Claudia Roden's education started at an early age. Raised in Cairo, she grew up watching the women of her family pound lamb and wheat into kibbeh, and wrap sheets of pastry around mashed dates. Over the years, she's made her way into countless kitchens, from Turkey to Poland, Lebanon to Spain, and written several histories of Mediterranean cuisine, most recently, Arabesque: A Taste of Morocco, Turkey, and Lebanon. In 1996, after 15 years of research, she wrote the book on Jewish food, literally. Her genre-busting The Book of Jewish Food weaves 800 recipes into a vast narrative of the Diaspora, from the chicken dumplings created by the Jews of Tibet to the almond cake favored by Jews of Italy. In this piece, we make our way into Claudia's kitchen in London. She talks with reporter Hugh Levinson about her search for "melokheya," the truth behind British take-out, and the culinary acrobatics of today's most innovative chefs. This piece was created for the weekly Nextbook.org podcast. Nextbook.org is an online Jewish culture magazine.

Claudia Roden's education started at an early age. Raised in Cairo, she grew up watching the women of her family pound lamb and wheat into kibbeh, and wrap sheets of pastry around mashed dates. Over the years, she's made her way into countless kitchens, from Turkey to Poland, Lebanon to Spain, and written several histories of Mediterranean cuisine, most recently, Arabesque: A Taste of Morocco, Turkey, and Lebanon. In 1996, after 15 years of research, she wrote the book on Jewish food, literally. Her genre-busting The Book of Jewish Food weaves 800 recipes into a vast narrative of the Diaspora, from the chicken dumplings created by the Jews of Tibet to the almond cake favored by Jews of Italy. In this piece, we make our way into Claudia's kitchen in London. She talks with reporter Hugh Levinson about her search for "melokheya," the truth behind British take-out, and the culinary acrobatics of today's most innovative chefs. This piece was created for the weekly Nextbook.org podcast. Nextbook.org is an online Jewish culture magazine.