Cairo-born food writer, culinary anthropologist and Grande Dame of Jewish food, Claudia Roden CBE, has been named by Waitrose as one of the ten most influential women in the UK food scene.
The list, which appears in the March edition of Waitrose magazine, was judged by an all-female, panel of expert judges including food writer Mallika Basu, restaurateur Thomasina Miers and food and wine writer Fiona Beckett.
The reasons cited for choosing Roden included her contribution to ‘helping to revolutionise Western attitudes to Middle Eastern cuisine’. The 85-year-old was also praised for her ability to have remained current during her many decades of food writing.
Her first book — The Book of Middle Eastern Food — which started as a project to preserve the recipes of her family and friends after they left Egypt — was published in 1968.
