Najmieh Batmanglij

Najmieh Khalili Batmanglij (, ; born 1947) is an Iranian-American chef and cookbook author. Born in Tehran, she fled the Iranian Revolution in 1979, moving first to France, then the United States, building a career as a cookbook author as she went. Her first book, published in French, was called, followed by eight cookbooks in English, from Food of Life (1986) to Cooking in Iran (2018). The Washington Post hailed her in 2018 as "the grande dame of Iranian Cooking."

Biography Najmieh Khalili was born in 1947 in Tehran, Imperial Iran. She returned to Iran after her education in America but was forced into exile in 1979, because of the Iranian Revolution.

In the 1980s Batmanglij permanently relocated to Washington, DC where she wrote her celebrated book, Food of Life. Alongside her husband Mohammad, they started their own publishing house. and Silk Road Cooking: A Vegetarian Journey, which The New York Times compared to reading "a good novel—once you start, it's hard to put down." Batmanglij has appeared on The Martha Stewart Show and also teaches Persian cooking.

For many years she has taught at The Culinary Institute of America at Greystone in Napa Valley, California during the World of Flavors Conference.

Honors and awards On February 15, 2013, in his weekly article for The Guardian newspaper, Yotam Ottolenghi included a recipe that was inspired by a recipe in Food of Life, about which he said: "One of the most exciting cookbooks I've seen in a while, Food of Life: Ancient Persian And Modern Iranian Cooking And Ceremonies, by Najmieh Batmanglij–I highly recommend it to anyone with an interest in Iran's glorious food culture."

On April 6, 2016, she was the guest chef at First Lady Michelle Obama's White House Nowruz Celebration and Lunch. Julia Moskin of The New York Times wrote about her latest cookbook, "Magisterial ... An engrossing visual feast of modern Iran... Cooking in Iran is an essential new book" and selected it as one of "the 19 best cookbooks of Fall 2018".

Publishers Weekly called the cookbook, "A massive and thorough guide to Persian cuisine ... terrific, reverential, and accessible."

On November 5, 2018, The Washington Post published an article about her written by James Beard Award winning writer Mayukh Sen with the headline "Najmieh Batmanglij is the grande dame of Iranian cooking. It’s time you knew her name." with the headline "Seven Immigrant Women Who Changed the Way Americans Eat."

Personal life She is married to book publisher, Mohammad Batmanglij. Her sons are Zal Batmanglij, a film director and screenwriter whose projects include Sound of My Voice, The East, and The OA; and Rostam Batmanglij, a record producer, musician, singer, songwriter and composer who was a founding member of the indie-pop band Vampire Weekend.