Stoke Newington Literary Festival

Yasmin Khan is a best-selling author, broadcaster and cook, who is passionate about sharing people’s stories through food.

A frequent traveller, whose passport is never too far away from her pocket, Yasmin read Law at Sheffield University and then gained an MSc in Social Policy from the London School of Economics. After studying, she spent a decade working as a campaigner for NGOs and grassroots groups, running high-profile national and international campaigns, with a special focus on conflict in the Middle East.

In 2013 Yasmin ran a Kickstarter that launched her debut cookbook The Saffron Tales: Recipes From the Persian Kitchen (Bloomsbury, 2016) which chronicled her culinary adventures through Iran. The book was chosen by the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and the BBC Food Programme as one of the best books of 2016 and won an M.F.K Fisher Award for Excellence in Culinary Writing from Les Dames d’Escoffier.

Yasmin’s second cookbook, Zaitoun: Recipes and Stories from the Palestinian Kitchen (Bloomsbury 2018) celebrates the Palestinian kitchen and is a collection of recipes and stories gathered from her travels through Israel, the West Bank and Gaza. Upon release, the book immediately became a number 1 best-seller on Amazon in the USA and UK and was named by the Guardian, the Observer and the BBC Food Programme as one of the best cookbooks of the year.

Yasmin is a regular media commentator having appeared on many flagship news programmes such as Channel 4 News, Newsnight, BBC R4’s Today programme and Women’s Hour and NPR’s Morning Edition. She has worked as a radio presenter for BBC R4’s Food Programme and as a host on the CNN/Roads and Kingdoms travel series “The Perfect Dish” with Anthony Bourdain. Her writing has been published in the Guardian, the Observer, the Independent, the Telegraph, Saveur, Roads and Kingdoms, AFAR and Food52 amongst others.

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