My Shrewsbury Restaurant has been open for over three years, and it still took me all that time to organise and execute a tasting evening for the people who have not done so before! Having seen the response of our community, I wish I had arranged this type of events a long time ago.

Nevertheless, I have always had an uneasy feeling that there are so many people locally, who have not savoured my style of cooking that surely is perfectly understandable.  Everyone knows what an Indian, a Chinese, a Spanish, an Italian, a Mexican or in fact most of the other international cuisines are?

Persian and Persian influenced cuisine is surely a new territory for most people; hence the trepidation whether to try it or not is fairly logical! Therefore the thought of undertaking an evening like this began to transpire in my mind.

As pretty and picturesque as the snow fall is, surely, it has a negative effect on businesses; especially when they are situated in the countryside.  So the snow-fall served two purposed in my case: I managed to take lots and lots of lovely pictures of snowy Dorrington, enriching my collection and I became even more intent on organising this event (to try and compensate for the lost business, as well as to introduce the cuisine to people who may not have tried it otherwise!)

I think, I did a good job of it.

As advertising in local press is pretty expensive, I decided to give it a go on Twitter and Facebook; I am so glad that I did! In the first week of January, I announced the Culinary Selection Tasting Evening for 30 January 2013, obviously at a fairly lower price than what is normally charged in the restaurant.

Within the first 24 hours I had already booked half a dozen guests in and less than a fortnight later I was struggling with fitting in more guests! A tremendous reaction! I must admit that I had to turn down fair few people who were very interested! Shame!

The evening

It could not have gone better! First table of four guests arrived promptly at 5:30 pm; first timers and at the time of writing this post, they have already booked for a table of four, for next Wednesday, to introduce another two people! How fantastic is that?

As they began savouring the flavours of the appetisers, two guests out of the next table of three arrived! They requested for the table by the open fire and decided to wait at the bar until their third friend arrived!

After this, oh the place became too busy and I had to go back in the kitchen! When I returned, an hour or so later, the hall was packed out – roaring fire, gentle humming of intimate conversation and tinkling of cutlery as well as the most appetising smells of fragrant food! Oh wow! For me it was a spectacle! Every single person was extremely happy!

I just had to go and fetch my camera! Unfortunately, I am unable to put all the pictures on here, but they can be seen on the Facebook page by clicking on the link!

Talking to the guests was an immense pleasure, which I get a buzz out of – my ‘fix’ for the evening! Thank you very much everyone! I proudly announce the next event on Wed 20 Feb 2013; looking forward to welcoming you then!