Review: My English Persian Kitchen at Soho Theatre

⭐⭐⭐⭐ (Four Stars)

Hannah Khalil’s My English Persian Kitchen, inspired by food writer Atoosa Sepehr’s true story and directed by Chris White, offers an intimate blend of theatre and cookery that is both sensory and moving. When audiences enter Soho Theatre’s auditorium, Isabella Nefar is already onstage at her kitchen island, chopping garlic and onions. Over the next 70 minutes (a well-judged running time that feels neither rushed nor overly long) she prepares a flavourful and fragrant ash-e-reshteh, a traditional Iranian noodle and lentil soup, while guiding us through her character’s journey from escaping an abusive husband in Iran to facing the challenges and hopes of building a new life in London.

As Nefar cooks, each ingredient sparks a memory, or each memory leads her back to an ingredient, building a recipe that is as much about emotion and identity as it is about taste. The audience is drawn directly into the process, invited to smell herbs, hear sizzling pans, and ultimately share in the finished dish at the end of the performance. It’s a clever, sensory way of underscoring the cultural and emotional weight of food as a means of connection.

Nefar’s performance is mesmerising: she shifts effortlessly between the joyous delight of inhaling an aromatic herb and the distress and anguish of revisiting painful memories, never once losing her audience’s attention. Pip Terry’s set design may appear simple, consisting of a kitchen island with functional hobs and a free-standing fridge, but it effectively grounds the story without cluttering the stage. Marty Langthorne’s inventive lighting design, with light sources hidden around the kitchen such as inside tins, cheese graters, and the fridge, gives the flashbacks an atmospheric effect, while Dan Balfour’s sound design deepens the immersion by weaving the noises of remembered moments into the action onstage so we feel as though we are reliving these memories alongside her. 

My English Persian Kitchen is a truly inventive piece of theatre that highlights the power of food to bring people together. By the time the soup is served at the end, the audience feels less like spectators and more like guests invited to share in both a story and a meal - and yes, I can confirm that the finished dish tastes delicious!

My English Persian Kitchen runs at Soho Theatre until 11th October 2025.

Photos by Ellie Kurttz