Saffron Girl

Saffron Girl uses food to naturally heal the body, mind and spirit. I want to share a little bit about why I started Saffron Girl. My real love for cooking began when I was forced to flee from Iran, taking just a single backpack worth of possessions. As a refugee, I found myself living in a single common area with hundreds of other young mothers and children. Even though most of us didn’t speak the same language, we all had one thing in common – pain. All of us were fleeing from something. Something so frightening, that young mothers left the security of their homelands, with only what they could carry on their back, to seek refuge in a foreign country.

Even though it was difficult to verbally communicate, we quickly began bonding as we prepared meals together in the kitchen. Cooking became our way to begin releasing all of the pain, anger and regrets we had brought with us from our old lives and start the process of mending our broken hearts.
Soon, it became a ritual, that after we finished all of our chores, we would all sit together in the kitchen and enjoy a soothing cup of hot tea together. Over time, our ability to verbally communicate improved making it easier to share the cooking philosophies with each other that most of us had learned as very young girls from our mothers or grandmothers. It was very healing to share with other women about my own culture and in turn, learn about their way of life.

As I look back on my time spent in a refugee camp, I am thankful. Thankful for all of the women I was able to meet and forge life-long relationships. Thankful for the healing nature of cooking as something a group of women could hang on to for dear life. But most of all, I am thankful for yet another example of how, even with what we might think is the worst time of our lives, that goodness always has a way of shining through.

The love I found for cooking while living in the refugee camp and working in the kitchen, has stayed with me and continued to grow and flourish over the years. Since that time, I have authored 2 cookbooks and written another book, “Tears of Onions” about the lives of the many people who helped shaped my life. Saffron Girl Catering is my life-long dream. My hope is that through my hard work and success, I will be able to help other women who may be going through a difficult time in their lives and that my cooking will be just a healing to them as it was, at one time, to me.