The history, and the future, of our favorite soups from across the globe. Full of nostalgia, new inventions and lots of soupy goodness. Ash Paz is Farsi for chef, but translate it literally and you get "soup maker." Ash is a particular range of soups almost unique to Iran, and their significance to Persian culture is signified by the fact that they define someone's qualification as a chef i.e. if you can make ash you make the grade in the kitchen. Soup IS important. The Iranians have got it right.

The first cooked food almost certainly consisted of some form of broth, and the art of cooking, and indeed eating for pleasure rather than survival, evolved globally out of the first soup and stock pots. Soup is an inexpensive, fast and tasty way to provide nutrition. Many communities and friendships have been formed over the preparation, distribution and consumption of soup--as well as recipe swapping, which makes the foundations of this book by seasoned food writer Sally Butcher, prorieter, with her husband and partner Jamshid Golshan Ebrahimi, of London's favorite cafe and international food shop.