This recipe for the traditional Persian dish of chicken in walnut and pomegranate sauce was posted by Barbara Hansen at tableconversation.com on January 14, 2019. The recipe appears in two of acclaimed author, culinary columnist, food teacher, and food journalist Faye Levy’s best-selling cookbooks: Feast from the Mideast and 1,000 Jewish Recipes.
Faye is a treasure trove of information on Middle Eastern shopping and cooking — with extensive travel to keep up with the cuisines. In Faye’s words, “From the Fertile Crescent, where agriculture began, to the extravagant tables of Ottoman emperors, the Mideast boasts a surpassingly rich culinary heritage.” This author brings 250 time-honored recipes into the 21st century American kitchen. Accessible and authentic dishes, helpful shopping tips, and her trademark user-friendly approach make Feast from the Mideast a must-have introduction to a vibrant international cuisine.
A native of Washington, D.C., whose experience at her family dining table was not very exciting to her, Faye visited and fell in love with the Middle East — and Yakir Levy, the man who became her husband and has been for many years — the first time she visited Israel. She worked at the Tel Aviv University library, as she tells it, finagling a way to listen to the food expert of the day on her weekly radio show. The Levys are well known experts in the Middle East who have lived and traveled in the region.
As a culinary columnist and cooking teacher, Faye is the author of 23 cookbooks in English, Hebrew and French. She lived in Israel for seven years, where she studied at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and at Tel Aviv University, and graduated magna cum laude in sociology and anthropology. But Faye’s passion was learning about cooking, so she obtained a job as the assistant of Israel’s ”grande dame de cuisine,” cookbook author Ruth Sirkis, and worked with her for two years.
Later Faye and Yakir moved to France where she spent five years at La Varenne, the Parisian cooking school and earned the “Grand Diplome” of the first cooking class. With Fernand Chambrette she authored La Cuisine du Poisson on the cooking of fish and became the first American to publish a book on French cooking — for the French. The Levys have written articles for the Los Angeles Times and the Jerusalem Post. Faye has written for other major newspapers throughout the U.S., and for Gourmet Magazine, Bon Appetit, Chocolatier and Vegetarian Times.
For almost four decades, Faye has shopped, cooked, and dined her way through the Middle East, and her enthusiasm for this flavorful, unfussy cuisine will inspire you to make these ancient culinary traditions your own. Featuring the bold flavors and simple, healthy techniques of more than ten countries, Feast from the Mideast has dishes for every occasion, from dinner-party feasts to quick and healthy weekday meals.
