We are delighted to see Claudia Roden’s A Book of Middle Eastern Food chosen by The New York Times as one of the 25 most influential cookbooks of the last 100 years. A Book of Middle Eastern Food was first published in 1968, and Claudia Roden has since been credited as having a founding role in introducing Middle Eastern food to Britain and the United States. We are overjoyed to see her monumental work recognised in this way.

The cookbook was chosen by the NYT by a panel of experts, who spent many hours narrowing down the cookbooks of the last century. In making their decision, they “priotized influence – how has a book affected the way we eat, cook, think, talk, photograph and write about food?”.

In explaining their decision to include A Book of Middle Eastern Food, Jessica Battilana writes in the NYT’s article:

“Half a century ago, as remains the case today, the act of writing about the Middle East was, in Claudia Roden’s words, “loaded with explosive emotion.” And yet, in her first cookbook — released in the US in 1972 — she highlighted the similarities among the region’s seemingly disparate cultures with recipes like lentil-and-onion mujadara and date-stuffed ma’amoul cookies. In the process, she also introduced many Westerners to the vibrant food of her youth. Born in Cairo, Roden resettled with her family in London in the 1950s, after they were expelled, along with all Jews, from Egypt. There, she began recording her recipes in an attempt to preserve her heritage. The book presents these dishes in an evocative, lyrical context; introducing her recipe for ta’amia (as falafel is known in Egypt), she recalls visiting relatives who used a rope to lower a basket to the cafe beneath their apartment, where it would be filled with a “haul of fresh ta’amia, sometimes nestling in the pouch of warm, newly baked Arab bread.” A revised and expanded version, now titled “The New Book of Middle Eastern Food,” was published in 1985, then updated again in 2000, inspiring ever more chefs, including the London restaurateur Yotam Ottolenghi, who counts Roden as a major influence. But at its core, the book remains a love letter from a homesick daughter to her place of birth.”

In excerpts from their discussions and conversations on which books to include, another panellist also referred to the book as “a monumental work of scholarship that paved the way for a larger understanding of Middle Eastern food. So often the way foods that aren’t from the West enter the West is through hole-in-the wall restaurants and this sort of cheap exoticism. Cookbooks offer something different — suddenly everyone can cook these dishes at home … it shifts them from the place of “other” to your own place.”

Read more about the panel’s choices here. Our congratulations to Claudia, whose work continues to be honoured for its pioneering excellence.