Two Palestinian Cookbooks
Two books have found their way into my cookbook world over the last couple of weeks and I’ve not been able to stop thinking of them. Books written about home, home cooking and regional and seasonal food in their homelands really speak to me personally. Cookbooks are more than just recipes, they are an autobiography, a family history, and a record of the author's very being, ready to be passed on to their family. As the atrocities in Palestine continue, it is no wonder that Palestinian chefs and food writers want to document and share the story of their homeland’s food and food culture, to show the world Palestine in full living colour. These two books capture life in Palestine.
Bethlehem: A Celebration of Palestinian Food by Fadi Kattan
I’ll admit that I had not heard of this book until it was announced as the winner of a Guild of Food Writers Awards, in the International or Regional Cookbook category. Fadi Kattan wrote this book before the war started as a way to preserve and celebrate Bethlehem, where he calls home, and has owned restaurants, as well as in London.
He focuses on local produce and gives emotive profiles of farmers, artisans and producers in the region. Many who are now out of work or struggling. In this interview with him in the Guardian last year, he talks about how the markets of Bethlehem have changed since the war started. Also, Nigella had this book in her Cookbook Corner and wrote much better than I could on why talking about Palestinian food is important.
Boustany: A Celebration of Food From My Palestine by Sami Tamimi
I find that often cookbooks featuring Middle Eastern food will include the word ‘my’ somewhere in the title, a subtle hint to the reader that this is their lived experience and they understand how contentious recipes from this region can be. We can all acknowledge that most of the dishes from the ‘Middle East’ (whatever that means, conversation for another time) existed before political borders and before it was labeled as the ‘Middle East’. I digress.
Sami Tamimi should be on everyone’s radar as the co-founder of the Ottolenghi restaurants and writer of a number of books, including Jerusalem with Yotam Ottolenghi (listen to our thoughts here). Boustany, his latest and first solo book, is one of the most beautiful cookbooks I’ve ever seen. I picked it up in Toppings in Bath last week (one of the most beautiful bookshops I’ve ever seen) and it blew me away. It’s hefty, personal and looks really accessible. It focuses on Tamimi’s home food culture, where grains and veg took the lead. It only came out this month, but I feel like it’s going to be everywhere over the next year.
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