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Summary: A history of the Jews through their stomachs!
Review: A wonderful book that most of my family and friends own, my non-Jewish flatmate read through like a novel, and I always have difficulty putting down. Since Ashkenazi cooking can be found in countless other Jewish cookery books, I appreciated the main focus on Sephardic cooking. I am vegan and even so found hundreds of recipes. The cultural background information is fascinating, and the religious information enables you to produce something a bit different at the festivals - we had the most fabulous (Iranian, I think) stew last Rosh Hashanah, together with home-made challah, and were quite spoilt for choice when it came to making haroset. The only problem is that I get so seduced by reading the recipes that I end up making too much food! However, my friends have certainly been enjoying the pastries I take to meetings. I have had no problems following the delicious recipes and Roden is usefully realistic about substitutes for ingredients unobtainable in Britain, warnings for extra-hot dishes and so on. She also gives basic recipes followed by several variations for many dishes, especially the popular ones; this can be useful if you want a different slant on a traditional dish, for example a borsht which isn't too violently beetrooty. The personal touch - anecdotes about where she met the recipe donor, or traditional dishes in her family - is delightful.
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Summary: A cookbook with historical and anthropological interest
Review: Amongst the different kinds of collective memories, one of the strongest and most persistent are the cooking memories, with an enormous variety of tastes, aroma and colours which resist the impact of time as well as cultural and geographical ruptures . This is exactly why the memories of foods and typical dishes have such a remarkable presence in all reminescences of immigrants who were obliged to adapt to a new country, new habits as well as new foods. This book is not only a book of jewish food but it is mainly a book that takes us through the odyssey of the jewish people told with emmotion and with a great amount of "taste". You don't have to be jewish to love this book, but you certainly must understand the place of food in cultural history to appreciate it completely.
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Summary: A book for every Jewish-home
Review: Arlene Rossen Cardozo Roden's voluminous culinary ethnohistory is absolutely dazzling. Her extensive research and recollections provide more information than one would imagine available on the origins of both Ashkenaz and Sepharidic trade routes, migration patterns, interactions and assimilation into the general cultures in which they lived the world 'round. The 800 authentic recipes are part of the total story, making clear that what we eat is who we are. Yet the fascinating text is definitely what makes this book a must for every Jewish home. END
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Summary: Fabulous Book!
Review: As many of the other readers have said, this book combines fascinating historical information with great recipes. I'm currently reading it as I would any absorbing novel or history book. It's also a very good resource for information about Jewish holidays/customs for interested non-Jews such as myself.
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Summary: An Epic Masterpiece
Review: Claudia Rodem must have spent years preparing this work. I received this book as a gift, and have enjoyed the recipes and the historic detail. As an Ashkenazic Jew, this book includes pages and pages of things I've never even heard of, Sephardic dishes I've enjoyed, but never thought I could make, and staples from my grandmother's kitchen. If I could meet you, Claudia, I would love to hug you!!
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Summary: An odyssey of food and history
Review: I find myself reading this cookbook even when I am not looking for recipes. It describes the ways in which Jewish culture and cuisine borrowed from and contributed to the culture and cuisine of the many places they've lived. Roden is a wonderful writer who can evoke the sights, sounds and tastes of Jewish history. Most of the recipes I've tried are great too.
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Summary: Certainly a very interesting book
Review: I happen to be a frequent reader of cookbooks and this one was hard to put down. The historical information was fascinating, but Ms. Roden's lack of knowledge about religious Jewish practice leads to some inaccuracies, such as promoting the idea that the water of a ritual bath or flour for making matzos are somehow made kosher by being "blessed by the rabbi". This is a widely held misconception among the general public, but I am surprised that someone with as an illustrious heritage as she (grandfather was a chief rabbi) should make the same mistake. It is her lack of appreciation for traditional religious practice that, I believe, leads her to a somewhat less than complementary portrayal of Ashkenazic Jewry and their cuisine. I haven't tried any recipes, finding other Sephardi cookbooks more user friendly, but I will say again that it makes a very interesting read.
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Summary: I've never seen anything like it
Review: I love history and I love food. This book is a match made in heaven. I can not put it down, and I don't hesitate to recommend it to anyone wanting to learn about anything Jewish or anything culinary.
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Summary: Arab American Loves Claudia Roden
Review: November 1998 -- I just checked this book out of the library yesterday and stayed up until midnight reading from it to my husband. Now, he's not interested in recipes - it was the stories about Jews in Cairo, Jews in ancient Babylon, Arab and Jewish cooking under the Abbasid Caliphs in Baghdad, Jews in India, and most of all -- ANDALUCIA and the glories of Spain before the "Reconquista" that kept him entertained. Claudia Roden, culinary Scheherezade... Born in Cairo to a Sephardic family who left Spain in the 15th Century, Roden has a lot of good things to say about Arabs and Jews in the Middle East. She doesn't gloss over the difficulties but she's much more interested in talking about the long, long shared history of the two peoples. And she's interested in great food. You should check out the recipes from the various Indian Jewish peoples. I am planning to cook at least twelve of her recipes in the next month. Roden's writing style is direct, simple and wonderful. I am such a fan!!! As a Lebanese American Gentile married to a Jew (of Ashkenazi descent), I feel so grateful to have this book. It confirms my passion for all things Sephardic/Levantine, and gives me a culinary bridge to my extended, multicultural family. Thank you, Claudia! You're a beacon of peace, besides being a culinary star!
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Summary: More than a cook book, and yet an excellent one
Review: Nowadays, when hundreds of cookbooks flood the book market, and each regional or ethnic cuisine type gets its share of ink and paper, choosing a cookbook is not an easy task. Well, this task becomes much easier when one book of its kind stands far above the rest - and I believe that this is the case with Claudia Roden's book of Jewish Food. This book is remarkable in many ways - the clear and simple way in which the recipes are presented, the wonderful historical inserts, and above all - the feeling that there's someone with you in the kitchen when you cook, someone who's deeply informed about the recipe and its cultural background, and who's also there with you, helping you to make the best out of it. The book is masterfully organized - the grouping of recipes is so logical and yet not annoyingly rigid, and the index is a masterpiece on its own - there's no way you can miss a recipe that you want: you'll find it under its name, or under any of the principal ingredients used in it. Timing given for each recipe is relatively realistic, and so are the serving amounts. I strongly reccomend this book.
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