Claudia Roden: A New Book of Middle Eastern Food

In 1968, Claudia Roden wrote her Book of Middle Eastern Food for readers who had never eaten an aubergine, let alone cooked one. Today, Middle Eastern foods are enjoying amazing popularity, largely thanks to her books.

Since the publication of her classic bestseller, Claudia Roden has continued to collect recipes and culinary wisdom from the Middle East, as a result of talking and writing to many people, tasting their food and watching them cook. The New Book of Middle Eastern Food is Claudia Roden's ultimate collection of recipes from the subtle, spicy, varied cuisines of the Middle East, ranging from inexpensive but tasty peasant fare to elaborate banquet dishes.

As well as writing cookbooks and presenting cooking shows on the BBC, Claudia Roden is also a cultural anthropologist based in the United Kingdom. Born and brought up in Cairo, she finished her education in Paris before moving to London to study art. With the publication of her bestselling classic, A Book of Middle Eastern Food in 1968, Claudia Roden revolutionized Western attitudes to the cuisines of the Middle East. Since then she has published nine other books, including the award winning classic, The Book of Jewish Food, and has won no fewer than six Glenfiddich awards for her writing. 

"Claudia Roden is no more a simple cookbook writer than Marcel Proust was a biscuit baker. She is, rather, memorialist, historian, ethnographer, anthropologist, essayist, poet ..." (Simon Schama)

"Every one of Claudia's books introduced us to a delicious new world' Sam and Sam Clarke 'Roden's great gift is to conjure up not just a cuisine but the culture from which it springs" (Nigella Lawson)

"Claudia Roden's writing has the fascination of her conversation. Her books are treasure-houses of information and mines of literary pleasures" (Observer)