OUR FAVOURITE THINGS

Elli and Mehdi tell us more about how they spend time in and around their London home

A perfect day at home involves lounging by the fireplace, reading the newspapers or Sunday lunch when the barbecue is on, the beer is chilling and you know that friends are coming over.

We spend the most time in our office or the kitchen.

Even when we’re not entertaining, we do a lot of cooking. We also tend to eat in the kitchen as a family. I cook Persian stews with saffron and lots of herbs, but Mehdi experiments with Japanese and Chinese dishes. Last week he cooked seafood pasta; it was so amazing, I felt like I was in Italy [Elli].

My favourite pieces are my 35mm cameras.

I’ve been collecting them forever and I use quite a lot of them. I like to think of them as little boxes that capture a person’s history, their dreams and good times. I just wish they could talk – they’d tell amazing stories [Mehdi].

Our favourite memory here is of Christmas 2014.

It was our first festive season in the house. Mehdi ordered a tree online and when it arrived it was huge. It took three guys to help us get it in the house. It was wonderful [Elli].

We shop at the Iranian Hormuz Grocery Store on Finchley Road,

which is a 15-minute drive away. Last Christmas we bought our meat from Hampstead Butcher & Providore (hampsteadbutcher.com), but mostly we tend to go to Notting Hill to shop. We lived there for so many years and the owners of the local shops know us – our favourite place is the Lisboa Patisserie on Golborne Road.

ED