“Rose petals are my signature,” declares Najmieh Batmanglij as she instructs a young aide to garnish a tray of baklava with bits of dried flowers and ground pistachio nuts.
Batmanglij, the Julia Child of Persian cooking, is spending a rainy Easter Sunday in her capacious Georgetown kitchen teaching a dozen Americans the secrets of a cuisine that goes back 4,000 years and is one of the few things that binds Iranians inside and outside their native land.
