Ashia Singer's zingers! 'COOKING MAKES EVERYTHING BETTER'

The talented mum has the recipe for life’s ups and downs – and they’re all delicious

- Catherine Milford

In March, Ashia IsmailSinger was all ready to launch her third cookbook, The Laden Table. The venue was secured, guests were invited and Ashia was putting the finishing touches on the dishes she wanted to serve. But a call from England changed everything.

“At 4.30am on Saturday, March 15, my twin sister, Anjum, called to say Dad had collapsed and it wasn’t looking good,” recalls Ashia, 53. “He’d been fasting because it was Ramadan, but he’d been feeling fine. He went out to do some shopping and put petrol in the car, got home, opened the gate and collapsed. He didn’t even make it to the door.”

A passer-by saw Hamid, 81, on the ground and alerted Ashia’s mum Zarina, 71, who called an ambulance. By the time it arrived, the whole family was present – sort of.

“I’m in New Zealand – Mum, Dad, Anjum and my youngest sister Nishat live in England, and my other sister Farah is in Abu Dhabi,” explains Ashia, whose husband Graham was away on a fishing trip at the time. “We went on FaceTime so we could all see what was going on.

“We watched the paramedics do CPR on him for half an hour, but Dad had already passed. It was so harrowing.”