The Grilling with Sabrina Ghayour

New to Dishpatch, British-Iranian chef and food writer Sabrina Ghayour specialises in Persian and Middle Eastern flavours. We asked the multi-award winning, bestselling author hard-hitting questions like, what’s her favourite crisp, and what does she keep in her freezer?

Three ingredients you always have to hand?

Salt, pepper and garlic – everything tastes better with them.

Three essential cooking tools?

A microplane grater is phenomenally useful for just about everything, a really good vegetable peeler, and a really good garlic crusher.

How do you take dinner from ordinary to extraordinary?

Increase variety, and increase portions. Nobody ever complains when there’s more food to eat! Finally, take time to consider how you plate and serve your food. We have a great tradition in Persian culture where we don’t serve things in bowls because you can’t see the base, meaning you can’t see the plentifulness of the food. We serve everything on flat plates so it looks abundant and really inviting to tuck into.

Food heaven?

That’s a really tough one because I am very strongly driven by my moods which dictate what I like, so comfort food can mean mac ‘n’ cheese, or it can mean a salad. It really depends on the time of year and my mood, but essentially food heaven is lots of variety.

Food hell?

Food hell to me is a no-brainer. It has to be offal and oysters!

Dinner in or dinner out?

Dinner in, lunch out.

Favourite restaurant right now?

Very, very tall order! Speedboat Bar – Thai food from the Chinatown streets of Bangkok.

Dream dinner date?

I think it would probably be Alan Carr and Stephen Fry. I think I would laugh a lot, and it’s all about laughter for me. That’s how I fell in love with my husband.

What’s the last dish you cooked?

Last night was an orzo carbonara.

What is on your playlist when cooking?

A lot of times I just throw on the radio, because it provides a variety without me having to go through my phone and make that an added job for the day. I usually listen to Kiss FM.

Favourite thing on toast?

Good quality salted butter. You don’t need anything else.

Freezer staples?

Vac pack bags of good quality mince meat. I live in a village and the nearest shops are about 10 miles away, so having just a little bit of meat here and there is essential to get my family fed. Otherwise, I freeze chilies, garlic, ginger, curry leaves – all the aromatics can get frozen.

Go-to snack?

I’m not a massive sweet-tooth person. I like cheese. I like cured meats. I don’t think you’d ever opened my fridge and there weren’t some deli meats inside. I love crisps – I’ve got a dirty top five list of crisps...

What are they?

Monster Munch Roast Beef, never Pickled Onion. Walkers’ Cheese & onion. Wotsits. Bacon Wheat Crunchies. Beef Hula Hoops.

Favourite childhood food?

A stew that is iconic in Persian culture, called ghormeh sabzi. It’s slow-braised lamb with kidney beans, dried limes and a herb sauce that’s spiked with fenugreek leaf. I love it. It has so many memories for me.

You can only eat one cuisine for the rest of your life, what would you choose?

Italian.