Parwana is our story

“Long before leaving Afghanistan and migrating to Australia as a family in 1987, and long before opening the doors to Parwana in 2009 – history, knowledge, ingredients, rituals, moments and migrations were melding together to crystallise Parwana into being. ”

“At the centre of the ancient Silk Roads, Afghanistan witnessed the ebb and flow of the exchanges that underpin the human story. The cuisine shared at Parwana is infused with this story of inextricable interconnections – merging together a bricolage of ingredients, flavours and rituals to offer a culinary experience that is as old and familiar as it is new and unique. 

These ways were passed down ancestral chains to Farida Ayubi, the chef of Parwana and family matriarch. Surrounded by elders who encouraged her intrinsic love for cooking, as a child, she watched and absorbed these ways of old, forging a keen instinct for the art of the cuisine. ”

“By the time our family migrated to Australia, this knowledge took on another dimension of significance. Displaced and no longer connected to ancestral lands, our traditional cuisine became a tether to the memories that shaped us, while also serving as a bridge to our aspirations for the future. ”

“Parwana is an ode to our past, buoyed by the hopes for our tomorrow.
It reconciles loss with renewal, and pain with joy.”

“The word ’parwana’ in our traditional language, Dari, means butterfly. In this way, the name Parwana aptly foresaw the metamorphosis required of us to honour the process of creativity and transformation that underpins human cultural expression. 

In the same spirit encoded in the ways which underpin Afghan cuisine, we believe in the connected universality of the human experience. In this way, we aspire towards a recognition that Parwana encapsulates not just our story, but that of us all. 

We look forward to greeting you.”