The Food of Spain [Hardcover]

Claudia Roden (Author)

Book Description

Release date: June 7, 2011

One of our foremost authorities on Mediterranean, North African, and Italian cooking, Claudia Roden brings her incomparable authenticity, vision, and immense knowledge to bear in The Food of Spain. The James Beard Award–winning author of the classic cookbooks A Book of Middle Eastern Food and A Book of Jewish Food now graces food lovers with the definitive cookbook on the Spanish cuisine, illustrated with dozens of gorgeous full-color photographs that capture the color and essence of this wonderfully vibrant nation and its diverse people, traditions, and culture.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“After a series of fascinating essays on the historical forces that led to the creation of various Spanish cuisines (among others: Celts and Jews, Frenchmen, monks, peasants and royals), Roden slips into the kitchen to deliver the goods.” (Sam Sifton, New York Times Book Review )

From the Back Cover

In The Food of Spain, Claudia Roden, the James Beard award-winning author of the classics A Book of Middle Eastern Food and The Book of Jewish Food, and one of our foremost authorities on Mediterranean, North African, and Italian cooking, brings her incomparable authenticity, vision, and immense knowledge to bear in this cookbook on the cuisines of Spain.

New York Times bestselling cookbook author Claudia Roden believes that through food a cook can reconstruct an entire world. And in her classic A Book of Middle Eastern Food–eight hundred recipes long, a treasure trove of folk tales, proverbs, stories, poetry, and local history–that's just what she did. Historian and critic Simon Schama has said of her that "Claudia Roden is no more a simple cookbook writer than Marcel Proust was a biscuit baker." The Book of Jewish Food, another classic, is equally magnificent in its span, a cookbook that is also a history of Jewish life and settlement, told through the story of what Jews ate, and where, and why, and how they made it.

Now, in The Food of Spain, Claudia Roden applies that same remarkable insight, scope, and authority to a cuisine marked by its regionalism and suffused with an unusually particular culinary history. In hundreds of exquisite recipes, Roden explores both the little known and the classic dishes of Spain–from Andalusia to Asturias, from Catalonia to Galicia. And whether she's writing about smoky, nutty Catalan Romesco sauce, Cordero a la Miel–sweet and hot tender lamb stew with honey–or the iconic, emblematic national dish of Spain, saffron-perfumed Paella Valenciana, her clear, elegant, humorous, and passionate voice is a reader's delight, a guide not only to delicious food but to the peoples and cultures that produced it.

Both comprehensive and timeless, The Food of Spain is one of the most important books on this tremendous cuisine to appear in the last fifty years. A classic in the making, it is an essential work not only for fans of Spanish and Mediterranean food but for every serious cook as well as discerning armchair travelers.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 624 pages
• Publisher: Ecco; First Edition edition (June 7, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061969621
• ISBN-13: 978-0061969621
• Product Dimensions: 10.4 x 8.7 x 2.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #181,915 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #39 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Regional & International > European > Spanish

More About the Author

Claudia Roden was born in Cairo, educated in Paris and London, where she has lived for many years. Widely admired as both a great cook and a fine writer, she has written classic works on Middle Eastern and Mediterranean cookery and, most recently, her award-winning The Book of Jewish Food.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

78 of 83 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars With 600 pages and a very general title, the book sets the expectations very high. Is the author able to deliver? August 1, 2011

By Jackal

Format:Hardcover

The hyperbole in the product description calls this book one of the most important books on Spanish cooking during the last 50 years. How does the book measure up? I own a number of Spanish cooking books, so in addition to comments on Roden's book, please also find my recommendations.

This is a decent book about traditional Spanish food, but it lacks the passion so apparent in The New Spanish Table (or for that matter the author's own The New Book of Middle Eastern Food). I think you learn more about Spanish food by reading that book, because its informal and youthful style (i.e. cramped with info, side bars, inserts, loads of smaller less artistic photos). Off course, if you want to learn about the Spanish regions and their specialities, you should pick up Culinaria Spain. However, Roden does teach us a bit about the strong early Muslim influence as well as the different regions. Roden's history lesson is largely confined to pre 20th century. Unfortunately, you do not get any understanding of how Spanish cooking has changed during the last 50 years. Another solid book that tries to do pretty much what Roden is trying to do is The Cuisines of Spain: Exploring Regional Home Cooking - a much better choice (more focused description of regional differences, more recipes, regional origin of all recipes noted).

The book is too designed by the publisher for my liking; e.g. lots of professional photos (but why a brown tinting on all of them?), big white spaces (who came up with the silly idea of having 3-4 cm margins??), and very safe recipes. This would be a good gift to a more conservative person that likes food a bit toned down, but still nice. (In contrast, the first book mentioned above would be a good gift to a more passionate person who just likes to cook.) I am not trying to belittle Roden's book, but cooking is more fun with passion (e.g. Andres's Made in Spain: Spanish Dishes for the American Kitchen or his DVD. Check him out on youtube if you are not familiar with him.)

I am also disappointed by having only 180 recipes in a book of 600 pages. The book has a lot of intro text so the comparison isn't totally fair, but still pretty fair. There is just too much fluff in this book. Compare with the author's early book on Middle Eastern food having 800 recipes on 500 pages. Also many of the recipes are too basic, like chicken stock, aioli and mayonnaise. Those recipes should be put at the end and not given full page treatment. Alternatively, more detail could have been provided; e.g. how pestle and mortar makes the sauce different, how to make it without eggs. Things need to be taken to the next level.

I don't think this book is directed to people who love to cook. There are just too many short-cuts described (e.g. doing aioli with bought mayo) and the author giving approval to all these short cuts (probably on request of the publisher). Also, the recipes do not contain any tips of how to really get the best out of the ingredients. The recipes are very straightforward, all additional complexity removed. Some people might like this approach but somebody who loves to cook would like to know the details that lead to perfection and an enlarged skill set.

If you want more recipes per page I would suggest the books by Penelope Casas. Probably best to start with her first book The Foods and Wines of Spain, which will contain the classics. Her Delicioso! The Regional Cooking of Spain and La Cocina de Mama: The Great Home Cooking of Spain follow the same style. (I am not familiar with her subsequent books). Her recipes are a little bit more traditional in preparation, but the author is not Spanish and she is very careful in spicing the dishes. Compare with The New Spanish Table that is not afraid of spicing the dishes. I don't know who is closer to the "original" if there is an original.

Finally, I do not recommend 1080 Recipes unless you want a book written for Spanish housewives

25 of 27 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Spanish Cooking at Home Plus a Great Travelogue June 29, 2011

By James Ellsworth VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Claudia Roden's breakthrough book, 'A Book of Middle Eastern Food' was not only a landmark work on one of my favorite cuisines, it was also a wonderful reminiscence of Roden's family history as Sephardic Jews who settled in Egypt. For Sephardic, read 'Spanish' and her credibility as a writer on this Mediterranean cuisine becomes clear. The first 120 plus pages contain a region-by-region overview of Spain's multi-ethnic food culture, ranging from signature agricultural products to 'bred in the bone' dishes. I very much agree with previous reviewers that the recipes she has selected accord well with what I have eaten and enjoyed during my travels in Spain. I also feel that this is the best overall book for a Spanish family (speaking English fluently) to select for their own cookbook. The great dishes, the expected dishes are here--from a homemade range of stocks through soups...well, to nuts! Famed convent-based recipes for egg and almond pastry 'bites' are here. We all have had them and we all have wished we 'knew how' to recreate them at home. Now we can! We can also share a thumbnail sketch of each region's history, their hopes for independence or autonomy or their roles in creating today's vibrant, modern Spain.

Why only four stars? I cook seriously (as does Roden)but I may be a bit 'jaded', a bit more interested in 'knockout' recipe and flavor or texture ideas. This book is wonderfully traditional. Her prose is not as rigorously edited as it used to be and there are some repetitions that pall on the careful reader.

Roden has also become a culinary 'goddess' by dint of her unremitting hard work and her text has acquired a bit of baggage: she is modest enough to feel she needs to recognize all the people in Spain who have helped her along the way and through the years. Notable names are dropped but there are also magic moments when she recognizes, for example, the president of a local gastronomic society of men, a man of humble origins but of enormous self-study and acheivement and a man of noble hospitality. 'Visiting' good people who love good food is one of the pleasures served up by this book; a pleasure seldom found elsewhere.

Obviously, I had to add this book to my collection and I feel you won't be sorry to do the same. For those who are seeking something a bit less ambitious and a bit more path-breaking, may I suggest Jose Andres' works 'Made in Spain' or 'Tapas?' The dishes he offers make me want to get in the kitchen and cook something for dinner tonight!

16 of 20 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely Delightful June 8, 2011

By Klaus_Mann

Format:Hardcover

If you have ever returned from a trip to Spain longing to go back ... not for Guadi's sculptures or the sun drenched beaches or for the wild nightlife, BUT just for the amazing food, well this book is for you. I love Europe, but what I love most about Europe is the amazing food, and Spain is no exception. I have always believed that great food come from a fusion of different cultures (to wit the amazing cuisine of Turkey) and Spain is a great example of my view. The European, the Moorish, the Christian, the Muslim, the Roman, all of these influences, combined with one of the most perfect climates in the world have created a national cuisine unlike any other.

The great news is that you do not have to shell out a fortune at El Bulli to experience the wonders of Spanish food. Indeed the foods and dishes portrayed in this book are well worth the high price. I normally do not like paying a lot for books, and prefer Kindle books, but here I will make an exception.

5 Stars!