Published: 4 March 2010
By DAN CARRIER

TALKING or writing about things that gave you pleasure was a major taboo in Britain when cookery writer Claudia Roden first set a course in a career of bringing  kitchen cupboards to bookshelves.

“Saying you found something sensuous was just not done – it meant no one wrote or spoke about food or sex,” she recalls.

“The other taboo – of talking about how much you earn – is still very much in place, but the other two thankfully no longer apply.”

Claudia, who was born in Cairo, studied art in Paris and then moved to London. In 1968 she wrote the seminal cookery book which arguably changed the way food writers worked. Her classic, A Book of Middle Eastern Food, not only showed her passion for laden dinner tables but described the social and historical background of the meals she spoke of.

Tomorrow (Friday) Claudia is in conver­sation at a Jewish Book Week event with French author Agnès Desarthe, whose recent novel Chez Moi sheds light on the kitchens of a Parisian restaurateur. 

The topic is how food and writing complement each other – and it is an area that has fascinated Claudia since she first turned her hand to creating cook books which were so much more than a collection of recipes.

“When I came to London food was simply not written about,” she recalls. “When I started writing about it, people were horrified. I had been to art school and my friends all said, why are you writing cook books when you could be painting? They were astonished. 

“At parties I’d say I was a cookery writer and people’s eyes would glaze over or they’d simply turn their backs. It was not fashionable. How the world has changed – people love talking about pleasures and the senses.”

And of course cookery books get her gastric juices flowing – but it was not always the case.

“I look through cookery books today and they can make me rush to the stove,” she recalls.

In the past though cook books – especially in Britain – were simply manuals. 

“There are, of course, all kinds of cook books and they go in and out of fashion. For years they were focused on how to do this, and then how to do that, and they used to be pretty strict about things.”

The advent of Elizabeth David’s works changed the scene.

“She wrote so evocatively,” says Claudia. “She really made you want to cook. And she also got away from the idea that cooking was a set of instructions like a science experiment. She said things like, ‘you will know when it is ready when the smell of garlic fills the kitchen’. She influenced a lot of people.”

This process has continued since Claudia’s classic book was published in 1968. And in the 1970s, the Scottish cook Graham Kerr, known as The Galloping Gourmet, and Keith Floyd began to produce popular TV shows that showed the pleasure you could get from the kitchen.

“They would give off these big smiles when they tasted something,” she says.

“We now have people like Nigel Slater who go into hugely ecstatic descriptions. And cookery writing has to be descriptive.”

She recalls when she started making cookery programmes for the BBC they had a strict house style in terms of the words she was allowed to use and how she presented dishes.

“It took away some of the fun – they thought people would be able to understand recipes easily. In America, it still happens: there is a trend for programmes to start with ‘in a bowl, combine...’ It is very unappealing, and although people think they know exactly what they mean, it is not even very exact. Sometimes you mix things, sometimes you combine things, sometimes one ingredient needs to go in before another. You should not be afraid to describe what you are doing.”

But it is not just cook books with flowery descriptions and a heap of ingredients that send Claudia rushing to the stove. 

The writer is currently researching a book on Spain, and she says she couldn’t help but get peckish when reading the classic Spanish novel Don Quixote.

“Cervantes has some truly wonderful passages,” she says.

“There is one section when Don Quixote goes to a wedding feast – it described so well; Sancho Panza is desperate to eat. 

“I find that makes me really hungry – as hungry as any cook book can.”

l Claudia Roden and Agnès Desarthe are in conversation at 1pm tomorrow (Friday) at the Royal National Hotel, Bedford Way, WC1 

Jewish Book Week continues until Sunday. Full details of events at www.jewishbookweek.com or call 08448472274