Claudia Roden named CBE: The legendary writer’s impact on the culinary world

Claudia Roden has been named Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the Queen’s New Year Honours List in recognition of her services to Literature.

The author – who is credited with bringing Middle Eastern food into the mainstream thanks to her 1968 classic ‘A Book of Middle Eastern Food’ and more than 20 titles that followed – said she is “very surprised but thrilled, honoured and happy with [the] news” of the honour.

Born in Cairo to Syrian-Jewish parents, Roden, 85, moved with her family to London (where she is still based today) in the 1950s and has spent her career crisscrossing the globe in search of inspiration for her books.

Often travelling alone after her three children had grown up (her marriage to Paul Roden ended in 1974), the author also wrote several books on Mediterranean cuisine.

“Tradition and culture [are] what I’ve always been about,” Roden said when speaking about her latest book, titled Med. “I always researched the dishes, how they came about, the history, the life of the peasantry, the life of the aristocracy, what they ate, to see what actually turned into a cuisine that people cooked at home.”

She described how she would “accost people, sometimes in a cafe or on a train or on a bench, and just say that I’m an English journalist and I’m writing about your cuisine. They never believed that I was really English, but they could tell I was interested in their food.”

Adored by many of today’s celebrity chefs, Roden inspired a whole generation of cooks who are now following in her footsteps and making their own mark on the culinary world.

“‘A Book of Middle Eastern Food’ has been around for so long it feels like prehistory,” chef and cookbook author Yotam Ottolenghi said in an interview with the New York Times earlier this year. “It was really revelatory for its time.”

Sam Clark, chef and co-owner or restaurants Moro and Morito, described Roden as “Extraordinary, a brilliant culinary historian”, telling the Guardian: “It’s a testament to her reign and her brilliance that not only is she still writing wonderful books, but she remains the doyenne of the culinary travels around the Mediterranean and Middle East.”

Having befriended the current crop of star chefs, Roden is aware of her famous fans, but remains modest about her influence: “I’ve known for quite a while a lot of the young chefs in Britain, because a lot of them say that my book is their primary source.

“Some of the chefs, like Yotam Ottolenghi, he has done what I was doing,  home cooking of the Middle East. It is now sort of haute cuisine of the Middle East for restaurants, so I’ve been really impressed.

“And I’m a fan of theirs. They’ve learned from me, but now I’m learning from them.”