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Claudia Roden head shot - Bon Appétit

Claudia Roden

Born to a Syrian-Jewish family in Cairo, Claudia Roden studied in London to become a painter before becoming engrossed by the stories and recipes of Britain’s expatriate Egyptian community. She began teaching Middle Eastern cooking from her home, hosting the BBC series Claudia Roden’s Mediterranean Cookery and becoming a prolific food journalist and cookbook author. She is best known for two publications: A Book of Middle Eastern Food, a cookbook first published in 1968 that remains an important influence on top chefs around the world, and The Book of Jewish Food: An Odyssey from Samarkand to New York, an opus on Jewish cooking that provides a detailed history of Jewish holidays and recipes from the diaspora. The Book of Jewish Food won the James Beard Foundation Cookbook of the Year Award and the National Jewish Book Award. Roden is the President of the Oxford Food Symposium and, in 2022, was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for her services to food culture.

Recipes

Almond Cake

Tarta de Santiago—GaliciaThis is a splendid cake. I have eaten almond cakes in other parts of Spain, but this one is special. Pilgrims and tourists who visit the great Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia, where the relics of the apostle Saint James are believed to be buried, see the cake in the windows of every pastry shop and restaurant. It is usually marked with the shape of the cross of the Order of Santiago. I have watched the cake being made in many sizes, big and small, thin and thick, over a pastry tart base at a bakery called Capri in Pontevedra. This deliciously moist and fragrant homey version is without a base. There is sometimes a little cinnamon added, but I find that masks the delicate flavor of orange and almonds and prefer it without it.When I suggested to a man associated with the tourist office in Galicia that the tarta was a Jewish Passover cake, I was dragged to a television studio to tell it to all. The hosts thought the idea made sense. The Galician city of Coruña is on the Jewish tourist route, because of its synagogue and old Jewish quarter. Jews from Andalusia, who fled from the Berber Almohads' attempts to convert them in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries came to Galicia, where they planted grapevines and made wine.The cake is normally made in a wide cake or tart pan and so comes out low, but it is equally good as a thicker cake.