The North African Cookbook

by Jeff Koehler

‘This cookbook is a must for a deep dive into North African classic and regional dishes.’ –   Warda Bouguettaya , James Beard award-winning pastry chef and owner of Warda Patisserie, Detroit ‘An unprecedented and remarkable dive in the fabulously rich and diverse culinary heritage of North Africa (which goes far beyond the beloved clichés of couscous and tagines).’ –  Mohamed El Baroudi , Moroccan tea expert and gastronome, Academy Chair of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants for North and West Africa

‘A thorough, investigative journey through the food of the Maghreb, full of comforting and inviting recipes.’ – Yotam Ottolenghi, chef, restaurateur and food writer ‘If you're interested in the vibrant food of North Africa, this book is absolutely essential. Smart and beautifully written, it is filled with wonderful recipes you'll want to cook.’ – Ruth Reichl,  bestselling author and food writer A collection of 445 exciting and accessible recipes that celebrate North Africa’s vibrant and diverse food culture Extensively researched and twenty years in the making,  The North African Cookbook  is the largest collection of traditional North African recipes for home cooks. Focusing on the Maghreb region – Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya –  The North African Cookbook  explores the territory’s vast culinary diversity and history. From Berber, Arabic, and Ottoman influences as well as French, Spanish, and Italian, this cookbook offers a comprehensive overview of how native, as well as European colonialism, influenced the region's traditions today. A wide network of culinary voices from across North Africa guided the project. In a region so vast and so diverse, James Beard award-winning food writer Jeff Koehler looked to many hundreds of experts and locals. Following two decades of travel across North Africa and a career spent writing in depth about the region and its food, Koehler’s extensively researched collection is an exhaustive look at traditional recipes across the Maghreb. Filled with delicious and authentic North African dishes that can easily be recreated at home, this treasure trove of a book brings to life an exciting cuisine that is as varied and fascinating as the countries it covers.

Genres: Cookbooks, Nonfiction, Cooking, Africa, Food

468 pages, Hardcover

Published April 26, 2023

Reviews

[Dawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

A super solid cookbook if you're interested in North African cuisine, especially if you're vegetarian or looking to cook more plant-based meals.

There’s a huge variety of recipes (over 400!), and a surprising number are either vegetarian or easily adaptable. I was especially drawn to the bean and lentil dishes, there are tons of them, and many are simple, hearty, and flavorful. A lot of the recipes use everyday ingredients like lentils, chickpeas, olive oil, and spices, so I didn’t feel like I had to hunt down anything too obscure to get started.

The tone is classic cookbook, very focused on the food, with clear instructions but it’s definitely more old-school in style: not a lot of glossy food photos, which might be a downside for some. It’s a rich, rewarding cookbook and a great reference to have on hand.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite a few lovely recipes with mostly easy to follow recipes. My only complaints are that for the fried dishes no oil temperatures are given and I'm not good at judging oil heat by the quality of its shimmering as this cook book describes it, and while it tells you what allergens are in the dishes as far as gluten and dairy, it doesn't give substitute options for other dishes for things like citrus. I'll have to figure out how to adapt at least 85% of these dishes due to a lemon allergy. I get it. Citrus based allergies aren't as common as gluten, dairy, or nut; the no oil temperatures is the main gripe.

[Shane]

I just the read the fascinating introduction in this book, and could happily have continued on to read a whole non-recipe book about the region written in the same way. EXCEPT! The constant conversions! My God. The editor needs shooting! Not EVERY distance has to be in both kilometres and miles! Chickpeas are garbanzo beans - and, given the century, if if you just wrote garbanzo beans and I DIDN'T know what they were I could look it up! They literally translate chilli to chile - multiple times! I fucking kid you not!! Aargh!!!

[The New Arab]

The culmination of 20 years of work, Jeff Koehler's North African cookbook is the largest collection of Maghrebi cuisine ever written. The cookbook takes the reader's palette on a transnational odyssey of flavours across both land and sea. Read The New Arab's review here: https://www.newarab.com/features/how-...

[mol · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars, finished
the introduction was one of my favorite elements of the cookbook, offering the background of particular regions and the cultural traditions they hold, both as individual countries and as a continent. wish there were more pictures!

[E G Melby · Rating 4 out of 5]

Large in scale - lots of detail leaves me overwhelmed. Phaidon’s cookbooks are without equal