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Finding joy in Persian food after fleeing my homeland

Iranian Atoosa Sepehr had a successful career in the steel industry but it was cooking Persian food that gave her life new meaning after she left her husband and moved abroad.

Atoosa Sepehr never spent any time in her mother's kitchen growing up in Iran. She focused on her studies and always knew she wanted a successful career. By her mid-twenties she was a high-flyer in the male-dominated steel industry. But at home she was stuck in an unhappy marriage. Overnight, she fled Iran to make a new life for herself in the United Kingdom. She turned to family recipes to stave off homesickness and found a new lease of life cooking the food from her home country.

Joseph Dhafana was living in South Africa as a Zimbabwean refugee and down on his luck when he discovered he had a rare talent for detecting aromas in wine. He went on to take the wine-tasting world by storm and took the first all-black team to the World Blind Wine Tasting Championships. This interview was first broadcast in August 2022.

Get in touch: outlook@bbc.com or WhatsApp +44 330 678 2707

(Photo: Atoosa Sepehr. Credit: Brian Kavanagh)

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41 minutes

Broadcasts

  • Thu 3 Oct 2024 11:06GMT
  • Thu 3 Oct 2024 17:06GMT
  • Thu 3 Oct 2024 21:06GMT
  • Fri 4 Oct 2024 02:06GMT

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Podcast: Lives Less Ordinary

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