RODEN, Claudia

PERSONAL: Born in Cairo, Egypt; married; children: three.

ADDRESSES: Home—London, England. Agent—c/o Author Mail, Steerforth Press, 25 Lebanon St., Hanover, NH 03755.

CAREER: Cookbook writer. British Broadcasting Corporation, London, host of television cooking series.

AWARDS, HONORS: Glenfiddich Trophy, 1992; James Beard Award, André Simon Memorial Fund Food Book, both 1997, Jewish Quarterly/Wingate Book Prize for Non-Fiction, Glenfiddich Food Book of the Year, both 1998, all for The Book of Jewish Food: An Odyssey from Samarkand to New York.

WRITINGS:

A Book of Middle Eastern Food, illustrated by Edward Bawden, Nelson (London, England), 1968, illustrated by Alta Anne Parkins, Knopf (New York, NY), 1972.

Coffee, Faber (London, England), 1977, published as Coffee: A Connoisseur's Companion, Random House (New York, NY), 1994.

Everything Tastes Better Outdoors, illustrated by Alta Anne Parkins, Knopf (New York, NY), 1984, revised edition, Wings Books (Avenel, NJ), 1995.

The New Book of Middle Eastern Food, Viking (New York, NY), 1985, revised edition, Knopf (New York, NY), 2000.

Mediterranean Cookery, Knopf (New York, NY), 1987.

The Good Food of Italy, Region by Region, Knopf (New York, NY), 1990, published as Claudia Roden's The Food of Italy, Region by Region, Steerforth Press (Hanover, NH), 2003.

The Book of Jewish Food: An Odyssey from Samarkand to New York, Knopf (New York, NY), 1996.

Invitation to Mediterranean Cooking, Rizzoli (New York, NY), 1997.

Tamarind & Saffron: Favourite Recipes from the Middle East, Viking (London, England), 1999.

Foolproof Mediterranean Cookery, BBC (London, England), 2003.

SIDELIGHTS: Claudia Roden was born and raised in Egypt, and while she later took up residence in London, it was her knowledge of her native region that won her fame. She began her career as a cookbook author in 1968, when she published A Book of Middle Eastern Food. At the time, Middle Eastern food was largely unknown to the Western world. Roden's book presented hundreds of recipes, thoroughly detailed with notes on their origins and their variations, and other personal reflections. Recommended by numerous reviewers over the years as a seminal resource, the book was eventually revised and enlarged. Discussing the updated edition in Listener, Derek Cooper called it as "beautifully written and as aromatically tempting as a walk through the spice stalls of an Arab souk." Roden's tales of her life in the Middle East and memories of her childhood food eventually served as the basis of a British Broadcasting Corporation series as well as numerous books.

In 1977 Roden explored one of the world's favorite beverages with her book Coffee. Victoria Glendinning, writing for the Times Literary Supplement, praised the fifty pages of historical details, from the "gamier and muskier" coffee of the first coffee-house in Oxford, England, in 1650, to Roden's remarks about modern instant coffee, where "the poorer blends find oblivion." A Publishers Weekly reviewer found Coffee "a treat for the real coffee lover," with a wealth of coffee lore and recipes for foods that accompany it well.

Everything Tastes Better Outdoors, first published in 1984, was significantly revised more than a decade later, after Roden studied outdoor cooking traditions in the United States. Commending the first edition in the Washington Post Book World, Charles Monaghan noted its "daffy and garrulous air" and sentimentality, which he felt was a far cry from American cookbooks which are simply stuffed with recipes. Describing the new edition in the Christian Science Monitor, Phyllis Hanes advised that within its pages, "Iranian omelets, Japanese lunch boxes, and English tea on the lawn are described along with beanhole baked beans, hush puppies, New England clambakes, and barbecue recipes from Texas and India." In 1987, Roden gathered the many recipes featured in her television program in Mediterranean Cookery. A Christian Science Monitor reviewer noted that the cookbook delves beyond the typical recipes associated with the Mediterranean region to include classic dishes such as meat and stews and calzones. The author's 1990 publication, The Good Food of Italy, Region by Region, is a romantic volume that harks back to the days when life was simpler and people more likely to prepare pasta from scratch. Charles Monaghan, discussing the volume in Book World, commended the wealth of information about the dishes and the easy-to-prepare recipes. Angela Carter, writing for New Statesman and Society, called the volume "visually voluptuous" and appreciated the Italian atmosphere infused in the book.

Roden took an entirely new look at the subject of her first book in The New Book of Middle Eastern Food, published in 1985 and revised in 2000. With more than 800 recipes, interspersed with folk tales, personal anecdotes, and many cooking tips, Roden is "thorough while never sacrificing her personal tone," mused a Publishers Weekly reviewer, who concluded that The New Book of Middle Eastern Food is an "impressive work" worthy of its predecessor.

The Book of Jewish Food: An Odyssey from Samarkand to New York, published in 1996, is like most of the author's books, more than a simple cookbook. It is a chronicle of Jewish life, with short segments that illustrate widely varied Jewish communities both past and present; from the Sephardis who take much of their traditions from Spain and Portugal to the Ashkenzi, the northern European Jews. Booklist critic Mark Knoblauch felt that this is a definitive book of Jewish cooking throughout history, calling it a "masterful historical, sociological, religious, and culinary compendium of Jewish eating habits." The Book of Jewish Food is more than simply a "mouth-watering and absorbing" collection of Jewish cuisine, stated Claire Rayner in New Statesman. "I can't remember when I last enjoyed reading a book more," Rayner declared.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

periodicals

Bon Appetit, January, 1998, Norman Kolpas, review of The Book of Jewish Food, p. 40.

Booklist, February 15, 1973, p. 544; May 15, 1984, p. 1284; October 15, 1987, p. 354; November 15, 1990, p. 589; December 15, 1996, Mark Knoblauch, review of The Book of Jewish Food: An Odyssey from Samarkand to New York, p. 702; November 15, 2000, Mark Knoblauch, review of The New Book of Middle Eastern Food, p. 594; July, 2001, Barbara Bibel, review of The New Book of Middle Eastern Food, p. 2034.

Books, July, 1987, p. 12; June 1989, pp. 8-9.

Books and Bookmen, January, 1969, p. 52.

Books of the Times, August, 1980, p. 383.

Changing Times, November, 1982, p. 65.

Christian Science Monitor, October 31, 1984, p. 24; December 11, 1987, p. 24.; December 30, 1997, Yvonne Zipp, review of Invitation to Mediterranean Cooking, p. 15.

Daily Telegraph (London, England), April 26, 2003, Catriona Howatson, review of Foolproof Mediterranean Cookery.

Kirkus Reviews, July 1, 1972, p. 784; April 15, 1984, p. 416; September 15, 1987, p. 1385; September 15, 1990, p. 1319; January 15, 1992, p. 108.

Library Journal, August, 1972, p. 2600; May 15, 1984, p. 982; October 15, 1990, p. 100; December, 1996, Judith C. Sutton, review of The Book of Jewish Food: An Odyssey from Samarkand to New York, p. 135; November 15, 1997, Judith C. Sutton, review of Invitation to Mediterranean Cooking, p. 72; October 15, 2000, Judith Sutton, review of The New Book of Middle Eastern Food, p. 94; August, 2003, Judith Sutton, review of Foolproof Mediterranean Cookery, p. 123.

Listener, December 12, 1985, p. 16; December 11, 1986, p. 16; December 6, 1990, p. 36.

Ms., February 1980, pp. 54-55.

Nation's Restaurant News, Michael Schrader, review of The Book of Jewish Food: An Odyssey from Samarkand to New York, p. 55.

New Statesman, August 29, 1997, Claire Rayner, review of The Book of Jewish Food, p. 46.

New Statesman and Society, November 24, 1989, pp. 32-33.

New York Times Book Review, December 3, 1972, p. 96; December 6, 1987, p. 38.

Observer (London, England), November 29, 1981, p. 27; November 30, 1986, p. 21.

Publishers Weekly, December 26, 1977, p. 63; April 20, 1984, p. 76; September 18, 1987, p. 173; September 21, 1990, p. 71; January 4, 1991, p. 37; October 25, 1991, p. 60; November 4, 1996, p. 73; September 18, 2000, review of The New Book of Middle Eastern Food, p. 106.

Punch, July, 1987, p. 69.

Saturday Review, December 2, 1972, p. 82.

Spectator, December 20-27, 1986, pp. 56-57; December 1, 1990, p. 48.

Times Literary Supplement, December 2, 1977, p. 1404.

Wall Street Journal, January 28, 1997, Raymond Sokolov, review of The Book of Jewish Food, p. A16; December 1, 2000, Raymond Sokolov, review of The New Book of Middle Eastern Food, p. W14.

Washington Post Book World, July 8, 1973, p. 8; July 29, 1984, p. 3; December 2, 1990, p. 14; December 6, 2000, Judith Weinraub, review of Flavors of the Middle East, p. F4.*