Meet the Couple Behind London’s Hottest Iraqi-Iranian Fusion Supper Club: Logma

“Our main thing is fighting about who did it first: is it Iraqi? Is it Iranian?” Ziad Halub tells me. “It’s usually Iranian,” his partner Farsin Rabiee chimes in, “but he doesn’t want to admit it.” They both laugh. “When we first met, all we spoke about was food and recipes and cooking,” says Ziad. “And, more than that, we ended up seeing what similarities we have.”

As a result of these shared passions and playful flights, the couple co-founded Logma, a new distinctive supper club amongst London’s burgeoning food scene. Taking place once every two to three months at E5 Bakehouse in East London, it sees Ziad and Farsin work with friends and family to serve up to 60 guests. So far, the events have sold out thanks to word of mouth marketing and social media images gorgeously illustrating steaming trays of their delicious food.

In case you didn’t know, supper clubs in London are very much trending, with publications from the New York Times to the Financial Times, as well as Service95, covering the myriad ways in which the city’s youth are tackling a loneliness epidemic, a dating-app drain and a struggling post-pandemic nightlife through food. What sets Logma apart, however, is its mission to bring together the rich flavors of traditional Iraqi and Iranian cuisine on one table, delivered in a modern way – one glance at Logma’s Instagram reveals chic table settings full of sharing dishes and glasses of cloudy natural wine. The pair’s mission is no easy task, when you consider that both cuisines are still unfamiliar to many London diners. “That’s the first thing people say when they meet us,” says Ziad: “‘Iran, Iraq. My God, the war.’”

Though Iraq and Iran share sabzi, pomegranates, artistic styles, a Shia Islamic tradition, a border – even the word ‘Logma’ means ‘bite’ or ‘morsel’ in both Arabic and Persian – historically, the countries have tension. When Saddam Hussein invaded Iran in 1980, the effects lingered for decades, shaping the lives of people in the throes of a “war that was such a huge part of our childhood,” says Farsin. “Any Iranian or Iraqi kid that was born in the ’80s, that’s all you heard about: the war; and everyone who died in the war. It’s a huge part of our modern history.”

Farsin was born in Colorado and raised in Sweden, where he was deeply influenced by Stockholm’s Iranian immigrant community. His work for a major Persian-language TV network gave him direct access to this culture. “For us,” Ziad adds, reflecting on his own experience, “we only knew Iraq through the TV – and through our parents screaming at it,” referencing both the Iran-Iraq war and the 2003 US-led invasion.

Born in London to an exiled Iraqi family, Ziad grew up with a strong sense of Iraqi identity. After visiting Iraq for the first time in 2016, he began spending several months a year there, though returning can be emotionally challenging. “Iraq is home, but it also breaks my heart because of all the environmental disasters,” he says. It’s why food became a way to navigate both of their complex relationships with home – preserving their cultural identity while adapting the culinary heritage to forge new forms of belonging.

Last year, the couple came up with the idea for Logma after a growing frustration with how Middle Eastern food was being misrepresented and commercialised in London, or perceived by many to be limited to Levantine cuisine such as hummus, falafel and tabbouleh. “The Middle East is not just Arab, it’s super multicultural,” says Farsin, referencing Kurds, Turks, Iranians, Armenians and countless other non-Arab minorities of the MENA. Ziad adds that part of their reason for launching the supper club was to satisfy his attempt to source “a good Iraqi kebab or dolma in East London”, and in an effort to show “the richness and the vastness of the diversity of the region”.

They launched the first Logma on 26 September 2024, with guests mainly consisting of friends and family, and quickly sold out again for their second supper club celebrating Yalda, the start of winter solstice. The duo always make sure to cook with seasonal ingredients, in keeping with East London’s foodies and eateries, which are known for embracing – and popularising – a return to seasonal and locally-sourced produce.

The menu is inspired by global flavours but stays rooted in Persian and Iraqi techniques. “Ziad elevates a lot of dishes,” says Farsin, such as the Asian-inspired citrus salad with Iraqi-Iranian ingredients like Persian dried lime. Ziad, who enjoys cooking a lighter, fresher take on Iraqi food compared with traditionally heavy, oily dishes, also served a reimagined dip that blended elements of muhammara and kashk-e bademjan (an Iranian eggplant dip) into an entirely new dish resembling a blend of the two, served with hot, fluffy bread. Alongside these fresh takes on classic cuisine, Farsin makes sure to cook the Iraqi-Iranian baghali polo rice traditionally – perhaps as it should be. “I love some of the techniques that Iranians have,” says Ziad. “The rice is objectively better – Persians know how to make it really well.”

Through Logma, the duo have introduced Londoners to a cuisine that’s largely unknown to many, while simultaneously deepening their relationship. “We’ve definitely influenced each other,” says Farsin. “Iran is vast, but the food is similar to Iraqi food – like the food from Ziad’s region Basra and the Gulf of Iran,” he explains. Similar meats and ingredients are often used here because of the shared ecology, as well as similar techniques, such as slow-cooking and boiling rice in broth. “But there are differences, too,” says Farsin – and that’s where the magic happens.

The same can be said for their relationship: Ziad tends to be more innovative, whereas Farsin considers himself more of a traditionalist with food, something – he says – that can cause arguments – but these interactions always bring them closer together. Having this support, along with that of the communities they are a part of in London, has been pivotal for the couple as Middle Eastern cultures are generally more private and conservative. “You still face a lot of prejudice,” says Farsin. “Even in the diaspora, it’s an issue – and people don’t fully understand.”

As Ziad adds, there can be a colonial view of queerness in the West that many SWANA (Southwest Asian and North African) individuals struggle subscribing to, reinforcing the idea that there is only one way to be queer. “Actually, from speaking to the community and spending some time there, especially in places like Cairo and Baghdad, shows you that life goes on and that people are queer in their own way,” he says, while making sure not to undermine the circumstances many face. While it’s true that being gay in a country such as Iraq or Iran can be fatal, the queer community is still managing to find its voice and express itself. “Being queer always finds a way to survive,” says Farsin. “Queer people exist within whatever framework, however limited, that is in the Middle East.”

For the couple, it’s clear that food is a channel for understanding their homelands, even when finding a sense of belonging is not always straightforward. Diffusing tensions is easiest when mouths are full of flatbreads and soft, salty cheeses. Ziad and Farsin are passionate supporters of chefs they aspire to, like the team behind the popular Persian restaurant Berenjak or Iraqi-British chef Philip Juma of Juma Kitchen. But it’s through Logma that they invite those less familiar with Iraq and Iran to celebrate the rich culinary heritage of these cultures, one dish at a time.

Guests leave not only with a deeper appreciation for the diversity of SWANA cuisine but also with a broader understanding of the region itself. The experience helps to challenge assumptions of its homogeneity, offering insights into the complex histories of Iraq and Iran – two countries often misrepresented in today’s headlines – through the organic mingling between SWANA people and London’s local communities.

For their next supper club in March, Farsin and Ziad are celebrating Nowruz – the Persian new year which tends to coincide with the spring equinox. They’ll once again bring together seasonal ingredients on a beautifully laid table, blending traditional dishes with innovative methods, this time at a new location in East London (still to be confirmed) – and they invite us to enjoy the delicious harmony of when two become one.