Cooking and Hospitality with El

Please join Elahe in her cooking and hospitality class at Honest Weight Food Co-op, a community she deeply values and considers an extension of family. The dishes prepared in her class are inspired by Iranian cuisine and adapted to be vegan, reflecting both cultural roots and inclusive dietary practices.

About your teacher:

Elahe Gol Pai (El) was born and raised in Iran, where she studied theatreand worked as a scriptwriter for Farsi-language broadcast, as well as producingtheatre for the stage. Before her immigration in 2013, she participated inseveral documentaries, including one on Iranian food history and therelationship between food, personality, and social movements. In this project,she worked as both writer and narrator in a documentary that was screened twiceon BBC, where she was noted for her distinctive and remarkable narration. Afterimmigrating, she expanded her creative practice into cross-culturalstorytelling as a multimedia documentarian.

She currently works from her studio in Schenectady, New York, focusing onher favorite subject: love story narratives for family archives andcommunities. Her work is rooted in honoring lived experience, culturalidentity, and intergenerational connection.

Elahe views the kitchen as a space of storytelling through collaboration,and she understands hospitality as an act of care, presence, and sharedhumanity.

The guest for the June class is Betsy Henry, an environmental scientist andvolunteer treasurer at ReTree Schenectady. Betsy also shares a meaningfulchildhood story from Iran.

Questions? Email Sarah Rosenthal, the Education and Engagement Specialist at [email protected]

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