The maker
Maryam
Decades of Persian torshi, made by hand — first in Tehran, now in Chicago.
Maryam learned torshi as a girl in her mother's kitchen in Tehran, and she has made it by hand every autumn since — decades of the same patient work. She knows by feel when a batch has come into its own, and she never rushes it.
Today she makes it in Chicago, in small batches: vegetables salted the day they're picked, fermented for months, then jarred, dated, and rested before they reach your table. Some jars take longer than others — her garlic is aged a full seven years until it turns dark and mellow.
No shortcuts, no additives, no shipping warehouses. Just one cook, her recipes, and the time good torshi takes.