Join me today for an on-line panel discussion on The Art of Food across the Muslim World: Preserving Tradition & Reimagining the Future with my fellow speakers, Dr Neha Vermani and Sadaf Hussain. Register here.

Bringing Medieval Arab Cooking to Life
Join me today for an on-line panel discussion on The Art of Food across the Muslim World: Preserving Tradition & Reimagining the Future with my fellow speakers, Dr Neha Vermani and Sadaf Hussain. Register here.
On the 22nd and 23rd of May, at the wonderful Islamic Arab Biennale — the first of its kind in history — I organized a medieval banqueting experience, with special reference to the use and significance of roses in the medieval Muslim culinary tradition, as part of Civil Architects’ Work installation.
On 3rd and 4th of May, IDAM by Alain Ducasse hosted a medieval banqueting event, with an extensive menu drawn from over half a millennium of recipes from the medieval Arab culinary tradition, covering a geographical area from Muslim Spain (al-Andalus) to Baghdad.
The event was preceded by a guided tour in the Museum discussing various relevant cooking-related artefacts from its collections, after which guests were introduced to the menu and some of the more unusual ingredients.
A big thank you to everyone who helped make this such a resounding success: Susan Parker Leavy (Director of the MIA Library), Fabrice Rosso (Head Chef), Y. Godard (Director of F&B Operations and Commercial Leasing), J. Cheminade (Executive Chef), Mathieu Courtin (Food and Beverage Manager) and their teams!
For those who missed the first four episodes…
Very excited to have taken part in the series on the history of Arab cuisine on Aljazeera Documentary! In six parts, each episode focuses on a different cookery book and author, covering half a millennium of the richest culinary tradition in history!
Had a wonderfully stimulating discussion with Salma Serry as part of Afikra’s Matbakh series, where we talked about The Sultan’s Feast and much more.
Don’t worry if you couldn’t make it because it’s now available on YouTube!
Check out the wonderful article on the recipes of The Sultan’s Feast by Tessy Koshy in the National today!
Check out the wonderful BBC article by Tessa Fox on the history of maamoul, which features the recipe for date-filled biscuits from The Sultan’s Feast.