Recipes for Broken Hearts:The Healing Power of Food

Traditional and contemporary Uzbek recipes that warm the heart, celebrating the healing powers of meaningful cooking and shared food.

An old legend claims that the staple Uzbek dish, palov, was invented by the tenth-century philosopher and physician Ibn Sina—also known as Avicenna—to mend the broken heart of a prince who could not marry his beloved, the daughter of a craftsman. Inspired by this story, the book explores the restorative power of cooking and food made with love, showing how a shared meal can transform feelings of helplessness into strong social bonds.

Celebrity chefs and prominent artists from diverse cultural and culinary traditions collaborate with Bukharan cooks and grandmothers to present seventy recipes that express love and care. Organized into categories and accompanied by poetic personal stories from their authors, the recipes are designed to be easily reproduced at home and enjoyed together with loved ones, nourishing both body and soul.

Created for the inaugural edition of the Bukhara Biennial, the book includes contributions from major contemporary artists such as Laila Gohar, Subodh Gupta, and Carsten Höller, as well as celebrated chefs including Elena Reygadas, Bahriddin Chustiy, and Pavel Georganov. | Gayane Umerova is the founder and commissioner of the Bukhara Biennial and chairperson of the Uzbekistan Art and Culture Development Foundation (ACDF). Diana Campbell is the Artistic Director of the Bukhara Biennial. Andrey Arakelyan is an Uzbek photographer specializing in food photography. Marie Wabbes is a Belgian author and illustrator of more than 200 books, with her work exhibited internationally.