Background

Claudia Roden was born in 1936 in Cairo, Al Qahirah, Egypt, into the family of Cesar Elie Douek and his wife Nelly Sassoon. Her parents were both from Syrian-Jewish merchant families, and she grew up in Zamalek, Cairo, with two brothers, the surgeon Ellis Douek, and Zaki Douek.

Education

In 1953, Claudia went to a boarding school in Paris, and then to London to study at Saint Martin's School of Art.

Career

Besides Claudia's numerous cookery volumes, Roden has also worked as a food writer and a cooking show presenter for the BBC. She started her cook-book writings in 1968 with "A Book of Middle Eastern Food", which not only presented hundreds of recipes, but also included extensive notes on their origins and interpretations. The English edition of "Everything Tastes Better Outdoors" was written in 1984 and revised in 1995 after Roden came to the United States to study outdoor cooking in America. Her another book, "Mediterranean Cookery", published in 1987, is a guide to the many recipes gathered by Roden for her television series in London. "The Book of Jewish Food: An Odyssey from Samarkand to New York", published in 1996, “chronicles the lives of Jews all over the world in short segments on unusual Jewish communities past and present."

Besides writing intriguing cookbooks, Roden gives cooking lessons in her London home as well as in cities around the world. She is co-chair with Paul Levy of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery. She is also an Honorary Fellow of the School of Oriental and African Studies of the University of London.

Achievements

• Claudia 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 "Arabesque — Sumptuous Food from Morocco, Turkey and Lebanon."

Works

More photos

• book

  • The New Book of Middle Eastern Food: The Classic Cookbook, Expanded and Updated, with New Recipes and Contemporary Variations on Old Themes 2000
  • The Book of Jewish Food: An Odyssey from Samarkand to New York 1996
  • Arabesque: A Taste of Morocco, Turkey, and Lebanon 2006
  • The Food of Spain 2011
  • Claudia Roden's Simple Mediterranean Cookery 2007
  • A Book of Middle Eastern Food 1974
  • Claudia Roden's the Food of Italy: Region by Region 2003
  • Invitation To Mediterranean Cooking 1997
  • Picnics and Other Outdoor Feasts 2012
  • MEDITERRANEAN COOKERY 1987

Connections

In 1959, Claudia married Paul Roden, a clothes importer, and they separated after 15 years. They had three common children.

Father:

Cesar Elie Douek

Mother:

Nelly Sassoon

Spouse:

Paul Roden

Brother:

Ellis Douek

Brother:

Zaki Douek