A moving love letter to food as a means of self-discovery and belonging, The Rice is on the Hob is the result of an ongoing collaboration between Tami Aftab and her father, Tony Aftab. The book was photographed by Tami in Pakistan earlier this year as the father-daughter duo traveled across Lahore to marketplaces, food stalls, and places significant to the family’s past.

Tony lives with short-term memory loss, which occurred as a result of an accident during an operation for his brain condition, hydrocephalus, almost 30 years ago. But despite Tony’s short-term memory loss affecting his day-to-day life, he has always retained the memory of dishes from his childhood. 

The father-daughter pair have long dreamed of co-authoring a photobook-meets-cookbook, in which Tami’s photographs would sit alongside Tony’s recipes. Growing up in London, Tami found that one of the greatest connections she had to her Pakistani heritage was through food. Landing in Pakistan with Tony to shoot their series was at first disorientating and even overwhelming at times, to be in a space that is so unknown and yet so familiar. “But then I taste the food,” she says with a smile, “and that feels like home to me.” 

Tami Aftab’s The Rice is on The Hob has been made with support from WePresent, and is available to buy here. £5 from each book sale is donated to Muslim hands, to rebuild homes destroyed from the 2022 Pakistan floods.