Urbane and witty, Farhad Assari looks and dresses like the last person to be cooking over a hot stove in cramped quarters. But as chef, owner and mastermind behind the very successful food trucks of Sauca, Assari labors daily on the streets of D.C. in one or another of his many mobile kitchens. Despite coming from a family that took food and cooking seriously, Assari’s professional culinary passion developed only recently. The native Iranian moved to the area as a child with his diplomat father and eventually ended up attending college in the United States, graduating with an MBA from Wharton. He then worked as an investment banker, heading up various offices in Latin America, Europe, Africa and the Middle East. “I’ve lived in six countries, three continents and traveled to 60 cities,” he says.
Assari still remembered how food-centric his early family life was. “All revolved around the kitchen,” he says. “It was our meeting place. My mom is known as an incredible cook … so I started to cook as a hobby.”
Inspired by the dynamism of street foods sampled during his travels, Assari decided that he would bring to the D.C. streets that same food character.
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“I [now] have looked at life in a different way,” he says. “I wanted to do something, to leave a legacy, to change the world, one day at a time. … I want to introduce people to each other through food. We are all the same.”
His goal: to sell his ideas of food as culture, life and happiness to the general, hungry public. “Eat the world,” he says, is his motto.
About a year ago he founded Sauca, one of 20 or so mobile food truck companies that have taken to D.C.’s streets. Problem is, worries Assari, the city’s outdated food vending regulations were meant to apply to ice cream trucks.
Food trucks by their very nature must remain stationary. Yet current laws mandate that drivers keep moving unless customers are lined up to purchase food. Worse yet, he says, some groups in the city are trying to significantly limit food truck activity.
“It really boils down to this,” he says. “We want the proposed regulations to stress public safety versus being anti-competitive in nature.”
Assari’s concerns only add to what is already an extensive workday. “I get up at 5:30 a.m. to go the central Sauca kitchen in Alexandria,” he says. “I make sure all the prep work is being done, and I do a quality-control check of the food ready for pickup.” By 10 a.m., all the trucks are packed up, including food, cooking utensils and cookware, and start to roll out for the day’s business. On the side, Assari’s company also caters and services events.
How do street foodies find his trucks? “I tweet once in the morning and twice in the afternoon. There’s also the iPhone and mobile versions. Without social media, we wouldn’t exist,” he says, adding that mobile trucks are so popular that the group has about 85,000 followers on Twitter. Not bad for a revolutionary way to enjoy food.
Q&A
What is your comfort food?
A cheeseburger. A good cheeseburger. Nothing beats it. I like mine very juicy with lots of condiments.
What is your cooking philosophy?
It has to please my audience with love. It has to be done with love, then the food turns out.
What do you do in your leisure time?
Cook.
How do you get your inspiration?
From all my traveling, all the amazing food from my travels, and street foods.
What’s in your fridge?
Pickles, prosciutto, feta, avocado, cilantro, water, white wine, fruits and vegetables.
Recipe
Mumbai Butter Chicken Sauca
Serves 4
4 Tbsps extra virgin olive oil
? tsp tomato paste
1 cinnamon stick
4 cardamom pods
? tsp ground cumin
1 bay leaf
2 tsps minced ginger
1 Thai chili pepper
? pound tomatoes, peeled and quartered
1/8 tsp chili powder
1/8 tsp garam masala
? tsp ground fennel seed
4 chicken breast halves, boned and cut into 1-inch cubes
2 Tbsps heavy cream
1 Tbsp lime juice
1 tsp honey
2 Tbsps chopped fresh cilantro
4 pieces flat bread
To serve: cooked saffron or plain rice, 4 tablespoons chopped roasted cashews, and snippets of fresh cilantro
Heat a large pot over medium heat and add 2 tablespoons olive oil; increase the heat to high, and saute the tomato paste, cinnamon stick, cumin, cardamom pods, bay leaf, Thai chili, and ginger for 3 minutes. Remove from the pot, and deglaze the pot with ? cup water.
Remove the cinnamon stick and bay leaf, and puree the sauce in a blender. Put the sauce back in the pot, and add the tomatoes, chili powder, garam masala, and ground fennel seed; reduce the heat to medium-low and cook, covered, for 30 minutes, or until the tomatoes are very soft.
Meanwhile, heat the remaining olive oil in a second pan over medium heat. Saute the chicken until all sides are seared. Add the sauce, and reduce the heat to medium-low. Add the cream, lime juice, butter, and honey. Cook for 5 minutes, and stir in the cilantro.
To serve, top each piece of flat bread with 3 tablespoons rice, spoon on some chicken mixture, and garnish with the cashew and cilantro.
