Samin Nosrat (Persian: ثمین نصرت, /səˈmin ˈnʌsrɑːt/,[1] born November 7, 1979) is an Iranian-American chef, TV host, food writer and podcaster.
[2][3] She is the author of the James Beard Award–winning, New York Times Bestselling cookbook Salt Fat Acid Heat and host of a Netflix docu-series of the same name.
[10][11][12] When Nosrat was 1 1/2 years old, her older sister Samar passed away at age 3 due to a terminal brain cancer.
[13] She grew up eating mostly Iranian cuisine, and though she did not learn to cook until she was an adult, she has said that food was an important part of her childhood.
[9] In 2000, as a sophomore in college, Nosrat ate dinner at Chez Panisse and immediately applied to work there as a busser.
[18] Nosrat's 2017 cookbook Salt Fat Acid Heat, illustrated by Wendy MacNaughton and including a foreword by Michael Pollan, explains the fundamental principles of good cooking which she defines by the four pillars named in the title.
Instead of focusing on recipes alone, each pillar has its own chapter where Nosrat teaches readers through stories and wisdom gained from her years as a professional chef and cooking teacher.
[16] The intention is that readers can improve their every day cooking with a fundamental understanding of food, improvising instead of needing to follow recipes.
[36] In 2021, Nosrat made a guest appearance on Michelle Obama's children's cooking show called Waffles + Mochi on Netflix.