50 years ago Claudia Roden’s Book of Middle Eastern Food was a landmark cookery book that introduced western readers to the flavours of the Middle East.
Long before Ottolenghi she wrote evocative and scholarly accounts of ingredients and the countries whose cuisine they defined – Cumin and coriander ftom Egypt, sumac and tamarind from Syria and Lebanon, pomegranate syrup from Iran, harissa from North Africa.
She talks to Jonathan Green about 50 years of food writing, nostalgia and why publishers today wont publish cookbooks without pictures.
Listen to the Claudia Roden, food writer on the ABC Radio program BluePrint for Living.