Samin Nosrat

In March 2019, Nosrat announced a forthcoming second cookbook, again in collaboration with McNaughton, called What to Cook. Berkeley-based Ten Speed Press, part of Penguin Random House's Crown Publishing Group, will publish the collection of 120 recipes.

A Netflix docu-series based on the cookbook, also called Salt Fat Acid Heat, was released on October 11, 2018, with each of the four episodes based around one of the four elements of cooking set out in the title. In episode 1, Nosrat goes to Italy to talk about the use of fat in cooking; in episode 2, Japan for salt; in episode 3, Mexico for acid; and in episode 4, returns to the United States, cooking at Chez Panisse as well as with her own mother, to discuss heat. The show was described by The Washington Post as "unlike any other food show on TV."

Nosrat's 2017 cookbook Salt Fat Acid Heat, illustrated by Wendy McNaughton and including a foreword by Michael Pollan, was named "Food Book of the Year" by The Times of London and was a New York Times best seller. The cookbook also won the 2018 James Beard Award for Best General Cookbook, was named Cookbook of the Year by the International Association of Culinary Professionals, and won the 2018 IACP Julia Child First Book Award.

Nosrat became a regular "Eat" columnist for The New York Times Magazine in 2017.

She later worked with Michael Pollan, and was included in his book and the 2016 Netflix documentary television series Cooked as "the chef who taught Michael Pollan how to cook".

After leaving Chez Panisse, Nosrat worked in Italy and then other Berkeley-area restaurants. She started teaching private cooking classes in 2007, and soon felt that a television show would be a more efficient way of teaching; however it would be years before that would happen.

In 1997, Nosrat enrolled at the University of California, Berkeley, majoring in English. As a sophomore in 2000, she ate dinner at Chez Panisse and immediately decided to work there as a busser. Nosrat eventually worked her way up to the restaurant kitchen, becoming a cook and working with Alice Waters, who described her as "America's next great cooking teacher."

Samin Nosrat (Persian: ثمین نصرت ‎, /s ə ˈ m i n ˈ n ʌ s r ɑː t / , born November 7, 1979) is an American chef, TV host and food writer. She is a regular food columnist for The New York Times Magazine and has a Netflix docu-series based on her cookbook, Salt Fat Acid Heat.

Nosrat was born in San Diego, California, on November 7, 1979. Her parents emigrated from Iran to the United States in 1976. Her family are of the Baháʼí Faith. Nosrat grew up in University City, San Diego and attended La Jolla High School. She grew up eating mostly Iranian cuisine, and she did not learn to cook until she was an adult.