Renowned chef Zubaida Tariq passes away in Karachi

KARACHI: Renowned chef Zubaida Tariq, popularly known as Zubaida Aapa, passed away on Friday night after a protracted illness, her brother Anwar Maqsood confirmed. She was 72.

Family members said she was taken to a hospital last night after her condition suddenly deteriorated.

Sources said she was suffering from Parkinson’s disease.

According to Zubaida Aapa’s family, her funeral prayers will be offered at Sultan Mosque, Defence, Karachi, after Jumma prayers.

Zubaida Tariq achieved fame doing culinary shows on television and writing cookbooks.

Her regular culinary advice segments on various TV channels were so popular that ‘Zubaida Aapa’ became a household name across Pakistan. She lovingly came to be known as Zubaida Aapa.

Of late, Zubaida was working with Masala TV and her cooking programme ‘Handi’ had been the most watched cooking show of Pakistan. She covered more than 1000 episodes for the show.

Zubaida Aapa had millions of followers and lovers across the globe.

Before that, Zubaida worked on ARY Digital for one and a half years, and then she did 120 programs with Sajid Hussain, 120-morning programs with Nadia, and about 450 shows with Kiran. Then Zubaida came on FM 107 with a show called Aik Mukammal Ghar which was first hosted by Azra Manzoor. In the meantime, she did 200 shows of another program called Kitchen Magic, and then she did another show on Geo TV by the title of Aaj Ke Bhao.

Zubaida Tariq was born on 4 April 1945 in Hyderabad Deccan, India. Her family migrated to Pakistan in 1947. They settled in Karachi, PIB Colony, where she lived with her five older sisters and four brothers.

Zubaida got married at the age of 21 to her first cousin, Tariq Maqsood, in 1966.The couple had a daughter Shaha Tariq and son Hussain Tariq.