Meet Damira

Damira is originally from Samarkand, an ancient city that lies on the Silk Road, which she refers to as “the historic crossroads of East and West.” She loved growing up in such a diverse country, where she learned to cook from her mother, grandmother, mother-in-law, and friends of many backgrounds. 

For Damira, food, family, and culture are inseparable. She fell in love with cooking as a child on her grandmother’s farm, helping to prepare meals for her large family, which included many grandchildren. Damira and her husband left Uzbekistan in 2013 to be closer to their three children who were already living in the United States, and to do something new—Damira believes it’s always important to try new things and to have many life experiences. 

While she was still in Uzbekistan, Damira was a doctor until her country’s mandatory retirement age of fifty-five. Now, she is doing what she loves most: cooking and hosting people at her dinner table. In 2018, she cooked the first ever Uzbek dinner at the James Beard House, which was also the first halal meal to be offered there. She lives with her husband in Brooklyn and has three grown children and four grandchildren.

Damira’s remarkable meals have been featured by Food & Wine, Smithsonian Magazine, The kitchn, Oprah Magazine, Wirecutter, The Splendid Table, Grub Street, Epicurious, Tasting Table, Chowhound, Brooklyn Magazine, Epicure & Culture, Quartz, Eater, and Brooklyn Based, and the Chicago Tribune.