Quick questions with Discovery's marketing guru Zeenat Moorad

Favourite perfume? Frédéric Malle’s Dawn. It draws inspiration from the daily rise to prayer and spiritual daybreak in the Middle East, with base notes of oakmoss, Turkish rose oil and oud.

The building everyone should visit before they die? The Alhambra in Spain.

Essential tech? My Apple Watch. I just have a natural affinity to move more and prioritise exercise when I’m wearing it.

Coffee or tea? Coffee — which is usually free because I’ve met my weekly Vitality Active Rewards goals, thanks to my Apple Watch.

What is your all-time favourite place to eat out? Thali in Cape Town. My picks are the sweetcorn bhaji with curry-leaf aoli, tandoori cauliflower, and seafood curry. And because it would be foolish not to: garlic naan, ordered twice. In Joburg, I love Coalition. There are few things as sacrosanct as a margherita pizza.

What inspires you? The concept of shared value.

The one item of clothing you bought, instantly loved and still have in your wardrobe years later? A leather biker jacket, bought from APC on a mad dash to Charles de Gaulle. It’s buttery soft and after all this time, by some strange alchemy, smells like nostalgia and anticipation.

Listening to? A rotation of my favourite podcasts: Financial Times’ Start-Up Stories, 99% Invisible, The Creative Review, and Bon Appétit Foodcast.

Your dream purchase? Every last piece in the Al Thani Collection. It’s an exceptional encyclopaedic holding of antiquities, jewels, paintings, manuscripts, and ancient works of art.

The visual artist you’ve got your eye on? Peter Bellerby of Bellerby & Co Globemakers. He is reviving the fading craft of custom cartography.

Favourite city in the world? New York. I was there in 2015 on a finance fellowship at Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism. Everything they say about it is true: it’s a strange place that feels like home, it has a sound and smell like nowhere else, and no matter how many times you visit, you never have enough time to do everything.

Essential beauty potions? Vintner’s Daughter active botanical serum and Joanna Vargas sheet masks.

Reading? On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong.

Which book, album, and luxury item would you take to a desert island? Pachinko by Min Jin Lee, Michael Jackson’s Number Ones and a Franklin Mint Collector’s Edition Scrabble.

What series have you been bingeing on recently? Pasta Grannies on YouTube. Over 200 nonnas making every shape and style of handmade pasta you could dream of. It’s an allegory of culinary heirloom and the comfort and solace of the elderly.

What’s next on your list of must-have items? A subscription to The Atlantic, for its sublime journalism.

First thing you add to your grocery cart? Ayrshire double cream, capers, and chocolate. The trifecta with the power of elevation.

A great gift you were given recently? Pyjamas by Olivia von Halle.

A place, event, person or attraction that’s recently caught your attention? The legacy of social entrepreneur Leila Janah. Her company Samasource provides AI-driven tech to Fortune 100 companies with data specialists mostly located in East Africa and India. She was passionate about alleviating poverty through the dignity of work in impoverished areas. She died aged 37 in January.

The one indulgence you would never forgo? Time alone

• From the April issue of Wanted 2020.