Persian cuisine and

nutrition
Acheamenids era
Grains, especially wheat, were a useful food
source and consumed by the Persians for the
first time
The king regularly dined with his court, soldiers
and workers
15,000 men dined three times daily at the court
of the Achaemenid emperor
Livestock farming

Livestock
farming and
animal sacrifices
in the
Achaemenid
Empire.
Eating habits

• A piece of bread was held in the left hand.

• The piece of food was cut with the knife and then placed on
the piece of bread.
• The combination was then placed in the mouth
Classic Iranian ingredients which originated in
the Achaemenid period and are still used today
• Fruit
• nuts
• saffron
Barley

Barley bread,
honey,
vegetables, date,
milk and dairy
besides the main
dish of rice,
Achaemenian Persian King’s Table

Persian cuisine
during the
Persian
Achaemenian
dynasty was at
its highest at the
king’s table
during a feast
 The First Pizza?
• Persian soldiers of Darius the Great made the first ‘pizza’
using their shields over a fire.

• The ‘pizza’ was made from flat bread topped with cheese, dates and
herbs, all cooked together on a metal shield serving as a stove top pan.
 The First pasta

Noodles are a significant ingredient in the traditional

Aush soup.
Boiling Drinking Water

King Cyrus carried with him,

boiled (thereby disinfected)
drinking water stored in (jars
or containers) of silver carried
on four-wheeled carts.
 Diet & Exercise

Persians also worked off by

exercise what they ate. They
would have been fit and not
fat.
 Persian Gardens

Persian Achaemenian kings tended

to their gardens personally,
creating a paradise that included
fruit trees and presumably health-
giving and healing herbs
Rise and fall of the Persian standards

The Persian diet was simple and the

people were only occasional meat-eaters
 Feasts

Persians cooked whole animals for Persian-

Zoroastrian celebrated days of the year