Homa Dashtaki didn’t really think about her relationship to food until shortly after she was laid off from a career in law, and was living at home in California. She and her father would make yogurt together from scratch, just the way her Zoroastrian-Iranian ancestors had done for many generations. The comfort in taking up ancient traditions was enough to inspire her to completely pivot and start her own business selling yogurt at a local farmers’ market.
From the reaction of customers, she says, she realized they were onto something.
After many hurdles — including an attempt, she says, at being shut down by the California Department of Food and Agriculture and a subsequent move to New York — The White Moustache was born. Named in honor of her father’s bushy whiskers, the yogurt has become a cult item for the kind of New Yorker who shops in stores such as Whole Foods, Eataly and the Park Slope Food Coop.
In her new cookbook, Yogurt and Whey: Recipes of an Iranian Immigrant Life, Dashtaki weaves her personal journey through nearly 100 recipes, old and new. One key ingredient is whey, the liquid byproduct of the yogurt-making process. With recipes such as whey cocktails and popsicles, the book demonstrates a central value of both her culture and business: nothing goes to waste.
“Every scrap is not thought of as trash,” Dashtaki says. “It’s thought of as an opportunity to celebrate that food.”
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