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The Universal Kitchen: A 250-Recipe Tour of World Cooking
Why do cuisines everywhere produce the same kinds of dishes - tart refreshing salads, hearty meals in a pot, palate-tickling condiments? Popular food historian Elisabeth Rozin has long been fascinated with the universal activity called cooking. In her first book, the much admired and highly influential Flavor Principle Cookbook (later revised, expanded, and republished as Ethnic Cuisine), she codified the various flavor combinations that characterize ethnic and regional cuisines and differentiate them from one another.
Now in The Universal Kitchen she focuses on similarities rather than differences, on the structures and techniques shared by cultures throughout history. The book begins with the most basic dish of all, "Meat on a Stick," ranging from Armenian Shish Kabob to Singapore Beef Satay to Creole Barbecued Oysters. Similarly, the theme of dough wrapped around a savory stuffing is illustrated by such variations as Indian samosas, Mexican quesadillas, and Jewish knishes.
Earthy and erudite, Rozin takes us on a gastronomic odyssey, from the classic Salade Nicoise to her grandma's unburnt cucumber salad, to show how the food of people all over the world has evolved along similar lines, a testament to the kitchen as a focus of our common humanity and to the cook as the interpreter of our shared culinary heritage.
Now in The Universal Kitchen she focuses on similarities rather than differences, on the structures and techniques shared by cultures throughout history. The book begins with the most basic dish of all, "Meat on a Stick," ranging from Armenian Shish Kabob to Singapore Beef Satay to Creole Barbecued Oysters. Similarly, the theme of dough wrapped around a savory stuffing is illustrated by such variations as Indian samosas, Mexican quesadillas, and Jewish knishes.
Earthy and erudite, Rozin takes us on a gastronomic odyssey, from the classic Salade Nicoise to her grandma's unburnt cucumber salad, to show how the food of people all over the world has evolved along similar lines, a testament to the kitchen as a focus of our common humanity and to the cook as the interpreter of our shared culinary heritage.
400 pages, Hardcover
Published October 1, 1996
18 people want to read
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