The Jewelled Table: Cooking, Eating and Entertaining the Middle Eastern Way

Description

Mezze has become synonymous with the Middle East; a style of eating automatically associated with tables laden and stacked with sharing plates that avalanche from the kitchen. However, that's just one part of the picture. Eating in the Middle East is both a necessity and a social ritual. In The Jewelled Table, Bethany Kehdy explores the way Middle Easterners cook, eat and entertain, and the rituals of doing so at home, highlighting why the Middle East has such a rich, intricate and wonderful heritage of hospitality in part much inspired by the 'hospitable' desert. Over 80 ancient and every day recipes from the Middle East will be reinterpreted and made accessible for cooking in a Western kitchen without losing integrity for the classics. Find out the secret to nailing hummus once and for all, whip up a Persian herb frittata, and make an impressive, delicious Ox cheek, shallot and rhubarb stew. From simple weeknight suppers to lazy brunches, Sunday roasts, celebratory feasts and last-minute mayhem, Bethany illustrates that with a few key ingredients, Middle Eastern food is the perfect fit for every occasion. Featuring menu plans, detailed instructions on how to cook the recipes, as well as charming anecdotes throughout from Bethany's own experiences in the Middle East, all set to the backdrop of beautiful location shots, The Jewelled Table is an essential cookbook for anyone who loves the flavours of the Middle East.

Bethany Kehdy is a Lebanese-American food writer and presenter. Hailed by Yotam Ottolenghi as 'A new champion of Middle Eastern food', her debut cookbook, The Jewelled Kitchen, was selected as one of the notable cookbooks of 2013 by The New York Times. Highlighted by Monocle Magazine as one of four Mediterranean ambassadors, representing Lebanon, her work on promoting Lebanon's food tourism to the world continues, via her food tour company Taste Lebanon as well as her consultancy work with the Ministry of Tourism. Her Middle Eastern inspired London supper-clubs have regularly sold-out and she is in the process of opening her very own Middle Eastern experiential restaurant in Central London.

'Bethany, above all, has an honesty of approach, as well as the sense of playfulness and sheer enjoyment that springs off each page, that makes her food so damn appealing. If there's one thing Bethany wants us to take away from her remarkable research and artistic courage - and it's a sentiment I wholeheartedly endorse - it's that cooking (and eating!) are not meant to be a challenge, but sexy and intoxicating. And whats more enticing than that?' -- Greg Malouf