The Gaza Kitchen, Third Edition
This 2021 update of Laila El-Haddad and Maggie Schmitt's award-winning cookbook, first published in 2012, shares with readers the little-known but distinctive cuisine of the Gaza region of Palestine. But it does much more than that! In addition to its 130 wonderful, much-loved recipes it also presents more than 200 stunning (and achingly poignant) photos of Gaza-Palestinian cooks, farmers, and fresh-produce merchants at work and numerous in-kitchen interviews in which these women and men share with the world their stories of their food, their families, and their heritage.
Scroll further on down here to find some of the ringing endorsements the book has received from Yotam Ottolenghi, Sami Tamimi, José Andrés, Raj Patel, Barbara Massaad, and Claudia Roden.
We also invite you to visit the dedicated website we've been building to help boost the book's mission of documenting and sharing Gaza's distinctive foodways. ( It's still under construction!) ... And also this extremely rich, multimedia Resource Center that our sister org Just World Educational created to help mark the late-2021 release of this Third Edition of the book.
You'll find a wealth of great learning resources in that Resource Center. Here's our favorite video from it:
Here is a sweet and powerful short video we shot on the day in late 2021 when we took this new Third Edition of The Gaza Kitchen over to Laila's home in Maryland. At that time, Gaza was undergoing one of the periodic short(-ish) but very deadly assaults that Israel's military had periodically inflicted on it for many years by then. But here was Laila explaining the importance of presenting this very special form of cookbook as resistance...
And here is a selection from the scores of powerful endorsements the book has received over the years...
The recipes and stories are magically woven together, inspiring to read, to cook, and to eat. Telling us about the food of Gaza is key to understanding the people’s way of life, and this is what Laila and Maggie do so fantastically well.Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi, Co-Authors of Jerusalem: A Cookbook
Laila El-Haddad and Maggie Schmitt truly are story-tellers sharing the stories of the women, men, and children of Gaza in a way that illuminates their humanity, their dignity, their strength. José Andrés, chef and founder of World Central Kitchen
This book becomes more essential with every passing day. Not just such a superb cookbook, a collection of vital recipes from a delicious yet often overlooked cuisine, but an argument for understanding. A classic of world food. Anthony Bourdain
The best cookbooks inspire you to be a better chef. This one can make you a better person. Laila El-Haddad and Maggie Schmitt guide readers through the rich, subtle and complex flavors, history and politics of the Jews, Christians, and Muslims of the Levant... This is gastronomic writing at its finest.Raj Patel, Author of Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System
The Gaza Kitchen cookbook is a vital attempt to safeguard a rich culinary heritage that has existed in the Middle East for thousands of years. In documenting Palestinian recipes and food culture, despite the ravages of war, Laila El-Haddad and Maggie Schmitt have significantly succeeded in sharing their culinary travels while bringing dignity and pride to those who continue cooking traditional meals at home in Palestine. This book is an asset to those living in Gaza and to the rest of the world who would like to participate in protecting this rich cuisine.Barbara Massaad, Lebanese Author and Photographer of the Award-Winning Cookbooks Man'oushé, Mouneh, Mezze and Soup for Syria
These recipes are distinctively Palestinian and many also uniquely of Gaza--with more pronounced flavors, more herby, spicy, peppery, lemony, than those of their regional neighbors. We also get from this very special book a rare insight into the intimate everyday lives of engaging people...Claudia Roden, Author
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