Persian food is the "new Indian", says a Plymouth restaurateur who found himself stranded in the UK 40 years ago when the Islamic Revolution ripped through his homeland.
Edmond Davari was a young business student at Oxford Brookes University when his world was turned upside down in 1979. In Iran (he prefers the older name of Persia) a revolution was taking place, with Iranian students storming the US embassy in Tehran, taking 100 hostages, 40 years ago this week.
When the Shah was overthrown and an Islamic Republic set up under Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, it spelled personal disaster for Mr Davari.
As a middle-class Christian Iranian he found himself stranded in the UK, unable to go home, his family unable to visit him or even send him money. He didn’t see some relatives for years.
“The last time I was there was 1978,” he said. “I’d like to go back and see my old school and my house, but I’m worried I’ll be disappointed when I get there.
On graduating he worked as a plate washer at an establishment called Scamps in Oxford. Earning £1.92 an hour he left for a better paid dish-washing gig at another Oxford establishment called Downtown Manhatten.
Paying an extra 5p an hour, he though he was made – but when he got the job the joint’s owners told him they were actually bumping him up to general manager.
Three years later, after being promoted to area manager, he joined a major hotel company and then came to Plymouth as catering chief at the new Theatre Royal.
He eventually left theatreland when he had build up a fiefdom of three restaurants: Lorenzo’s, Barratt’s and Pappa Joe’s.
From then he’s run numerous city venues. Toot, in Plymouth city centre’s Mayflower Street, is Mr Davari’s 22nd restaurant.
He opened it in late 2017 and it’s menu of Persian classics have been a major hit in the city, with the venue topping TripAdvisor’s ratings and winning awards from the likes of Luxurious Magazine.
And Mr Davari said that is because people are getting a taste for Persian cooking, with it even taking over from Indian food in the public’s affections.
The number of Indian restaurants has been declining nationally, even estimated to half by the end of the 2020s, while Middle Eastern cuisine becomes more sought after.
The British Takeaway Campaign said Persian diners, alongside Pakistani, Greek and Turkish, were growing in 2019, as Indian and Chinese outlets stalled.
“It’s going really well,” said Mr Davari. “Persian is the new Indian. People are getting to learn about it and that it has so much to offer.”
Mr Davari, a pioneer in Mexican and Moroccan food in the past, decided the dishes from his homeland would be the next trend.
“I’ve always tried to do the right thing at the right time,” he said. “And I’m glad I’ve done it now, any earlier it would have been difficult to crack it.
“Persian food is in London now – you can’t go to any of its 100 restaurants without having to queue.”
He said the dishes are particularly a hit with the growing vegan market, with many of them plant-based including non-meat falafels.
Mr Davari has even served up thousands of meals at enormous Vegfest events in London, Brighton and Glasgow where there were two-hour queues for his stalls.
“With Persian food there is such a variety of vegetarian and vegan food,” he said. “So this is the right time for it to explode.
“And even for meat eaters, I include kebabs grilled over a flame, that’s more healthy, a lot of the fat is taken out.
“The recipes go back hundreds of years, every area of Tehran, where I grew up had its own version of these dishes.”
And he said once people become aware of a type of cuisine the interest builds and buildd.
“There was a programme on TV about Persian food and the next day we were full,” he said. “Everyone came in to try our food.
“But there won’t be a chain of Persian restaurants, or maybe in years to come when they see the potential.”
