Donia Bijan
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Donia Bijan | |
|---|---|
| Born | |
| Alma mater | University of California, Berkeley |
| Occupations | Author, chef |
| Relatives | Atefeh Amir-Ebrahimi (mother) |
Donia Bijan is an Iranian-American author and chef based in California.[1][2] She is the author of the book Maman’s Homesick Pie: A Persian Heart in an American Kitchen (2011) and the novel The Last Days of Café Leila (2017).[3][4][5]
Bijan grew up in Tehran, Iran, where her parents operated a maternity hospital.[6] Her father was a physician and her mother a nurse active in women’s rights.[7] In 1978, during the political unrest leading up to the Iranian Revolution, Bijan and her family left Iran and eventually settled in the United States.[8][9][10]
Bijan studied at the University of California, Berkeley, graduating in 1984.[11][12] She later trained at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris and worked as a chef in France before returning to California where she worked at many of San Francisco's acclaimed restaurants.[13][14][15]
In 1994, she opened her restaurant, L’Amie Donia, a celebrated French bistro, in Palo Alto, California.[16][17][18] Bijan sold the restaurant in 2004.[19][20][21]
Bijan published her food memoir, Maman’s Homesick Pie: A Persian Heart in an American Kitchen in 2011.[22][23][24][25] In 2017, she published the novel, The Last Days of Café Leila.[26][27][28][29] The novel was translated in German as Als die Tage nach Zimt schmeckten, in Italian as La donna di Teheran,[30][31] and in Arabic. Bijan has also narrated audiobooks, including Pomegranate Soup, Rosewater and Soda Bread, and The Persians.[32][33][34][35]