Long Beach chef showcases recipes of her native Azerbaijan in new cookbook

The Azerbaijan-born cookbook author moved to Long Beach after a year in Los Angeles to attend Cal State Long Beach’s MBA program.

She graduated and worked in the business world — first for a trading company, then for a translation firm. But in 2007, she traded her business suits for an apron, and never looked back.

She said she wanted to bring Azerbaijani cuisine to the U.S. In 2008, the mother of two started azcookbook.com, a blog devoted to Azerbaijani cooking, while also working on a cookbook manuscript.

At the time, her younger child was just an infant.

"The second baby and the book were born at the same time,” she said. "I was writing the book when he was taking a nap.”

Recreating her culture’s recipes was a labor of love for Buyuran, who is a self-taught chef. In Azerbaijan, she said, women live at home until they are married — and while they are at home, the home’s older generations do the cooking. It’s not until the women marry that the recipes get passed down.

Buyuran, whose husband is Turkish, lived out of the country. But she wanted to cook the kinds of foods she grew up eating in Baku.

"You come here and you really crave the homemade food,” she said.

So she called her mother and sister and asked them to help her learn the recipes. She also asked for recipes from her friends and relatives.

As a result, the recipes on her blog and in her cookbook, "Pomegranates & Saffron,” come from every region of the country.

"Some of the dishes, I had never tried in Azerbaijan,” she said.

Azerbaijan, located in the heart of the Caucasus, is bordered by Armenia, Georgia, Iran, Russia and Turkey, and the cuisine reflects its geographic location between Western Asia and Eastern Europe. It was part of the Soviet Union, and Russian influences are present — Azerbaijan has a take on borscht and a Russian-style potato dish called Capital Salad.

But the country, with its wide-ranging topography, is known for its abundance of vegetables and greens — a factor that influences "Pomegranates & Saffron,” which has many vegetable-forward recipes.

Buyuran published the book herself after being rejected by numerous cookbook publishers due to its narrow topic.

"It’s a learning curve,” she said. "You are running the show completely.”

While Buyuran wrote and photographed the book herself, she had to coordinate with a hired editor, designer and printer, she said.

"When you put so much heart and soul into it, you want to make sure it’s done correctly,” she said.

Her effort seems to have paid off. The first edition sold out completely, and her second edition — which was sponsored by the Embassy of the Republic of Azerbaijan — has recently won two awards for self-published authors: the Gourmand World Cookbook Award and Living Now Books for Better Living Award.

What’s more, her book is on the shelves in bookstores in Azerbaijan.

But Buyuran isn’t finished yet. She said she plans to write another cookbook — one that explores foods from Azerbaijan’s neighbors.

"I think the cuisines of those countries are absolutely amazing,” she said.