Roden was born in 1936 in
Cairo,
Kingdom of Egypt, the daughter of Cesar Elie Douek and his wife Nelly Sassoon.[1] Her parents were from prominent
Syrian-Jewish merchant families who migrated from
Aleppo in the previous century; she grew up in
Zamalek, Cairo, with two brothers, the surgeon
Ellis Douek, and Zaki Douek.[9][10][6]
She was Egypt's national
backstroke swimming champion at the age of 15.[9]
In 1951 Roden moved to Paris and went to boarding school for three years. In 1954 she moved to London where she studied painting at
St. Martin's School of Art. She shared a flat with her brothers
Ellis Douek and Zaki Douek. In the London flat Roden, while preparing the meals for her brothers, started to experiment with cooking. She remembered family recipes from Alphandary, pies with aubergine and spinach, and mint and lamb. Both were foods not often cooked in London in that period and so finding ingredients in London was an adventure.[11]
She did not return to Egypt for a quarter of a century, well after her family and most of Cairo's Jewish community had been expelled; many of her books reflect her longing for the close communal culture that was lost, especially as expressed in the culinary arts and social occasions associated with them.[12][6]
Career
Besides her numerous cookery volumes, Roden has also worked as a food writer and a
cooking show presenter for
the BBC.[13]
Food writers and chefs such as
Melissa Clark and
Yotam Ottolenghi have credited her with playing a large role in introducing the food of Egypt in particular and the Middle East in general to Britain and the United States. Paul Levy classes her with such other food writers as
Elizabeth David,
Julia Child,
Jane Grigson, and
Sri Owen who, from the 1950s on, "deepened the conversation around food to address questions of culture, context, history and identity."[6] Her many cookbooks, Clark writes, have "produced a genre of works that is at once literary and deeply researched while still being, at heart, practical manuals on how to make delicious meals."[6]
Roles
President (previously co-chair) of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery (2012 – present)[14]
Honorary Fellow of University College London (2008)[15]
Visiting Fellow Yale University, USA (2010 – 2011)[16]
Honorary Fellow of the School of Oriental and African Studies (2012)[16]
Personal life
In 1959, she married Paul Roden, a clothes importer, and they separated after 15 years.[9]
They had three children.[9][17]
1999 -
Prince Claus Award "in recognition of her exceptional initiatives and achievements in the field of culture." from the
Prince Claus Fund, an international culture and development organisation based in
Amsterdam.[11]
2005 - André Simon Memorial Fund Food Book Prize for non-fiction for The Book of Jewish Food.[20]
2005 - Glenfiddich Best Food Book award for Arabesque.[21][22]
1987: Mediterranean Cookery, accompanied The BBC TV series (BBC Books 1987, newly enlarged edition Penguin Classic 1998)ISBN978-0-14-027278-9 (reprint)
^
ab"Claudia Roden". Jewish Women's Archive. Retrieved 30 July 2022.
^Roden, Claudia (1996). The Book of Jewish Food: An Odyssey from Samarkand and Vilna to the Present Day. New York: Knopf. pp. Passim.
ISBN9780394532585.
Claudia Roden, entry by Joan Nathan in Jewish Women: A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia (
Jewish Women's Archive), 20 March 2009. Retrieved January 5, 2010