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Meet Jessica and Navid Parsa of Houston, Texas


Today we’d like to introduce you to Jessica and Navid Parsa

Hi Jessica and Navid, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
Hi, we are Jessica and Navid, the dynamic duo behind The Parsa Kitchen. We are a Persian/American husband & wife team that enjoys sharing recipes that nourish your soul. Our passion is to invite people of all walks of life to come together in the kitchen and discover the joy of cooking. Navid grew up in Iran and Jessica grew up in Texas. This meant much about their upbringings were radically different, but one thing that they had in common was their love of food. Food is even the reason the two met. Jessica ran a food blog (Devoted Existence) where she posted healthy recipes. She had accidentally linked the Instagram page to her online dating profile and Navid fell in love at first sight…with her or the food, we’ll never know. Their first date was in January of 2020, right before the world shut down. They spent the entire year of quarantine together cooking breakfast, lunch and dinner every single day. The Parsa Kitchen is a place for recipes that nourish your soul – this comes from the Persian saying “Nooshé Jān,” which is similar to the phrase Bon Appétit, but directly translates to ‘May It Nourish Your Soul.’ We hope that each and every recipe we share leaves you feeling deeply nourished, both in body and in soul.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Smooth? No. Challenging? Yes. Fun? Absolutely! The biggest struggle along the way has been balancing full time jobs and our passion project, The Parsa Kitchen. Both Navid and I work in the oil and gas industry and love what we do in the corporate world, but our true life’s work is using our videography and photography skills to share nourishing recipes with world. There are many nights we are awake at 1am completing projects, weekday evenings are reserved for editing and most Saturdays we are filming in our little home kitchen that doubles as a production set. It’s hard work (sometimes much harder than our corporate jobs), but we can’t imagine NOT doing it.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
The Parsa Kitchen is home to recipes that nourish the soul. This includes healthy weeknight meals, delicious desserts and everything in between. We are known primarily for our Persian recipes. We are one of the few creators providing English instructions on how to make the authentic dishes from the ancient Persian cuisine. There are many people who come to our page and share their story of being an American married to a Persian. We offer insight into what a mixed background family can look like. Food is a pillar of the Persian culture, so being able to make some of the dishes can help in bonding new families together. We are most proud of our progress as videographers and photographers. Every single day we get better at our craft and remind ourselves – ‘progress over perfection.’

What’s next?
The Parsa Kitchen is a long-term passion project. As I mentioned before, we both have full time jobs. However, we aspire to leave the corporate world and take this on full-time. Besides cooking food, we also grow it. Navid and I teach weekly organic farm classes in our local community. We desire to pour more time and resources into the city of Houston to encourage greater community involvement and healthy lifestyles. This includes coordinating events to bring fellow creators together and partnering with more Houston communities to build local gardens similar to the one we run.

Social media is amazing and we appreciate it as a tool, but the real magic of community happens in real life.

Contact Info:

Image Credits
All photos are ours.

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