Shirin Simmons, A Treasury of Persian Cui-
sine (London, 2002).
2. Elr., s.v. "telow-Kabab." This and other combinations of grilled meat and rice are what th
average Iranian customer goes to an Iranian restaurant to eat, as it is very difficult to prepare good
kabab at home.
3. On the rice dishes of Iran, see Bert Fragner, "From the Caucasus to the Roof of the World,"
in Sami Zubaida and Richard Tapper, eds., Culinary Cultures of the Middle East (London, 1994),
56-62; and Sami Zubaida, "Rice in the Culinary Cultures of the Middle East," in ibid., 93-104,
passim.
4. There are in fact many Iranian dishes that use no rice: aibgiisht (a stew made of meat, vegeta-
bles, and legumes), a variety of kukus (a kind of souffle), kuftahs (stuffed vegetables), and others,
but these can almost never be found in Iranian restaurants.
5. Claudine Fabre-Vassas, "Juifs et chrdtiens, autour du cochon," in Identitef alimentaire et

alte6rite culturelle (Neuchatel, 1985), especially 61-62. It is interesting that in a seventeenth-cen-
ISSN 0021-0862 printISSN 1475-4819 online/03/010043-19 @2003 The Society for Iranian Studies
DOI 10.1080/021086032000062875 Carfax Publishing
/|/t Taylor & Francis Group
44 Chehabi
Persians favorably compared their diet to that of Arabs.6 It is therefore not astonishi
that diasporic Iranians eager to bequeath some of their heritage to their children should
take a lead in the construction of a "national cuisine."7 These cookbooks belong to, as
Arun Appadurai has put it in reference to India, "the literature of exile, of nostalgia and
loss."8 But this line of reasoning should not be pushed too far. There is a material basis
for this construction. Many dishes are indeed common to such ethnically and climacti-
cally different cities as Tabriz, Rasht, Mashhad, and Isfahan, and the common way of
preparing rice, i.e., steaming it half-cooked, is specific to Iran.9 It is perhaps for this
reason that Persian-language cookbooks have a long history in Iran.'0 However, there
are no marked culinary boundaries around the country. The cuisine of Iraq has many
common elements with that of Iran, the kdftahs of Tabriz are not unknown in the Cau-
casus and Anatolia, and the hot curried dishes of Bandar Abbas remind one more of
South Asia than of Tehran."
Nor can it be maintained that Iranians' culinary habits, including their cuisine, have
undergone little change. Given Iran's geography, it is not astonishing that over the cen-
turies its culinary culture has been influenced by many parts of the world, especially
China,'2 to which Iranians owe the prominence of rice in their cuisine.13 Many fruits and
vegetables spread to the Western world through Iran: Persicum pomum ("Persian
apple") is the etymological origin of 'peach' (most readily apparent in the Dutch per-
zik), a fruit that originated in China; and badinjan became the English 'aubergine' (in
tury Iranian treatise we read that meat cooked in milk is the stew of prophets, that it fortifies a
Muslim who feels weak, and that when "one of the prophets" complained to God that he felt
weak, God revealed to him that he should cook his meat in milk to gain strength. Muhammad
Baqir Majlisi, Hilyat al-Muttaqtn ft al-dddb wa-al-sunan wa'l-akhlhq (Tehran, n.d.), 50. Given
the prohibition in Judaism against mixing dairy products and meat, this insistence may have had a
function analogous to the Council of Antioch's advice to eat pork.
6. Touraj Daryaee, "The Persian and Arab Diet: Its use by the Zoroastrians and the
Shuciibiyya,"' Graeco-Arabica, forthcoming.
7. This is made explicit in Batmanglij, Food of Life, "Preface," 1-3.
8. Arun Appadurai, "How to Make a National Cuisine: Cookbooks in Contemporary India,"

Comparative Studies in Society and History 30:1 (January 1988), 18.
9. On which see Sami Zubaida, "Rice in the Culinary Cultures of the Middle East," 97-98.
10. On the history of Iranian cookbooks, see Bert Fragner, "Social Reality and Culinary Fic-
tion: the perspective of cookbooks from Iran and Central Asia," in Zubaida and Tapper, eds.,
Culinary Cultures of the Middle East, 64-69.
11. For the historical connections between Iranian food and that of neighboring lands see Frag-
ner, "From the Caucasus to the Roof of the World," 54-56.
12. Contacts with China have been extensively studied. See Berthold Lauffer, Sino-Iranica:
Chinese Contributions to the History of Civilization in Ancient Iran with Special Reference to the
History of Cultivated Plants and Products (Taipei, 1967). See also Thomas T. Allsen, Culture
and Conquest in Mongol Eurasia (Cambridge, 2001), 115-40, and Edward Schafer, The Golden
Peaches of Samarkand: A Study of T'ang Exotics (Berkeley, 1963).
13. Rice seems to have been known to Persians since ancient times, but it was not widely con-
sumed. See Marius Canard, "Le riz dans le Proche Orient aux premiers siecles de l'Islam," Arab-
ica 6:2 (1959): 11331.
Iranian Culinary Culture 45
America, 'eggplant').'4 By the same token, many fruits, vegetables, drinks, and dishes
from around the world have found their way to Iran.'5
While the khurish[tJs and pulaws of today have roots in olden times, as testified by
European travelers of the Safavid era and by cookbooks written at that time, they were
fancy dishes served on special occasions-in fact, the Persian equivalent for "Sunday
suit" was libas-i pulaw-khar!, rice-eating suit, pointing to the luxury that rice repre-
sented.'7 Bread was the staple everywhere except on the shores of the Caspian Sea,'8
where several varieties of rice were grown.'9 Also, Iranians, like other peoples from
Greece to China, routinely divide foods into two categories, cold and hot, and the more
traditional they are, the more they endeavor to combine them in ways that balance the
meal.20 This is particularly important when someone is ill. What one ate depended also
to a large extent on seasonal availability, which is less of a factor nowadays when pro-
duce can be obtained from a wider geographic area as communications have improved.
By the same token, regional dishes such as Gilan's Mrrza Qasimr have spread to the rest
of the country. While the above developments have enhanced variety, the ready avail-
ability of meat and rice has caused people to consume less ash, the traditional thick
soup of Iran, of which a much Ireater variety was known until a few decades ago, when
much less meat was consumed. ' The centrality of iash can be seen from the fact that the
14. Via Arabic, Catalan, and French: bikdinjin>al-bMdinjin>alberginia>aubergine.

15. See Muhammad-Hasan Khan Ictimad al-Saltana, Chihil sal t&rkh-i Irin dar dawra-i paidi-
shiihf-yi Nasir al-Dtn Shih. Jild-i avval: al-Ma3iisir wa'l-asar, ed. Iraj Afshar (Tehran,
1363/1984), chapter 8, passim, on the introduction of new foods and customs in the late Qajar
period. Even pineapple seems to have been cultivated in hot houses in the late Nasiri period (169).
16. Two of these cookbooks have been published: Iraj Afshar, ed., Kairnamah va maddat al-
hayaih: matn-i du4 risilah dar ashpazt az dawra-i- Safavf: casr-i saltanat-i Shah Ismactl-i avval va
Shah cAbbas-i avval (Tehran, 1360/1981-82). For a discussion see M. R. Ghanoonparvar,
"Culinary Arts in the Safavid Period," in Kambiz Eslami, ed., Iran and Iranian Studies: Essays in
Honor of Iraj Afshar (Princeton, 1998), 191-97. The pulaw recipes from the second of these cook
books can be found in Bert G. Fragner, "Zur Erforschung der kulinarischen Kultur Irans," Die
Welt des Islams 23-24 (1984): 342-60.
17. See, for instance, Marcel Bazin, "Quelques donn6es sur l'alimentation dans la region de
Qom," Studia Iranica 2 (1973): 243-53, for an illustration of how in Qum and the region around
it consumption of rice and bread depended on wealth and status in the late 1960s.
18. Jacob Eduard Polak, Persien, das Land und seine Bewohner: Erster Theil (Leipzig, 1865;
reprint Hildesheim, 1976), 110-12. On the bread/rice dichotomy, which is also present in India
and China, see Christian Bromberger, "Eating Habits and Cultural Boundaries in Northern Iran,"
in Zubaida and Tapper, eds., Culinary Cultures of the Middle East, 186-90.
19. A lower quality round rice was eaten by poorer people, and a long-grained variety by the
wealthier.
20. E. N. Anderson, "'Heating' and 'Cooling' foods re-examined," Social Science Information
23 (1982): 755-73. Even a man as outwardly westernized as Amir Asadullah cAlam, the last
shah's closest confidant, went by the hot/cold dichotomy. He reports that the shah used to have
honey and coffee in the morning, but when he had allergies, CAlam told him that honey was hot,
and that what with all the vitamins and meat that the ruler consumed, his diet had become unbal-
anced. CAli Naqi cAlikhani, ed., Yddidsht-hii-yi cAlam vol. 4, 1353 (Bethesda, MD, n.d.), 95.
21. Elr, s.v. "AN."
46 Chehabi
word means both food in general and the typical thick soup of Iran, and that the word
for cook are ashpaz and for kitchen ashpazkhMinah, meaning ash-cooker and ash-cook
ing place, respectively.22 Finally, there is the impact of contact with the West. A gener
ation ago, salad-i ultvyih (Salade Olivier) was a foreign import, today one finds it on the
menu of every self-respecting Iranian restaurant. And a recent prize-winning "Persian"
cookbook includes "gigo" (from the French gigot) among its recipes.23
This article examines some aspects of the westernization of Iranian culinary culture
since sustained contact with the West began in Qajar times. In a pattern not unlike that
observed in Europe and analyzed by Norbert Elias,24 the new habits began at Court,
were adopted by the elite, followed by what is commonly referred to as the "modem
middle class," and then spread to the rest of the population in a process that is not com-
plete-and perhaps never will be. Culinary culture is thus embedded in Iran's class
culture,25 an aspect of it that cannot be systematically addressed in this essay, which has
no pretense of being exhaustive. Much of what is said in the following thus applies pri-
marily to the elites and the modern middle class. Also excluded from the analysis is a
discussion of beverages and drinking habits, which deserve (and have received) detailed
attention.26
Table Manners
In traditional Muslim culture, elaborate rules of adab surround food and eating habits.27
In compendia of jurisprudence, an entire chapter is devoted to the subject,2 and in a
22. The centrality of ash in the national culinary imagination is also evident in the annual
ashpazan ritual, in the course of which Nasir al-Din Shah, Qajar princes, and other nobles pre-
pared a gigantic ash in the countryside outside Tehran. Mucayyir al-Mamalik, Yalddisht-hd3F a
zinddggnt-yi khusast-yi Naisir al-DTn Shah (Tehran, 1982), 74-75.
23. Shahpour Varzdari, Persiskt Kok: Mdnghun dradriga traditioner och moderna recept
(Stockholm, 2001), 82. I thank Rouzbeh Parsi and Agneta Edman for bringing this book to my
attention.
24. Norbert Elias, The Civilizing Process (Oxford, 1994).

25. Along the lines suggested by Jack Goody, Cooking, Cuisine, and Class: A Study in Com-
parative Sociology (Cambridge, 1982).
26. Aladin Goushegir, "Le caf6 en Iran des Safavides aux Qajar A 1'e6poque actuelle," in H6lene
Desmet-Gregoire, ed., Contributions au thWme du the et des cafes dans les socie'te's du Proche-
Orient (Aix-en-Provence, 1991); Rudi Matthee, "Coffee in Safavid Iran: Commerce and Con-
sumption," Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 37 (1994); Rudi Matthee,
"From Coffee to Tea: Shifting Patterns of Consumption in Qajar Iran," Journal of World History
7 (1996); and Elr. s.v. "Coffeehouses." For a personal account of the introduction of Pepsi Cola
in the 1950s see Habib Sabit, Sargu.,asht-i Habtb-i Sabit (Costa Mesa, CA, 1993), 227-38.
27. Geert Jan van Gelder, God's Banquet: Food in Classical Arabic Literature (New York,
2000), 39-48 and Muhammad Manazir Ahsan, Social Life Under the Abbasids (London, 1979),
76-164. For a Persian example see Kai Ka'us ibn Iskandar, A Mirror for Princes: The Qabas
Nama, trans. Reuben Levy, (London, 1951), 55-67. For a modern summary of the etiquette of
eating, see, for instance cAbdur Rahman Shad, Muslim Etiquettes (Lahore, 1980), 7-12.
28. See, for instance, Sayyid cAli Husayni, Tarjumah va tawzth-i LumCa, volume 2, (Qum,
1994), the chapter entitled Kitab al-atcimah wa'l-ashriba.
treatise written in 1671 by the most influential Calim of Safavid times, Muhammad
Baqir Majlisi, and titled "The Adornment of the Pious" -a book that was a guide to
proper manners for Shicite Iranians until recently- the third of fourteen chapters is
devoted to table manners and food.29 The ultimate purpose of good manners and polite-
ness is to avoid hurting other people, and a traditional rule that exemplifies this was the
injunction for guests to start eating as soon as bread was on the table, as the host should
be spared embarrassment in case he had nothing else to offer. Onion and garlic were
discouraged on Fridays, when one was in the company of others at the mosque,30 and in
very refined circles one avoided them altogether.31 Also, there was no lingering after
finishing-one left after everybody had eaten enough.32
The presentation of food had to be aesthetically pleasing. The sufra (food spread)
had to be as colorful as possible, and dishes were often decorated. A variegated color
scheme was all the more important as it was customary to present all dishes at once,33 in
contrast to the Chinese or European succession of courses.34 This habit is still main-
tained by the vast majority of Iranians; only in Iranian restaurants outside Iran have
dishes that do not contain any rice, such as kashk-i bddinjdn (aubergine in coagulated
buttermilk35), been redefined as pTshghaZa (hors d'oeuvres), and sweets such as zalbiya
(originally a delicacy prepared mostly for Ramadan) and bdqlava,36 as disir (dessert),
thus providing a succession of courses in the European fashion. It must be noted, how-
ever, that the traditional Iranian dinner reception did include functional equivalents of
hors d'oeuvres and pudding: when the guests arrived they were greeted with tea, dried
nuts (4jfl), fruits, and sweets, and after the meal something sweet (often jams) was
29. Muhammad Baqir Majlisi, Hilyat al-Muttaqtn ft al-1ddb wa-al-sunan wa-al-akhlaq (Teh-
ran, n.d.), 30-66.
30. Ahmad H. Sakr, A Muslim Guide to Food Ingredients (Lombard, IL, 1993), 25.
31. Mhammed (sic) Fend Ghazi, "Un groupe social: 'Les raffines' (zurafa')," Studia Islamica
11 (1959): 61.
32. Polak, Persien, Erster Theil, 129.
33. Sayyid cAli-Asghar Sharicatzadah, Majmica-i maqalat-i mardumshindsl (Tehran,

1379/2000), "Adab-i mizbini dar lslam," 80.
34. It should be noted, however, the Western custom of serving courses one after the other is
itself a nineteenth-century import from Russia. Darra Goldstein, "Gastronomic Reforms under
Peter the Great. Toward a Cultural History of Russian Food," Jahrbucherfi4r Geschichte Osteur-
opas 48 (2000), 507.
35. On kashk see Brian Spooner, "Fesenjan and kashk: culture and metaculture," Folia Orien-
talia 22 (1981-84): 245-58; and Franqoise Aubaile-Sallenave, "Al-Kishk: the past and present of
a complex culinary practice," in Zubaida and Tapper, eds., Culinary Cultures of the Middle East,
105-39.
36. Both of these are, of course, also known under similar names in the countries to the east
and west of Iran. On the contested origins of baklava see Charles Perry, "The Taste for Layered
Bread among the Nomadic Turks and the Central Asian Origins of Baklava," in Zubaida and
Tapper, eds., Culinary Cultures of the Middle East, 87-91.
48 Chehabi
served.37 At the sufra, and later at the table, the most honored guests sat farthest from
the door, while the most socially junior participants as well as the host were closest to it.
Two customs that have disappeared, mercifully, are eructing at the end of a meal to sig
nify that one is satisfied, and using toothpicks, a practice that became obsolete with
improved dental hygiene. Obviously much of what is commonly said about traditional
culinary culture applied only to elites, as elaborate color schemes and variety were
meaningless to the poor, whose priority was to feed themselves adequately.
No implements were used for eating, except for ash, the thick soup of Iran, which
was eaten with spoons. Iranians, like Arabs and Indians, ate with the right hand, and
developed a very skillful use of bread to scoop a morsel of the food without spilling any
of it. Two or more people ate out of the same plate or bowl. Before and after eating,
little wash basins (lagan) were passed around and everybody washed their hands as
water was poured out of an ewer (aftabah). A key aspect of the westernization of Iran-
ian culinary culture is, therefore, the introduction of cutlery. As in Europe, the use of
metal tools to convey food from plate to palate started at Court, spread to the aristocracy
and the middle class, and finally reached the lower classes.38 As elsewhere, it took time
for the use of cutlery to become generalized, even at Court.39 In Iran this process began
in the nineteenth century.
Fath cAli Shah (r. 1797-1834) still ate with his hands, as depicted in this testimony:
His majesty then calls breakfast, which is brought in china dishes, in a

covered tray sealed by the vazir or steward of the household, who
likewise superintends the meal and presents each dish. The chief phy-
sician is also present to give advice or assistance. . . . Between eight
and nine he dines, with the same precautions that were observed at
breakfast. He eats like his subjects, seated on a carpet, the dishes
being placed on a rich embroidered cloth before him, and feeds him-
self, in the Oriental fashion, with his fingers. After dinner he retires to
the private part of the palace, where he is often amused until a late
hour by the singers and dancers of his harem, which, although regu-
lated upon the strictest system, is and must always be a scene of the
meanest intrigue, the darkest jealousy, the keenest hatred, and the
blackest crime.40
37. See, for instance, Sir John Malcolm, Sketches of Persia from the Journals of a Traveller in
the East (Philadelphia, 1828), 111, where he describes a reception held at the governor's resi-
dence in Shiraz in 1800.
38. The classic study is of course Elias, The Civilizing Process, 68-105. See also Margaret Vis-
ser, The Rituals of Dinner: The Origins, Evolution, Eccentricities, and Meaning of Table Manners
(New York, 1991).
39. In France, Louis XIV (r. 1643-1715) still preferred to use his hands rather than utensils, as
did that great Westernizer, Peter the Great (r. 1682-1721). Goldstein, "Gastronomic Reforms
under Peter the Great," 496 and 497, n. 88.
40. James B. Fraser, An Historical and Descriptive Account of Persia (Edinburgh, 1834),
317-18.
His great-grandson, Nasir al-Din Shah (r. 1848-1896) was the first to try to use
forks. Early on in his reign, he still told his physician, the Austrian Jacob Polak, that he
could not understand how one could eat with instruments, since "taste starts at the fin-
gers."41 But when he went on his first state visit to Europe, he had to learn European
table manners. Jane Dieulafoy, who visited Iran in 1881, relates the following story a
propos of his attempts to master the art of using European forks in anticipation of his
trip. Three months before his first visit to Europe (in 1873), he learned how to use them.
He then invited a number of statesmen to a European-style banquet, and hid with the
women of his harem behind folding screens to observe their gauche attempts to use
forks and knives. They had good fun at the expense of the statesmen, until one woman
accidentally knocked over the folding screen, whereupon pandemonium broke out: the
women hid their faces with their skirts, and the guests hid under the table in order to
prove their "purity of intentions."A2
But even rich Iranians still routinely used their fingers to eat, to wit this disapprov-
ing observation of the Hungarian scholar and traveller Arminius Vambry in the 1880s:
Knives, forks, and spoons are things unknown in Persia. It is utterly

repulsive to the European to see the master of the house pulling to
pieces, with his fingers, a boiled chicken, and giving each guest a
piece of it, or having a cup of sherbet passed around, in which a dozen
men have already steeped their henna-dyed moustaches.43
During the reign of Nasir al-Din Shah's son, Muzaffar al-Din Shah (r. 1896-1907),
banquets given in honor of visiting Europeans were already being conducted in a full
European manner, except that water pipes were handed around after the main course.
And by the time the last Qajar ruler, Ahmad Shah (r. 1909-1925), was on the throne,
many habitues of the Court had switched to cutlery, but its use was not yet generalized.
In 1913 Prince cAyn al-Saltana, a nephew of Nasir al-Din Shah, recorded that Ahmad
Shah used his hands to eat,45 but four years later, on a similar occasion, he was not quite
sure about proper etiquette: "I waited to see whether eating was going to be with hands
or with fork and knife. . . some used their hands, others forks. I used my fork."46 The
minister of Court, an elderly gentleman, could not keep up with the times and asked:
"what do forks and knifes taste like?"47
42. Jane Dieulafoy, Une amazone en Orient: Du Caucase ii Persepolis 1881-1882 (Paris,
1989), 136.
43. Arminius Vamb6ry, His Life and Adventures, Written by Himself (New York, 1883), 81.
44. Pierre Loti, Vers Ispahan (Paris, 1988), 259, describing a dinner given in 1904 by Shucac
al-Saltana.
45. Mas'ud Salur and Iraj Afshar, eds., Ruizndmah-yi khatirait-i cAyn al-Saltana, (Tehran,
1377/1998), 5: 3980.
46. Salur and Afshar, eds., Riznamah-yi khaitirdt-i cAyn al-Saltana, 6: 4822. He added that the
food was so bad that the shah did not touch it. Ibid., 4823.
47. Ibid., 4809.
50 Chehabi
In the 1920s and 1930s elites began using knife and fork, and the new shah, Reza
Pahlavi (r. 1926-1941), followed suit, for reasons explained by his daughter:
Persian style eating was done with the hands, with bread used as a
utensil. My father, however, leaning more toward the Western ways
he associated with progress, wanted us to learn Western eating hab-
its.48
Given the "fundamental change in the tenor of everyday life," to use Robert Dam-
ton's words,49 that Reza Shah wanted to bring about in Iran so as to push his subjects
toward progress, the state now actively promoted the Europeanization of eating habits.
In 1928 a decree of the Tehran municipal authorities laid down the rules that chilaw-
kabab restaurants had to observe:
1) Chilaw-kabab restaurants may not have platforms to sit and eat on.
2) [They] must have painted wooden or iron tables seating four per-
sons in numbers commensurate with the space.
3) At the opening of the restaurant, sawdust must be poured on the
floor, and swept clean before closing up.
4) On every table there must be a pitcher of water, an ash-tray, and
special containers for mustard, salt, pepper, and sumac.
5) There must be sufficient numbers of knifes, forks, and spoons
(which may not have wooden handles), water glasses, and dagh (but-
ter milk) glasses for everybody.
6) Bread must be cut into little pieces and served on a separate plate.
7) It is forbidden to take the kebab to the patrons on the skewers; it
must be served on a plate.
8) It is forbidden to eat with one's hands.
9) Soap and clean towels for washing one's hands before meals must
be available.
10) It is strictly forbidden to hang bells on the walls and ring them, as
is decorating walls with copper pots.
1 1) When working, [all employees] must wear long white shirts and a
white apron, and waiters may not roll up their sleeves, wear skull-caps
(caraqchrn), or go bare-foot. They must wear a hat or be bare-headed,
and must not tie a lung across their loins.50
12) It is forbidden to use a lung in lieu of a handkerchief or a towel,
and waiters may not carry one with them.
13) There may be no pots and pans within view of the patrons.
48. Princess Ashraf Pahlavi, Faces in the Mirror: Memoirs from Exile (Englewood Cliffs, NJ,
1980), 13.
49. Robert Darnton, The Kiss of Lamourette: Reflections in Cultural History (New York,
1990), 4.
50. The lung is a rectangular piece of cloth, usually red, that is used for covering oneself in the
public baths, and for wiping things clean.
14) It is forbidden to store water in big clay and copper containers

(taghazr and distkCamr), and instead the water container must be of
white iron and have a tap.
15) Water drinking vessels must be of crystal, glass, or tile (kashf),
and it is forbidden to use clay vessels.
16) It is forbidden to prepare other foods in a chilaw-kababi.
17) It is permissible to sell chilaw-kabab to people outside.
18) Spittoons must be placed on the premises at regular intervals.5'
While the concern for improved hygiene is apparent in some regulations, oth-
ers-like the obligation to provide customers with mustard, which nobody eats with
chilaw-kabib-seem to have had no function other than making Iranian restaurants look
more "European."
Rule 8 was not of general application, however, and so most lower class people
continued using their fingers for eating. The story is told of a peasant from Narmashir
(near Bam) who was instructed about eating with a spoon and a fork. He listened
patiently, and then said: "with one hand I take the spoon, with the other I hold the fork,
which hand do I eat with?"52 As late as the 1970s rural Iranians still ate with their
hands,53 a custom that survives to this day except that most would be able to use cutlery
if they had to.54 A noteworthy adaptation is the habit of all except the most westernized
(not to say snobbish!) Iranians to eat rice with a spoon, which, given Iranians' prefer-
ence for loose fluffy rice,55 makes more sense than using a fork, infinitely more sense at
any rate than balancing peas on the back of a fork or cutting the meat with the fork in
the left hand and the knife in the right, and then laying down the knife and switching the
fork from the left to the right hand.
The use of cutlery was of course not the only aspect of the westernization of eating
habits. In late Qajar times a few aristocrats began entertaining each other alla franca,
sitting around a table on chairs.56 -atn1895
In May rt cAyn
nhsday
al-Saltana wrote in his diary:
It would really be much easier and less costly if we changed our din-
ner parties altogether. At Iranian dinner parties all the guests get is
51. Ittilacat, 609 (26 Mihr 1307/18 October 1928), 4. I thank Firoozeh Kashani-Sabet for
bringing this source to my attention and making it available to me.
52. Personal communication from my father, Issa Chehabi, 12 January 2002, Hamburg.
53. See, for instance, Sarah Hobson, Through Persia in Disguise (London, 1974), 116-17 and
157.
54. Personal communication from Lois Beck regarding the Qashqais.

55. This adaptation is not unique to Iran. In Thailand rice is eaten in the same fashion (except
by ethnic Chinese, who prefer chopsticks), and in Japan a type of dish known as kare raisu (from
,curried rice'), consisting of white rice with a curry sauce, is also eaten with the spoon in the right
and a fork in the left hand. Personal communication, William W. Grimes, 23 September 2002,
Boston.
56. On the introduction of chairs see Samuel R. Peterson, "Chairs and Change in Qajar Times,"
in Michael E. Bonine and Nikki R. Keddie, eds., Modern Iran: The Dialectics of Continuity and
Change (Albany, NY, c1981), 383-90.
52 Chehabi
damage and inconvenience. The food is all cold and senseless (bY-
macnY), and guests go home hungry. They have to kneel for so long
that for ten days their legs ache, and if one doesn't sit next to someone
one knows, one gets sick from the silence. This is all contrary to
farangY parties where guests all have a good time.57
The menu of one of these dinner parties, given by Prince Farmanfarma on Novem-
ber 3, 1896, consisted of the following dishes: green pea soup, vol-au-vent, fish with
tartar sauce, chicken breast with green peas, lamb fillet with vegetables, chilaw-kabaib,
asparagus, turkey kebab with salad, biscuit cake, lemon sorbet, and dessert.58
Ingredients
The most important element in Iranians' (and indeed all Middle Easterners') diet is
bread, of which different varieties exist.59 Even by the late twentieth century, bread
accounted for over half of the average Iranian's daily dietary intake.60 Bread was more
than the basic staple. As Nasir al-Din Shah's personal physician, the Austrian Jacob
Polak, observed:
Bread is used for other purposes than food. It replaces spoons: pieces
of bread are put in the liquid soup until it can be eaten with fingers. It
replaces plates: food portions are put on top of it. It replaces napkins:
one wipes one's greasy fingers on it during a meal. It even replaces
baking paper, as grilled meat and other greasy foodstuff are trans-
ported in it during trips.6'
The habit of many older Iranians to accompany any dish, even pasta, with bread, or
to use a piece of bread held in the left hand to push food onto the spoon may stem from
its use as a container and an aid to eating. It was during the reign of Nasir al-Din Shah
that "Muslim bakers began baking and selling European (farangY) bread," as well as
offering sweet breads and biscuits.62 European-style loaves, both white and dark, were
introduced from Russia first into Gilan, where its acclimatization may have been aided
by the absence of a panary tradition. European-style leavened bread was used for sand-
wiches (on which more below) and white bread came eventually to be known as bagit
57. Salur and Afshar, eds., Rdznamah-yi khAtirdt-i cAyn al-Saltana, 1: 739.
58. Ibid., 2: 1120
59. On Iranian bread see Akhtar Kouhestani, Hossein Ghavifekr, Munire Rahmanian, Heshmat
Mayurian, and Nazenik Sarkissian, "Composition and Preparation of Iranian Flat Breads," Jour-
nal of the American Dietetic Association 55:3 (1969): 262-266. On the techniques for baking
bread see Hans E. Wulff, The Traditional Crafts of Persia: Their Development, Technology, and
Influence on Eastem and Western Civilizations (Cambridge, 1966), 291-295.
60. Elr, s.v. "Bread."

62. Ictimad al-Saltana, al-Ma'3asir wa 'l-asar, 153 and 16"67.
(baguette), while traditional flat bread is still prepared mostly in small-scale bakeries.
After the revolution, consumption of bread increased again, as, unlike rice, it is subsi-
dized. While bread is the traditional staple of the Iranian plateau, the generalized con-
sumption of it for breakfast is probably a recent phenomenon.63 The most common
complement to bread has always been cheese.64 There used to be several varieties of
cheese, but of these only what in the West is known as feta cheese is still produced in
large quantities.65 However, in the 1990s modem factories were established that pro-
duce European cheeses such as Gouda and Blue cheese.
Three vegetables that are now taken for granted in Iranian cooking are relatively
recent introductions, for potatoes, tomatoes, and maize were all discovered by Europe-
ans in the Americas.66 The potato was introduced to Iran during the reign of Fath cAli
Shah by Sir John Malcolm, and apparently the much maligned Haj Mirza Aghasi tried
to popularize it during the reign of Muhammad Shah. But its use became truly common
only in the reign of Nasir al-Din Shah.67 For a time it was known as aiu-yi malkam
(Malcolm's plum), until it became known as srb-i zamrnf, a calque on pomme de terre.68
The tomato was introduced somewhat later, and in the beginning there was some popu-
lar resistance against it, as there had been in Europe. In Europe it was at first considered
an aphrodisiac, hence the name pomme d'amour (love apple), which became pomodoro
in Italian and bazmiidur in Gilan and Azerbaijan, in the latter of which it is also known
as qirmizi badinjan (red aubergine) or arman_ bMdinj'an (Armenian aubergine).69 In Per-
sian it became known as gawjah farangr (European plum), and was, perhaps for that
reason, initially viewed with suspicion by the ulema.70 The tomato caught on, nonethe-
less, although not as much as in Turkey. To this day a good cook considers using
tomato paste an unrefined shortcut to achieving a stew's desirable dark coloring, for
which purpose turmeric should be used,71 and rice mixed with tomatoes is called
63. See for instance Dr. Mudarrisi, "Khurik," Amdzish va parvarish 8: 11-12 (Bahman-Isfand
1317/January-March 1939), 90, where the daily meals of peasants in a village near Yazd are
given: breakfast consisted of cooked turnip.
64. See, for instance, the diary of the statesman Basir al-Mulk Shaybani, covering the years
1884-89: Ruznamah-yi Khatirat-i Basfr al-Mulk Shaybant, ed. Iraj Afshar and Muhammad Rasul
Daryagasht, (Tehran, 1374/1995), 177, 238, 308, 309, 326, 464.
65. Farhad Khosrokhavar, "La pratique alimentaire," in Yann Richard, ed., Entre l'Iran et
V'Occident: Adaptation et assimilation des idees et techniques occidentals en Iran (Paris, 1989),
150.
66. See Alfred W. Crosby, The Columbian Exchange: Biological and Cultural Consequences
of 1492 (Westport, CT, 1972), especially 188-90 on the introduction of American plants to the
Middle East.
67. Ictimad al-Saltana, al-Ma3iisir wa'l-asa1r, p. 153.

68. In Shiraz it is also known as lia-yi-zamlnT (ground plum).
69. Qirmizi badinjan and the Kabuli term bianjfini rimt ("Roman" [i.e., Turkish] aubergine)
make botanically the greatest sense, as the eggplant (solanum melongena) and the tomato
(solanum lycopersicum) are both members of the genus solanaceae.
70. Information on maize, potatoes, and tomatoes, is from Ibrahim Purdavud, Hurmazdnamah
(Tehran, 1331/1952-53), 144 45, 176, and 180-81.
71. Najaf Daryabandari, Kitab-i mustatub-i ashpazi az sfr ta piydz (Tehran, 1378/1999), 75-76.
54 Chehabi
IstanbilI pulaw. The acculturation of potatoes and tomatoes is proven by the existence
of a dish made of rice, potatoes, and tomatoes called pashandfpulaw.72
The epithet farang! was in fact added to a number of fruits, vegetables, and flowers
introduced to Iran from the West.73 One exception is maize, which was most probably
brought to Iran by the Portuguese, and which was given the name of another plant that
was known in Iran from ancient times, Zurrat,74 a choice that is similar to the adoption
of the word corn for the same plant by Americans. In recent years new fruits and vege-
tables have been introduced to Iran, but no attempt has been made to find Persian names
for them: krvr and dvukadi come to mind.75
So much for vegetables. Turning to meat and meat products, the traditional meat
eaten on the Iranian plateau has always been mutton, although camel meat used to be
consumed as well. As in the rest of the Middle East, beef was not popular,76 and in Iran
it was eaten only by the poorer classes in winter, as it was tough and dry- Nasir al-Din
Shah pitied Europeans for having nothing better to eat.77 On the southern shores of the
Caspian Sea, however, it has always been preferred to mutton.78 Beginning in the 1950s
eating beef and especially veal spread to the rest of the country. Pork is of course for-
bidden in Judaism and Islam,79 for which reason there is no tradition of eating it,
although some tribes in Western Iran used to hunt and eat boar.80 The first pigs were
apparently introduced into Iran by Prince Zill al-Sultan, Nasir al-Din Shah's eldest son
and governor of Isfahan, who reportedly kept four of them in his palace in Isfahan to
show his disdain for the prejudices of the clergy.8' As Iran's Christians do not share this
taboo, a modest porcicultural industry developed in Iran after World War II, supplying
the firms of Mikaelian and Arzumanian, makers of many kinds of sausages and cold
72. Varzdari, Persiskt Kok, 33.
73. Havlj farangi (carrots), tut farangi (strawberries), tarah farangi (leeks), nukhudfarangi
(green peas).
74. Purdavud, Hurmazdarmah, 144 45.
75. Kiwis at first were informally called tukhm-i giril (gorilla's testicles). The cultivation of
kiwis began replacing citrus fruits in the plains of Mazandaran in the 1980s, and at its height,
40,000 hectares were under cultivation. IttilaCit 183 (2 February 1995).
76. In the Arab Middle East, physicians deemed it unhealthy. Peter Heine, Kulinarische
Studien: Untersuchungen zur Kochkunst im arabisch-islamischen Mittelalter (Wiesbaden, 1988),
41.
78. Bromberger, "Eating Habits," 189
79. On dietary prohibitions see Ef2, s.v. "Ghidhd," written by Maxime Rodinson. The classic
anthropological study of the origins of the prohibition of pork is Mary Douglas, Purity and
Danger: An Analysis of Concepts of Pollution and Taboo (London, 1966). See also P. Diener and
E. E. Robkin, "Ecology, Evolution, and the Search for Cultural Origins: The Question of Islamic
Pig Prohibition," Current Anthropology 19 (1978): 493-50; and Joseph Henninger, "Nouveaux
dabats sur l'interdiction du porc dans l'Islam," in Jean-Pierre Digard, ed., Le Cuisinier et le
philosophe: hommage a Maxime Rodinson (Paris, 1982). For a recent interpretation see
Mohammed Hocine Benkheira, Islam et interdits alimentaires: Juguler V 'animalite (Paris, 2000).
80. See, for instance, Fraser, An Historical and Descriptive Account of Persia, 366.
81. Dieulafoy, Une amazone en Orient, 239.
cuts. These had been introduced into Iran by Armenian and Russian emigr6s from Rus-
sia beginning in 1915. In 1967 the Arzumanian company built a modem factory outside
Tehran, where a wide variety of meat products was produced.82 But contrary to wide-
spread belief, pork was used in only a few of the products, if for no other reason than it
was simply too expensive. The names of these products come from a variety of places:
kWlbis (mortadella) is Russian (kalbasa), zhambun and susrs are French (jambon, saus-
sice), and Ihinir is German (Lyoner, from Lyons, something akin to the American bolo-
gna/baloney).
For Muslims, consumption of processed meat was a status symbol at first, conse-
crating one's membership in the cosmopolitan elite of the country.83 Cafes and shops
selling it were located in the new quarters north of the traditional bazaar, which devel-
oped after the 1920s. These neighborhoods had a disproportionate number of non-Mus-
lim inhabitants and most embassies were located there too.84 As Iran's modem middle
class grew, so grew the popularity of delicatessen food, until the saindivich-i kWlbzs, a
bulky confection not unlike the American "hoagie," "sub," or "grinder," of which John
Montagu, the 4th Earl of Sandwich, would probably not have approved, became the
favorite lunch for a whole generation of teenagers in the 1960s, the present writer
included.
Poultry used to be a special delicacy and a luxury, but thanks to Western methods
of poultry farming, chicken has become common. One innovation in Iranian cuisine,
chilaw-kabab-i murgh (patterned on the traditional dish, except that chicken is used
instead of red meat), actually originates in California, and is the contribution of the Iran-
ian diaspora to Iranian cuisine, perhaps analogous to the Chinese chop suey, reputedly
invented in San Francisco, or even the round pizza, which, as is well known, was
invented in New Haven, Conn. As for fish, it is, for obvious reasons, commonly eaten
only on the two coasts, except for the Iranian New Year (Nawrdz) on 21 March, when
fish accompanied by herbed rice is the traditional dish. Many Iranians from the plateau
actually dislike fish, often giving as reason that it tastes like fish, a tautology that indi-
cates a dislike for its acid smell. However, in recent years trout farming has caught on,
and today in Tehran's restaurants fish means trout, in spite of the availability of excel-
lent Persian Gulf fish.
The last basic ingredient that underwent major change is cooking oil. Traditionally,
Iranians cooked with animal fat that was derived either from buttermilk (called raw-
ghan-i zard, yellow fat), or from the fat tails of sheep. In the north of Iran olive oil was
occasionally used, and Jews also cooked with sesame oil, which Muslims used only for
sweets.85 In the 1940s and 1950s a form of solid hydrogenated vegetable fat was intro-
duced to Iran. First called rawghan-i farangi (European fat), it later became known as
82. Ittildict, 181, 31 January 1995.

83. Khosrokhavar, "La pratique alimentaire."
84. Ali Gheissari, Iranian Intellectuals in the 20th Century (Austin, TX, 1998), 63-64.
85. Daryabandari, Kitab-i mustatab-i dshpazi, 73; and Sadr al-Din Ilahi, "Bachchah musalmuin-
i (sic) naf-i mahalla," in Human [Houman] Sarshar, ed., Yahudiyan-i Irant dar tartkh-i mucasir
(Beverly Hills, 1997), 147.
56 Chehabi
rawghan-i nabati (vegetable fat).! It was resisted at first and derided for allegedl
inducing impotence in men.
Cuisine
Given Iran's proximity to Russia, it comes as no surprise that the first elements of
Western culinary culture that found their way into Iran were Russian and Caucasian.
This is most immediately visible in the vocabulary of tea consumption, which abounds
in Russian loan words such as istikan, (a small glass that sits in a filigreed metal frame,
from Russian stakan, meaning simply glass) and samdvar (samovar), but also in food
culture.87 What is today considered Iran's national dish, chilaw-kabab, would seem to
have originated in the Caucasus, where Nasir al-Din Shah is said to have encountered it
on his first trip abroad and ordered his cooks to replicate it.88 But its ingredients were
not alien to Iranian palates, as both rice and kabaTb were widely known, and it soon
became indigenized.
The introduction of European dishes into Iran is linked with the opening of the first
restaurants in the 1920s, some of them established by Russians and Armenians. To
explain the significance of these, we have to go back in time. In the mid-nineteenth
century, there were almost no public restaurants or cafes in Iranian cities, but cooked
food was sold at a few places in the bazaars.89 The first public eating places were estab-
lished during the reign of Nasir al-Din Shah. In the words of Ictimad al-Saltana:
In the past in all of [Tehran] there were only two or three shops sell-
ing the Tabriz chilaw and Qazvin pulaw, but now the numbers of
workshops [where such dishes.. .are produced] reaches one hundred,
and in all of them both lunch and dinner food is prepared, in accor-
dance with the customs of Paris and London.90
It was in the 1920s and 1930s that Western-style restaurants, serving Western
dishes, first appeared. Here one sat on chairs and ate behind tables rather than squatting
on platforms, used forks and knives, and men and women socialized together. It was
here that Iranians for the first time came to know "soup, borscht, cutlet, ragout, gigot,
brain, and shashlik."91 To this list one might add beef 'a la Stroganoff, chicken Kiev,
piroshki, and Salade Olivier, sometimes translated as olive salad because olives are
86. Habib Ladjevardi, personal communication, 25 October 2002.
87. See Iraj Bashiri, "Russian Loanwords in Persian and Tajiki Languages," in Mehdi Marashi,
ed., Persian Studies in North America: Studies in Honor of Mohammad Ali Jazayery (Bethesda,
MD, 1994), 113-14 for a list of Russian loanwords pertaining to culinary culture.
88. The dish is, as far as I can tell, first mentioned in 1301 A.H. (1883-84) in a cookbook
written at the behest of Nasir al-Din Shah's French physician, D6sir6 Tholozan: Mirza cAli Akbar
Khan Ashpazi, Sufra-i atcimah (Tehran, 1353/1974), 8-9.
90. Ictimad al-Saltana, al-Ma'dsir wa 'l-isar, 153.
91. Jacfar Shahri, Tdrikh -i ijtimalT-yi Tihran dar qarn-i sizdahum, (Tehran, 1990), 1: 393.
indeed used to decorate the dish.92 The opening of new European-style restaurants and
the introduction of new dishes was part and parcel of the attempt to change everyday
life. In the reminiscences of one of Iran's foremost journalists we read:
In the beginnings of Reza Shah's rule it was as though a magician had

descended on the land and in a few days transformed its appearance to
that of a modern country. For the first time the shielded people of Iran
were acquainted with the words carnival, cabaret, and bal masque,
and cinemas, restaurants, cafes, and cabarets sprung up everywhere
like mushrooms, especially in Tehran. Singers like Qamar, Muluk-i
Zarrabi, Dilkash, and Banan created a major stir with their pleasant
voices and passionate songs, and in the evenings beer and alcoholic
beverages were consumed more than water. Brothels and dance halls
were opened throughout the country, and one of the famous cafes of
Tehran was named Kafih Qasr-i Shirin ... .[and] was one of the capi-
tal's most respectable cafes. Its owner, Vahhabzadah, had hired an
orchestra from Paris . . . which played the latest French songs in the
evenings, as men and women danced the foxtrot, tango, and waltz.
Since many of its patrons were foreigners, most recently introduced
European dishes like beef Stroganoff, filet, and chateaubriand, which
were prepared by experienced cooks, were first eaten there.93
Other western additions to Iran's food culture included steak, known as biftik (from
the French bifteck) and makiaruni (from Macaroni), which as an Iranian dish is a some-
what modified version of spaghetti bolognese but also connotes all forms of pasta.
Parallel to these restaurants, cafes appeared where one drank tea or coffee and ate
cakes and ice cream. The clientele of these establishments consisted of resident foreign-
ers and Iranians who had been abroad, but gradually these were joined by the rich male
offspring of more traditional families.94 After 1940 a new type of shop appeared in Teh-
ran, the aghziyah-furishr, also mostly owned and operated by Armenians, where one
could find arak, beer, and sandwiches made with the cold cuts mentioned above.95 Few
if any women frequented these places.
In the late 1960s American influences reached Iran's culinary sphere, and gradually
replaced the older Russian delicatessen culture. On 29 January 1969, Riza Ra&isi, a
graduate in agriculture of the California Polytechnic State University at San Luis
Obispo, opened Iran's first pizzeria: Ray's Pizza Pantry. Three more outlets followed in
Tehran and Mashhad. In 1973 Ra3isi obtained a franchise for a number of Kentucky
Fried Chicken restaurants, and Colonel and Mrs. Sanders themselves traveled to Tehran
92. It is in fact named after one Jacques Olivier who was a French chef active in Russia, for
which reason the dish is called salade russe in French and ensaladilla rusa in Spanish.
93. Mushfiq Hamadani, Khatirat-i nrm qarn-i nznamah-nigarr ([Los Angeles], 1370/1991),
65.
94. Shahri, ThrTkh-i ijtimfcf-yi Tihrain dar qarn-i srzdahum, 1: 395-96.

95. Ibid., 391.
58 Chehabi
to open the first one.96 There were plans for about 500 restaurants, but only six were
opened before the revolution put an end to the franchise. The staff included the teenage
offspring of US military personnel stationed in Iran, thus providing authentic local
color. After the revolution the KFC restaurants kept the red and white logo and changed
their name to Kabookie Fried Chicken.97
Soon an associate of Ra3isi opened Tehran's first Mexican restaurant, Casa de
Rosas, where culinarily adventurous Iranians got their first taste of tacos and enchiladas.
In the 1970s Chinese, Indian, and seafood restaurants followed. By 1978, given the
inflow of petrodollars, there were posh restaurants where the meat was flown in from
France. In general the pre-revolutionary period witnessed an increase in meat consump-
tion, made possible by rising living standards. While traditional Iranian eating habits did
include meat, it was used sparingly. This is why vegetarianism probably reflects West-
ern influence.
Traditionally vegetarianism was frowned upon if motivated by principle rather than
taste, as that would mean declaring haram what God had made halal. One early propo-
nent of vegetarianism was the not-very-pious Sadiq Hidayat, who was living in Europe
when he wrote his articles and book on the benefits of vegetarianism, works in which he
argued for abstinence from meat on moral grounds.98 But vegetarianism took off in Iran
only after the revolution, at least partially motivated by the dearness of meat, which
many members of Iran's modern middle class could no longer afford. Mushrooms,
another Western import, became for many an acceptable ersatz meat in stews (khur-
ish[tJs)?.9'
The Location of Kitchens
One aspect of culinary culture that has undergone change is the place of the kitchen in
the house. Traditionally, the kitchen was placed far away from the living area in the
houses of the elites.1?? This was due to the smoke and soot produced by the ovens, and
made possible by the availability of a permanent staff to do the cooking.10' When West-
ern-style houses replaced the traditional Iranian house centered on a courtyard, the
kitchen became a separate room not far from the dining room and living room, an
arrangement that became even more common after butane gas was introduced to Iran in
96. However, before these 'official' KFC restaurants, one named 'Tent" served fried chicken a'
la Kentucky. Siamak Salehi, personal communication, 28 September 2002.
97. Murtaza ("Riza") Ra3isi, personal interview, 8 July 2001, Tehran.
98. Sadiq Hidayat, Favtiid-i giyahkhvarr (Tehran, 1963). For his views on vegetarianism see
Homa Katouzian, Sadeq Hedayat: The Life and Legend of an Iranian Writer (London, 1991),
25-29 and 40.
99. For a recent vegetarian cook book see Guli Imami, Aspazt bidun-i gusht (Tehran, 1996).
The latest editions of Ruza Muntazami's popular cookbook also include meatless dishes, which
shows that they have joined the mainstream. See Fariba Adelkhah, Being Modern in Iran, trans.
Jonathan Derrick (London, 1998), 151.
100. See EIr, s.v. "AMpazk&na."

101. On the traditional kitchen in the Arab Middle East see Peter Heine, Kulinarische Studien,
17-23.
the 1960s, an innovation that rendered kitchens cleaner. The final change occurred in
the 1980s, when kitchens ceased being separate rooms and became attached to the liv-
ing area, called ashpazkharnah-i awpin (open kitchen) in Iran. This arrangement belongs
to a period in which most of the people who used to have permanent domestic staff can
no longer afford it, flats have become small, and imitating American innovations is de
rigueur, and as a consequence the living area is pervaded on a permanent basis by the
delicate fragrance of fenugreek (shanbalilah).
Traditionally, Iranian houses had no separate dining room either, and the sufra was
spread wherever one wished to eat-even in the imperial palace in Tehran.102 With the
introduction of furniture, a room reserved for eating, the sufrakhanah, appeared next to
the siilun (reception room) in upper-class houses, but the term has been largely replaced
by utaq-i nahir-khuirt (lunch-eating room).
Post-Revolutionary Developments
Iran's western-inspired gastronomical scene became an early victim of the Islamic

Republic's populism. Frugality was politically correct, and Imam Khumayni declared
that he did not need multicolored meals. Elegant restaurants became symbols of taghuht,
and either closed or declined precipitously in quality. Restaurants, cafes, bakeries, and
pastry stores, owned and operated by non-Muslims had to put a sign in their windows
that proclaimed vizhah-i aqalliyat-i mazhabi (special for religious minorities) to alert
those Muslims who considered non-Muslims, and therefore any food handled by them,
as najis (ritually impure). 103 This obligation was quietly removed in the mid-1990s.
The factories producing cold cuts were expropriated.104 Khumayni was repeatedly
asked to give an opinion on whether kalbas va susts (mortadella and sausage) were
halal, and every time he responded that they were, so long as they did not contain any-
thing that was not.105 Iranians had developed a taste for cold cuts, sometimes collec-
tively referred to as kalbisjat, and when production of processed meat started in Iran
after the revolution, to distance the products from their infidel connotations, they were
not named, as they would be anywhere else, kalbas-i halal, but kalbas-i Islami. This
Islamic baloney was soon joined by Islamic ham, zhambun-i Istami, made with cured
chicken meat. g
102. Polak, Persien, Erster Theil, 127 and 132.
103. There are a number of fatwas of Ayatollah Khumayni's that confirm that food touched by
wet non-Muslim hands is not permissible for Muslims. See, for instance Istifta17at az mahzar-i
marja'-i taqlid-i jahan tashayyuc zacTm-i hawzah-ha-yi cilmfyah hazrat-i ayatulliih al-cuzma
Imnim Khumaynt, (Qum, 1375/1996), 2: 508.
104. Although Mikaelian reopened a few years ago.
105. IstiftaVat az mahzar-i mariaj-i taqlid-i jahiin tashayyuc zacrm-i hawzah-ha-yi cilmrya
hazrat-i dyatullhh al-u;md Imiim Khumaynr, (Qum, 1375/1996), 2: 509 and Hazrat-i Ayatullah
al-cUzma Imam Khumayni, Risalah-yi tawzth al-masiVil (Tehran, 1370/1991), 561 and 575.
106. Thus, to leave no room for ambiguity, the second volume of Ruza Muntazami's famous
cook book, dedicated mostly to non-Iranian recipes, contains a Brazilian dish called birinj ba1
zhambun-i Islimr (rice with Islamic ham). Ruza Muntazami (Fatimah Bahrayni), Hunar-i
ashpazi: kitiib-i duvvum (Tehran, n.d.), 495.
60 Chehabi
The 1990s saw a new trend, neo-traditional ("sunnatr') restaurants where waiters in
traditional robes serve Iranian food. These restaurants have become very popular, and
some even feature entertainment, but the very association of Iranian food and ambiance
with "tradition" points to the pervasiveness of Western influence. As for fast food,
hamburgers, pizza, and hot dogs have largely replaced the fancy and elaborate sand-
wiches of yore. They are sold everywhere and enjoyed by all social classes, including in
the popular neighborhoods of southern Tehran, and God only knows what goes into the
meat patties.107 International hamburger chains, however, have no outlets, and a more
upmarket hamburger restaurant that featured yellow arches was closed down by the
authorities in spite of the owner's protestations that yellow arches were an ancient Iran-
ian symbol. But local imitations of McDonald's abound, sometimes using bilingual
puns as names, such as MashDonalds and McMashallah.'18 As for pizzerias, they now
exist even in larger provincial cities.
Today, Tehran is largely a gastronomical wasteland, although the situation has
improved since the mid- 1990s in that a few new restaurants have opened in which high
quality food is served, albeit at prices that the vast majority of Iranians cannot afford.
The most recent development is a US-style food court on Valicasr (ex-Pahlavi) Avenue,
where the residents of the capital's rich neighborhoods are offered Chinese, French,
Mexican, and Mediterranean cuisine.109 The choice of foods available at this food court
reflects the imitative impetus of much of Iranian "modernization." In American food
courts one tends to consume simplified versions of cuisines belonging either to nations
that sent emigrants to the United States, such as Italy and China, or to countries that
border on it, such as Mexico. Transposed to Iran, this would mean having a choice of
Turkish, Levantine, Indian, Russian, and Afghan fare. However, with perhaps a million
resident Afghans, there is, to the best of my knowledge, not one decent restaurant in
Tehran where one can have such delicacies as mantiu or ashak.?0 One might add that
one of the reasons for the popularity of fast food establishments in Tehran's North End
is that young men and women can meet and exchange Flances and telephone numbers in
them, a function not unknown elsewhere in the world."
Conclusion
107. Hamburgers (incidentally called Frikadellen in Hamburg itself), are sometimes called
hambirgird by some less educated people because they are round (gird), an adaptation that
reminds one of the "sparrow grass" for asparagus.
108. Guy Dinmore, "Iran bucks the regional trend as neighbours shun US goods," Financial
Times (Saturday USA Edition), 26 October 2002. 5. There is an older tradition of such puns, to
wit a 1960s self-service restaurant named "Marchillu M5st-u-Khiy5rV" (After the Italian film actor
Marcello Mastroianni).
109. Touraj Daryaee, personal communication, 30 September 2002.

110. The food traditions of Iran's provinces fare somewhat better, as there are an Azeri, a
Kurdish, a Bakhtyari, and a Turkoman restaurant in Tehran's Jamshidiyah Park.
111. See, for instance, James L. Watson, ed., Golden Arches East: McDonald's in East Asia
(Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1997).
At the end of World War II, William Haas wrote: "[tihe rich, even extravagant old Per-
sian cuisine, with its surprising variety of luscious dishes, is disappearing rapidly for
economic reasons, want of servants, and the impact of Western ways-all this is a sad
contribution to the increasing monotony of life on the globe." 12
The picture turned out to be not quite as bleak as Haas painted it, for more than half
a century later Iranian cuisine is alive and well, and its availability outside Iran has
helped relieve the monotony of life elsewhere. As one gourmet Iranist has put it, "in
comparison with other elements of everyday culture, such as dress, furniture, and
architecture, traditional cuisine has ... resisted well and relatively successfully." 113
Traditional cuisine has become more varied by adopting new ingredients from the
West, and it would seem that, more generally, the material aspects of Western culinary
practice (cutlery, individual plates and glasses, tables and chairs) have been adopted
more readily than social patterns such as where different guests sit during a meal, when
one eats, and so on.'14
In sum, despite the virtual disappearance of some kinds of ash, Iranians have more
choice today than in the past. In food, as in other aspects of material culture, westerni-
zation has survived the Islamic revolution. Iranians' culinary habits today are far more
influenced by Western patterns of consumption than before the revolution, and a larger
percentage of Iranians partake of that partially westernized culinary culture than before
the revolution.
112. William S. Haas, Iran (New York, 1946), p189-90.

1 13. Fragner, "From the Caucasus to the Roof of the World," 61.
114. I owe this point to Anne Betteridge, 28 May 2002, Bethesda, MD.

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International Society of Iranian Studies

The Westernization of Iranian Culinary Culture

The Westernization of Iranian Culinary Culture'

H. E. Chehabi is Professor of International Relations and History at Boston Unive

5. Claudine Fabre-Vassas, "Juifs et chrdtiens, autour du cochon," in Identitef alimentaire et

8. Arun Appadurai, "How to Make a National Cuisine: Cookbooks in Contemporary India,"

14. Via Arabic, Catalan, and French: bikdinjin>al-bMdinjin>alberginia>aubergine.

24. Norbert Elias, The Civilizing Process (Oxford, 1994).

32. Polak, Persien, Erster Theil, 129.

33. Sayyid cAli-Asghar Sharicatzadah, Majmica-i maqalat-i mardumshindsl (Tehran,

His majesty then calls breakfast, which is brought in china dishes, in a

Knives, forks, and spoons are things unknown in Persia. It is utterly

41. Polak, Persien, Erster Theil, 133.

14) It is forbidden to store water in big clay and copper containers

54. Personal communication from Lois Beck regarding the Qashqais.

61. Polak, Persien, Erster Theil, 111.

67. Ictimad al-Saltana, al-Ma3iisir wa'l-asa1r, p. 153.

72. Varzdari, Persiskt Kok, 33.

74. Purdavud, Hurmazdarmah, 144 45.

77. Polak, Persien, Erster Theil, 112.

78. Bromberger, "Eating Habits," 189

82. Ittildict, 181, 31 January 1995.

86. Habib Ladjevardi, personal communication, 25 October 2002.

In the beginnings of Reza Shah's rule it was as though a magician had

94. Shahri, ThrTkh-i ijtimfcf-yi Tihrain dar qarn-i srzdahum, 1: 395-96.

The Location of Kitchens

97. Murtaza ("Riza") Ra3isi, personal interview, 8 July 2001, Tehran.

100. See EIr, s.v. "AMpazk&na."

Iran's western-inspired gastronomical scene became an early victim of the Islamic

102. Polak, Persien, Erster Theil, 127 and 132.

109. Touraj Daryaee, personal communication, 30 September 2002.

112. William S. Haas, Iran (New York, 1946), p189-90.

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