Latest news with #Kotoz
Al Jazeera
22-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Al Jazeera
Flavours of the Arab Golden Age – EP 2: Spain and North Africa
A historian and a chef go on a culinary journey through history to discover the roots of Arab cuisine and its influence on our food today. Kotoz Ahmed is a researcher and Fadi Kattan is a Palestinian chef. In this second episode, they discover sweets in the Spanish city of Cordoba, a legacy of Muslim Spain. After the expulsions of 1492, some Muslims remained and preserved their Andalusian cuisine – like bunuelos, a kind of Spanish fritter. Kotoz cooks a similar sweet using a 13th century Arabic manuscript, The Best of Delectable Food of al-Andalus. Kotoz and Fadi then turn to Morocco where they discover a dish that Jews and Muslims shared together on last day of Passover. They also find a 14th century manuscript called Treasure Trove of Benefits and Variety at the Table in the library in Gotha in Germany. It sheds light on Egyptian culinary heritage through historic handwritten works during the Mamluk era.
Al Jazeera
11-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Al Jazeera
Flavours of the Arab Golden Age – EP 1: Baghdad and al-Andalus
A historian and a chef discover a 1,000 year-old Arab cookbook from Baghdad and how its recipes reached southern Spain. A historian and a chef go on a culinary journey through history to discover the roots of Arab cuisine and its influence on the food and flavours of today. Kotoz is a researcher in Arab food history, and Fadi Kattan is a renowned Palestinian chef. They travel around Europe in search of recipe manuscripts from the days of the old Arab dynasties and empires. They start this first episode in the Finnish capital, Helsinki, where they find The Book of Dishes, the oldest known Arabic cookbook. It describes ninth-century rivalries, including a singer-musician called Ziryab, who fell out of favour in the court in Baghdad and fled to Cordoba in Muslim al-Andalus. He brought his knowledge of music, the arts, fashion, and cookery with him to Spain and is famous for a stew called Green Tafaya. Kotoz revives the recipe and cooks it in a 21st-century kitchen, a millennium after it was first created.
