Friday, May 04, 2007

Cambodian cuisine in print

A book on Cambodian cuisine is scheduled for publication in December, titled The Food and Cooking of Cambodia by author Ghillie Basan. I spoke to Ghillie and she tells me that the contents (over 60 recipes and 250 photographs) are taken from a book she produced at the beginning of 2006, called The Food and Cooking of Vietnam & Cambodia. "The publishers have compiled it from the joint Vietnam & Cambodia book which I wrote several years ago. The former was compiled from research and travel, as I have had an interest in Vientam for a long time, having been friends with a number of American and Vietnamese survivors from the Vietnam war. The research involved travelling briefly and talking to many people in markets, restaurants, etc as well as friends who work in both countries. Now that things have opened up a lot, I would love to visit Cambodia with my children, but my main area of expertise is the Middle East and North Africa so I have to keep travelling there!" Ghillie was brought up in Kenya and Scotland. Following a degree in Social Anthropology at Edinburgh University, she taught English in Italy and Turkey, and has worked as a cordon bleu cook, a ski instructress, journalist, restaurant reviewer, and publisher. She is the author of a number of highly acclaimed books on Middle Eastern food.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi Andy

Great news! There is a serious shortage of recipe books about the delicious Khmer cuisine.

This will be on my permanently growing list of books to buy!

Best wishes

Rachel