Maideh Mazda | |
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Born | Maideh Mazda May 28, 1922 Baku, Azerbaijan, U.S. |
Died | 7 August 2012 | (aged 90)
Other names | Maideh Mazda Magee |
Occupations |
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Known for | In a Persian Kitchen |
Spouse | Charles Magee (m. 1959) |
Children | Maya Magee |
Maideh Mazda (1922-2012) was a Persian food expert, linguist, and author, born and raised in Baku, Azerbaijan in an Iranian family. She published one of the first cookbooks about Persian cuisine for American readers. Entitled In a Persian Kitchen, her cookbook first appeared in 1960 and went through nineteen hardcover editions by the time of her death in 2012. With her husband Charles T. Magee, a member of the U.S. Foreign Service, Mazda traveled to Bulgaria, Canada, France, Latvia, the Soviet Union, Switzerland and Ukraine, where she hosted a number of diplomatic functions. A purveyor of culinary diplomacy in the decades before the Iranian Revolution of 1978-79, she promoted understanding of Iranian and Persian culture among Americans through her cookbooks, public lectures, and demonstrations.[1][2]