Zubaida Tariq

Some Lesser Known Facts About Zubaida Tariq

• In 1948, Zubaida Tariq moved to Karachi, Pakistan with her family full of literates.

• At the time of their migration, Zubaida and her family had more than 50,000 books in their luggage.

• In 1953, Zubaida’s father passed away which made her and her 3 sisters take up the responsibility to make an earning and run their household.

• In 1954, she met her first cousin Tariq Hussain when he came to stay over at his auntie’s (dad’s sister) house. Tariq’s mother used to like Zubaida a lot. She expressed her feelings about making Zubaida her daughter-in-law which happened in 1966 when Zubaida was 21 years old.

• When she got married she didn’t know how to cook a single thing. She didn’t even know how to cook plain rice.

• Zubaida Tariq learnt cooking after her marriage and the first ever dish she made at her in-laws was curry which she later had to dump because she made it in a wrong way.

• She learnt all the cooking by herself. Zubaida Tariq started her career at the age of 50 when most people retired, she started gaining fame and she also succeeded.

• Her husband used to host parties at home where more than 100-200 people were invited and Zubaida used to cook for them.

• At one of her house parties, she was offered a job at a food advisory service named ‘Dalda Advisory’ by a guest who was impressed with her cooking skills.

• In 1996, the day her husband Tariq got retired from the British manufacturing company ‘Lever Brothers,’ she was appointed to the office; of the Dalda Advisory.

• The Tandoori recipe that Dalda Advisory had was for about 26.5 hours. Zubaida made it from 26.5 to half an hour which was a major achievement for her.

• She worked at Dalda Advisory for 1.5 years. She placed 5 Daal Masalay into 1 packet because, for just 1 Daal Masala, no one was going to spend Rs. 27.

• The packet of Daal Masala used to contain only one cup of masala in quantity. Zubaida made the packet bigger so that it can be used in more than one type of Daal. This idea was loved by the heads of the company as well as the consumers widely.

• Zubaida Tariq was able to make any kind of food by just tasting it once either a Pakistani, Continental, Chinese or any kind of dish.

• Zubaida Tariq was the first celebrity cook in Pakistan who appeared on numerous TV shows and she was also known for her totkas (lifehacks).

• In the 1990s, Zubaida Tariq became part of the Pakistani cookery show titled ‘Dalda Ka Dastarkhwan’ where she used to showcase her cooking skills with different dishes.

• In 2005, she wrote a cookery book titled ‘From Zubeida Tariq’s Kitchen by Zubaida Tariq.’

  

• In 2010, she released a book based on her lifehacks titled ‘Hansta Basta Ghar (Totkay Aur Tips).’

  

• In 2013, Zubaida Tariq published her cookery book titled ‘Handi By Zubaida Tariq.’

  

• In 2014, she started her own cooking show titled ‘Handi with Zubaida Tariq’ which was premiered on the Urdu food-based TV channel ‘Hum Masala’ (now known as ‘Masala TV’).

• Zubaida worked with and appeared on ARY Digital for 1.5 years.

• She did 120 programs with the Pakistani journalist Sajid Hussain, 120 morning programs with actress Nadia Hussain, and about 450 shows with actress Kiran.

• Zubaida also made an appearance on FM 107 with a show called ‘Aik Mukammal Ghar.’