London’s Queen of Kurdish Cooking

Pary Baban’s restaurant, Nandine, serves up authentic Kurdish home-style cooking in South East London.

Born in South Kurdistan, Pary was forced to flee her home village of Qaladzê, resulting in a nine day trek across Kurdistan where she learned to cook by collecting recipes from the people she encountered.

When she settled in London, Pary served her Kurdish food from a newspaper kiosk that she ran with her husband, and she was soon inundated with customers lining up for kebab and kubbas (Kurdish dumplings) and opened her full-service restaurant.

Today, Nandine is a local favourite and Pary has garnered a reputation for her elegant take on Kurdish classics like Qabuli Rash (smoked rice with mutton), Qozi (slow-cooked lamb shank), and Shelim E Kulaû (turnip in molasses).

Photography by Ruth Samuels.