‘Iron Chef’ Judge Nilou Motamed’s Favorite Things

“I came to magazine editing quite circuitously—coming from a family of lawyers and engineers, I honestly didn’t realize that ‘magazine editor’ was a bonafide job,” Motamed says. “After deciding not to go to law school, I began my editorial career as an unpaid fact checker at a downtown New York City magazine, where my ‘office’ was in fact the storage closet.” 

Motamed met her husband, the journalist Peter Jon Lindberg, in 2000 on her first day at work at Travel + Leisure. 

“That’s where all my long-held passions came together: tasting new cuisines, traveling to far-flung destinations, and experiencing luxury hospitality,” she says. “Travel + Leisure helped me distill what would become the focus of my career in both magazines and television: championing diverse cultures and showing how food can bring us together.”

Fluent in four languages, Motamed brings a global perspective to her work, an approach that served her well when she served as a permanent judge on Netflix’s much-anticipated revival

of “Iron Chef,” which premiered in June 2022 to audiences in 190 countries. 

“Making ‘Iron Chef: Quest for an Iron Legend’ was the culinary equivalent of making an Avengers film,” says Motamed. “Assembling a dozen of the world’s preeminent chefs to cook their hearts out, all in the midst of a global pandemic—it really was a herculean achievement.” 

Motamed, 51, is one of the founding members of #CookForIran, an organization raising awareness of the human rights movement in Iran by celebrating the rich food culture and traditional hospitality of her homeland. 

“Anyone can participate: You can throw a dinner party or an informal gathering, try your hands at a classic Persian dish, and simply tag your creation with #CookForIran on social media,” she explains. “The idea is to shift the lens from politics and to celebrate Iran’s cultural contributions instead. We’ve found an amazing partner in the Center for Mind-Body Medicine, which has provided mental-health support and trauma relief training in places of conflict such as Syria and Ukraine. They’re now doing the same on the ground in Iran.”

Motamed recently spoke with Penta about her favorite things.

The best book I’ve read in the last year is… Crying in H Mart, by Michelle Zauner. It had me crying in the back of the Uber, on the airplane, in my hotel suite…just a beautiful and powerful memoir of loss and love, family and food.

The one trip I’ve taken that I would love to do again… I’ve always loved traveling through Southeast Asia—we spent our honeymoon in Bali and have returned to Thailand and Vietnam time and again. 

The next destination on my travel itinerary is… Staying put during the pandemic was definitely an exercise in patience for my husband and me. We met at a travel magazine and love being on the road together more than anything. Our first big post-pandemic trip was to Portugal, for the maiden voyage of Silversea’s Silver Dawn (I’m actually the godmother of the ship). We had so little time to explore between my official christening and hosting duties that we’re both dying to get back. The clams à bulhão pato at Cervejaria Ramiro in Lisbon are calling us back!

The one thing in my closet I can’t live without is… My collection of soft, luxurious, extremely cozy Italian cashmere hoodies. I tend to run cold, and hotel rooms, plane cabins, and airport lounges run even colder. I’ll bring at least two on any trip.

Something I do to relax is… You would think bringing your “work” home would feel like a busman’s holiday, but I’ve always found cooking the best form of relaxation. Especially when it’s for (and with) friends. The key for me is to make dishes that I know well, so I don’t have to bother following recipes or even measuring ingredients—that kind of cooking is all about intuition and muscle memory, and indulging your senses. Plus my husband is the king of playlists so there’s always a great soundtrack to keep everyone at our table late into the night.

The person I most admire is… My parents’ resilience and determination, as mid-life immigrants to the U.S., still astonishes me. Especially now that I’m closer to the age they were when they left Iran and settled in America. Whenever life feels overwhelming, I think of my mom and dad, and the sheer strength they had to summon to make a new life in a very foreign place. Their example is my true north.

A childhood memory I treasure is… Sending a bottle of wine back at the Hotel George V in Paris—at age 9. The sommelier had brought my parents a bottle of Chateau Margaux; my father pointed to me to taste, and I noticed that the bottle was corked. The straight-backed somm tasted to confirm—and I was right! Or at least he said I was.

My favorite neighborhood in the world is… Hanoi, Vietnam, has enchanted me since my first visit 20 years ago. There’s something magical and timeless about the neighborhood around Hoan Kiem, the tranquil lake in the center of the city. Social life here tends to happen in the early morning before the heat sets in, and if you stroll around the lake just after sunrise you see Hanoians of all ages gathering for their morning exercises: septuagenarian men practicing tai chi while their wives do calisthenics, kids playing badminton on the sidewalk, even couples ballroom dancing in the park.

The thing that gets me up in the morning is… Breakfast. Don’t even talk to me about having a smoothie to start the day. That’s not breakfast, that’s sustenance. Especially when I’m traveling, I cherish the ritual of a proper morning meal, and not just of the eggs-and-bacon variety. I’m an equal opportunity breakfast fanatic—congee, Vietnamese pho (best eaten at sunrise), shakshuka, breakfast tacos, Jamaican ackee-and-saltfish, Persian halim, Japanese onsen eggs. … There’s something about starting your day with a delicious dose of culture that I adore.

The one thing I travel with to make my hotel room feel more like home is… No matter where I am in the world—okay, maybe not on a silent retreat or a wildlife safari—nothing makes me feel more grounded and cosseted than music, so I always pack my Bang & Olufsen BeoSound speaker. The sound is full and velvety, the footprint is tiny, and the battery means you can take it anywhere; it definitely beats putting your iPhone into a wine goblet in hope of amplification.

My go-to drink is… I’ve been a tequila devotee for as long as I can remember—and once I tasted the sublime Joven tequila from Casa Dragones, there was no going back. It’s silky smooth and dangerously easy to sip, and seems to capture the magic and mystery of Mexico in a bottle.

The one thing in my kitchen I can’t live without… There are way too many salts in my kitchen. I will admit this. Ditto for olive oils, vinegars, and all manner of spices (La Boite and Diaspora Co. are my go-to spice brands). But if it came to punches, I’d fight for the beautifully flaky, clean-flavored, salmon-hued Murray River salt. It’s as perfect sprinkled on summer tomatoes as it is cooked into a fragrant Persian stew.

My favorite dish to cook is… I have a few reliable party tricks, some of which will remain private. But there’s one showstopper that we Iranian home cooks can always—or almost always—count on: tahdig, the sunset-orange, crispy-buttery crust that forms at the bottom of the rice pot. In Iran, a successful tahdig is the mark of a great cook, and the flourish with which the pot is flipped and the golden crust revealed is worthy of applause. There are plenty of Persian dishes that are more complicated to make, but for sheer drama and crowd appeal, tahdig always wins.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.