Ballet, a kilo shells and double soofrito: cooking with Yasmine Naghdi in West London

Your selected dish – pasta all -outgols, but with linguine instead of the classic spaghetti – has a personal turn. “I think it keeps it much better at the flavors,” she explains when she inspects a kilo of mussels in the plot in salted water. “You see that the mussels also open. Shows that they are healthy mussels.”

The process is meticulously. Mussels are repeatedly soaked and flushed to free them from sand, parsley and garlic, and every step is infused with stories about family and inheritance. Yasmine’s husband from Milan taught her the recipe, but she represents a grin: “I dare to say that I am now the master to cook the dish better than him.”

A life in motion: breakfast, ballet and balance

As she cooks, the conversation turns to the daily requirements of a ballerina. Yasmines morning start early, always with an extensive breakfast – kefir with pomegranate, blueberries, kiwi and a medley made of seeds or homemade sourdough with eggs and avocado. “I never jump breakfast,” she says, reflecting on how important it is to fuel a body that is both your instrument and her living.

Her days are long and physically intense, starting with ballet lessons in the Royal Opera House and through the rehearsals until early evening. Nutrition is of the greatest importance, but also comfort and joy at the table. “I need the calories,” she laughs. “I always have an additional piece of bread, butter and cheese on the side of our dinner.”

The myth of the ballerina diet

Yasmine quickly scatters the clichés about dancers and food. “I met so many people and they are like that, so you only eat grapes? And I am how, no, I wouldn’t look like that if I just ate grapes.”

For them, Essen is about longevity, strength and pleasure. She often brings her own meals to the opera house and prefers homemade dishes for costs and control. “I really love to take care of my body. I pay great importance to my diet.”

Family, heritage and homemade rituals

Yasmine’s Culinary Life was born in London as the son of a Persian father and a Belgian mother and is just as international as her dance career. Her father is a talented Persian cook, her mother, who is alike in the kitchen, and her husband brings the Italian liaison circle. “We cook a lot together on weekends. I am more of the weekday chef. We cook a lot of healthy, high vegetables, high protein dishes.”

The dinner in the week are fast, but nutritious salmon fillets, shrimp, pan dishes loaded with vegetables and, if the time it allows, homemade pesto with basil from the windowsill. “My husband always judges me when I use a cozy pesto. Big time. You have to make it fresh.”

The secret for perfect noodles with mussels

Back at the stove, Yasmine reveals her secrets. The dish is fast, but it requires precision: two rounds Sofrito (a brat garlic, parsley and chilli), a spacious splash of extra virgin olive oil and decisively “This juice is golden” – the salt fluid from the mussels, which is carefully settled in order to remove the last grains of sand from sand.

The pasta is cooked al dente, then completed in the mussel juice, absorbs the aromas and turns into some creams without a drop of cream. “It is only the cooperation of the mussels and the strength of the pasta,” she says when the kitchen fills with the scent of garlic and sea.

A final pointer of fresh parsley, a grinding of black pepper and the dish is ready – simple, calming and absolutely transported.

A life above – and at the table

As Principal Ballerina, Yasmine reached the highlight of her profession, but the trip was anything but safe. She started ballet at six, trained in the White Lodge of the Royal Ballet School (referred to as “Hogwarts for Ballet”) and was the only girl in her year that joined the company. The demands are relentless, the competition is violent, but their passion is unhindered.

Now in her early thirties, Yasmine reflects the balance of career and self -care. She is free of injury and still dances at its peak. She attributes both discipline and a love of good food. “There is also a life after dance. So very important.”