For the past fifteen years, Cooking with Zahra has given me so much to be grateful for.
What began as a place to share recipes became a way to connect with people around the world. Along the way, I published two cookbooks, hosted television shows and launched Zahra’s Kitchen, my frozen food brand. I’ve had opportunities I couldn’t have imagined when I first began sharing what I was cooking at home.
When I look back honestly, I see something deeply personal beneath those achievements.
Cooking with Zahra was also a journey of discovering my own worth. Creating, sharing and finding my voice helped me understand who I was and what I could do. Whenever someone cooked a recipe, shared a memory or celebrated a milestone with me, I felt seen.
While I was offering something to my community, my community was giving something back to me. I will always be grateful for that.
Somewhere along the way, something shifted.
The work that had once brought me joy began to feel performative. I was still creating, but I didn’t always feel connected to what I was sharing. I missed the excitement of developing something simply because I loved it and couldn’t wait to pass it on.
There wasn’t one reason. I was changing, and so was the world around me.
The pandemic, the suffering in Gaza, Iran and Sudan, and the uncertainty closer to home took an emotional toll. I struggled with the guilt of carrying on with ordinary life while others were losing so much. Sharing a recipe or celebrating something good could feel difficult to reconcile with what I was witnessing.
I began questioning my work, my priorities and where I wanted to give my energy.
This summer, I gave myself time to sit with those questions.
Before I could create something new, I needed to make space.
It began practically. I cleared cupboards, decluttered my wardrobe and looked around my home at things I had kept without asking whether they still had a place in my life.
Then the questions became more personal.
Which commitments still felt right? Which relationships felt mutual and nourishing? What was I holding on to because it was familiar, or because it belonged to a version of me I had outgrown?
Some friendships were changing. There were people I loved whose lives were moving in a different direction from mine. I could appreciate the memories, lessons and care we had shared while accepting that our relationship might no longer look the same.
That brought grief. I was letting go of expectations, familiar roles and parts of myself that had mattered for a long time.
As I made space around me, I began to recognise the intention beneath it all.
I wanted to find my way back to myself.
I wanted to understand what still felt true, release what no longer served me and trust the process without knowing exactly where it would lead.
For me, surrender meant loosening my grip on how everything should unfold. Giving myself permission to pause. Allowing an answer to emerge rather than rushing to find one.
Gradually, my choices began to feel more aligned with who I am today. I felt less driven by what I needed to prove and more drawn towards what I wanted to contribute.
Most importantly, I wanted to find joy in the process. To enjoy creating, discovering and connecting while this next chapter was still taking shape.
Those intentions became the foundation of Zahra Collective.
I had felt seen. Now I wanted to make more room to see others.
I feel more grounded in myself and more able to appreciate what I’ve built. That has changed the questions I ask about what comes next.
What could I create that would help other people feel heard? Where could we share something of ourselves, learn from one another and enjoy being together?
Zahra Collective grew from wanting to make space for those exchanges.
It is a place to inspire, explore and experience, with the Art of Joy running through everything we do.
Can joy be here, along the way?
I’ve spent so much of my life looking towards the next milestone. Finishing the project. Reaching the goal. Getting through a busy period. Somewhere ahead, I imagined there would be more time to enjoy it all.
Yet many of the moments I treasure were wonderfully ordinary. Cooking with someone. Laughing around a table. A conversation that went somewhere unexpected. Making something with my hands and becoming absorbed in it.
I recognise the joy in those memories now. I want to become better at noticing it while it is happening.
I’m learning to let gratitude and grief exist together. To enjoy a moment while life is uncertain and there is still work to do. To understand that appreciating my own life can sit alongside caring deeply about someone else’s.
That is the question I want to keep exploring here: how do we make room for joy in the life we’re living now?
A space to inspire, explore and experience.
Inspire begins with the everyday. Recipes from Cooking with Zahra will always be part of this space, alongside reflections, practical tips and discoveries across food, beauty, fashion, wellness, travel and the ways we live. It gives me room to share what I’m learning and enjoying as my interests evolve.
Through Explore, the Art of Joy podcast, I’m opening that curiosity to other people. I want to understand what has shaped them, how they have changed and what joy means in their lives. Has it always been present? Has their understanding of it shifted? What have they needed to trust, release or make room for along the way?
Through Experience, The Shared Table, I want to create opportunities for us to come together and enjoy some of this in person.
There is something worth returning to in the ways we gather.
I often think about the traditions built around seasonal food: people coming together to harvest, cook and preserve. Preparing jams, pickles, relishes and syrups to carry a season into the months ahead.
There was work to be done, alongside conversation, shared knowledge and the satisfaction of making something together. I’m drawn to that sense of purpose and company, and to the pleasure of working with our hands.
Through seasonal supper clubs, workshops and other shared experiences, I hope to bring some of that spirit into our lives today. A reason to set time aside, try something new and pay attention to the people around us.
I also want to collaborate with others who share this approach, bringing their knowledge, creativity and perspectives into the Collective. There is so much we can learn and create together.
This is where we begin.
Zahra Collective holds much of what this next chapter means to me: setting an intention, releasing what I’ve outgrown, trusting the process and allowing my choices to reflect who I am.
And through all of it, finding joy in the becoming.
My hope is that you find something here that speaks to you. A thought that stays with you, an interest you want to follow, a conversation you needed or someone you’re glad you met.
Thank you for being part of the journey that brought me here. I hope you’ll join me in what comes next.
With love,
Zahra