To listen to more of Claudia Roden’s stories, go to the playlist: • Claudia Roden (Food writer)
Claudia Roden (b. 1936) is an Egyptian-born British cookbook writer and cultural anthropologist of Sephardi/Mizrahi descent. She is best known as the author of Middle Eastern cookbooks including "A Book of Middle Eastern Food", "The New Book of Middle Eastern Food" and "The Book of Jewish Food". In this unique interview for Web of Stories, Claudia Roden is talking to her granddaughter Nelly Wolman about her life in food. [Listener: Nelly Wolman; date recorded: 2022]
TRANSCRIPT: Because I tasted different recipes that I hadn't had before. But also, over the years I tasted many, many more Mediterranean dishes. The ones that I had in the first book, I had gathered more. And sometimes they were a new version from a different town or somebody else gave me a recipe. So, I had other versions. And I had collected a lot more that was there. It was there already. And I use my memories, I didn't feel I had to do exactly what I was told. I will do what my memory tells me. And I was going to remember. And so, the whole process of the book, first of all it happened at just before December. My agent, Lizzie Cremer said, 'Claudia, please give me the book. Give me something. Give me a synopsis, give me an introduction. Give me a list of recipes, and we'll find it'. I said, 'I'm not ready'. 'Yes, you are'. Because she came too... she was one of the people eating my food, coming for lunches. 'You are ready, you've got too many recipes'. In fact, I have more than twice too many recipes for a book. And so, she just said, 'Give it to me'. I gave it to her. She had an auction, and I chose the publisher that I had for the best looking book. The best photographer. And had the kind of authors and cookbook writers, mainly chefs that I really, really admired. Including Yotam and Sam Clark and others. And I thought, yes.
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