Anna Ansari Author Event • Silk Roads

Anna Ansari is an Iranian-American writer and former international trade attorney, now based in East London with her husband and son. Her debut cookbook, Silk Roads: A Flavor Odyssey with Recipes from Baku to Beijing, will be published by DK RED in October 2025. With academic training in Asian and Middle Eastern studies and a background in law, her writing explores the intersections of food, history, migration, and culture.

 Silk Roads- In this rich and delicious cookbook, Iranian-American cook and writer Anna Ansari takes us on a culinary, historical, and personal odyssey across the Silk Roads.

Weaving together essays, family photography and 90 recipes, Ansari brings life to the flavors of the Silk Roads – from the walnut groves of her father’s Iranian childhood, across Central Asian markets brimming with fragrant melons and thronged with fat-tailed sheep, and into the neighborhoods of modern-day Chinese cities.

Discover delectable dishes from Baku to Beijing – Azeri-Iranian stews served with crispy-bottomed rice, dill-infused noodles from Western Uzbekistan, Georgian cornbread, Uyghur lamb chops and all kinds of dumplings, from fat, spiraled oromo to tiny, stuffed dushbara in a delicate saffron broth. Plus, you’ll find refreshing drinks and sharbats, and American-inspired desserts like apple pie with quince, sticky persimmon pudding, and walnut-studded spiced blondies.