My Iranian culture is my SUPERPOWER

During lockdown, my parents self-isolated in Watford, while I did the same with my husband, Andy, 38, and our daughter Millie, now four, in Market Harborough. No more big family meals at Mum’s on Saturday afternoons or weekends spent eating and laughing together at my new home.

Instead I’d FaceTime them, waiting impatiently for my mum, Ellie Otmishi, to answer. Video gatecrashing my parents’ dinners, calling when I knew they’d be eating. Mum would hold up her chunk of – crispy ‘bottom of the pan’ Persian rice – to the camera and laugh. ‘Mikhori?’ she’d say in Farsi, asking if I’d eat some. I’d groan with yearning for that delicious