I love Persian Food, and Iraq is probably my favorite region of said food. My memories of my college bestie and her mom cooking, making, and sharing food with my husband and I are foundational building blocks in my life.

Bu I have to admit: I hated almost every single recipe in this book.

I was hoping that this book would give me homey versions of the traditional recipes, tips and tricks, and maybe a few substituted, but they were not. Instead many of the recipes are abominations of those foods mixed with unappetizing Americanizations, like adding ranch. Ranch.

I have to pass on this chimera cookbook that does not fuse well.

A beautiful fusion of family history, current geography, and delicious food. This comes across as a love letter to her mother and all that she did to raise her immigrant family in America.

There is a Persian restaurant that my family and I love going to as a special treat and one of my favorite dishes there is the jeweled rice that comes with the meal. It is such a small piece of the overall meal, but it's always my favorite part. I love that through this book, I found a recipe (Sweet Jeweled Rice) that helps me recreate that dish from the restaurant.
This cookbook is one made with love and the recipes are easy to followed and well detailed. Highly recommended for any cookbook collection.

Cookbook: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4/5)

Oh man, this cookbook seems like a hidden gem. All of the recipes seem FASCINATING! I've always been hot and cold with cookbooks around other cultures because a lot of the ingredients are either hard to find or get. But everything in this cookbook you can easily find even at a Walmart, which is a major plus!

Top Five:
Rosy Pancakes; this feels fancy, like I need to have high tea with my pinky up in the air during brunch.
Carrot Jam; say what?! Never heard of this, and I'm here for it!
Chilled Yogurt and Herb Soup; this seems like an amazing soup for the summer since it is chilled and refreshing!
Rosewater Whipped Cream. There are quite a few rosewater recipes and it was hard to only pick just one.
Sweet Yogurt Fritters; this looks like a wonderful play on Mexican wedding cookies but with yogurt!


NetGalley provided Maman and Me eBook; thank you, NetGalley and Chronicle Books, Princeton Architectural Press, for the copy in return for an honest review.

Special thanks to NetGalley and Chronicle Books for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review. This book provides an outstanding introduction to Iranian food. The recipes are well thought out, easy to follow, and not too hard which could provide many with the ability to cook these meals even if they have no experience with this type of cooking.

this book will familiarize non-iranian readers with not only iranian food but also the iranian culture that surrounds food and meal times. There are beautiful pictures and easy to follow recipes that will definitely bring a taste of Iran to any home

Great introduction to Iranian food, with a lot of details about culture and history and the author's family. It felt a bit like reading a family cookbook collected over generations and then shared with the world. Lovely photos as well to help the reader understand what finished dishes look like, which is very helpful to those who are new to this type of cuisine. Thanks to #Netgalley for the ARC.

A collection of Iranian recipes adapted to American ingredients and American dishes given an Iranian touch. Tasty,although many of them are complex, especially the ice dishes.

There are a lot of really great Persian recipes in Maman and Me. My kids are half Iranian, so it is important to me to make sure they have access to Persian food, and since I no longer am involved with their father's side of the family and there are not any Persian restaurants nearby it needs to be home. I have been making them Persian rice with tahdig since they were babies, but this book has a lot of other recipes for me to expand my horizons with and for them to learn to cook Persian food themselves.

"Maman and Me: Recipes from Our Iranian American Family" by Roya Shariat and Gita Sadeh is a heartfelt culinary journey that beautifully showcases the rich flavors and traditions of Iranian cuisine, while also capturing the essence of family and cultural heritage.

This book is a treasure trove of authentic recipes passed down through generations, each dish infused with love and nostalgia. From aromatic stews to fragrant rice dishes and delicate pastries, the authors provide a wide array of recipes that reflect the diverse and vibrant culinary tapestry of Iran.

Lovely introduction to Iranian cooking. Accessible ingredients, gorgeous photos, and easy to follow recipes make this a cookbook for beginner and more advanced cooks alike.

Thank you Netgalley and Chronicle Books, Princeton Architectural Press for the ARC!

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is a beautiful recipe book!

There are great photos of the food as well as helpful descriptions in the recipes. I like that Shariat takes the time at the beginning to explain why she uses the language she does when saying Iranian instead of Persian as well as talking about some of the common ingredients that some of us may not be familiar with. There's helpful information throughout the recipes and a nice collection including breakfast overall. This book is everything you need to make a delicious Iranian feast!

Lots of background and information. Organized nicely. Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book

Gorgeous photos - check!
Recipes that feel accessible to the amateur - check!
Mostly easily accessible ingredients - check!

This was a beautiful cookbook sharing the joys of cooking together between Roya and Gita. I loved the variety of recipes in this cookbook, blending old traditions with new adaptations (this also I think helped make the ingredient list so accessible). I loved that all the photos were taken with dishes that were in the mother's collection, and the descriptions of the recipes were really lovely to read. All around a book I can't wait to try some recipes from!

Growing up we had neighbors who were from Iran. I loved when they had us over for dinner. My favorite was the yellow crunch topped rice. This is a pretty cookbook with colorful photos with a helpful description of each recipe.

This is a beautiful cookbook. I love that the authors have made Iranian cooking and flavors so approachable, but still authentic. I was reminded so much of my grandmother and could practically smell through the pages.

Excellent introduction to Iranian cuisine. Lovely photos, easy to follow recipes. The recipes are not very vegan friendly, but lots of flavor inspiration to use if you are strictly meat/dairy free.

There are so many recipes I have never heard of and am excited to try. I love all the family photos. I loved the begining where she touches on how to do certain things and why we do them (I never knew about blanching meat?) This reminds me of a family cookbook that's been handed down with everyone adding thier own touches, which is really lovely.

Note: I dont think this book format translates well to kindle. I'd buy it in hard copy.

The format of this book is off, there are missing ingredients and the pictures could use a footnote. All in all, Maman and Me by Roya Shariat and Gita Sadeh has interesting recipes.

This cookbook is so good! I immediately followed Roya on TikTok! I can’t believe I hadn’t stumbled upon her account before. The first thing that stood out to me in the introduction is the idea of food as a link to home. I related to the fear of losing a loved one and wanting to capture those important stories, life lessons, and in this case, recipes. I also appreciated the notes on language and the deliberate choice to use the terms Iranian and Southwest Asian. The Farsi word for del meaning both heart and stomach was eye-opening to the Iranian culture. I found it helpful that the beginning of the cookbook explains the key spices and herbs used to create unique flavors and that Iranian cuisine is not reliant on dairy. We are a mostly dairy-free family so it was so great to go into the book knowing I’d be able to cook most things without looking up substitutions. The cookbook is broken into sections by meal. There’s even an entire section dedicated to rice & pilafs which is a dream! I love rice. I enjoyed some of the Iranian twists on meals I think of being traditionally American like pancakes and French toast for breakfast. Maman and Me has beautifully crisp photos (a picture-heavy cookbook is a MUST for me… especially with foods not in my usual repertoire) and recipes with ingredient lists that are easy to follow. I’ll be keeping this handy on my Kindle to cook from for years to come. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance review copy.