Join us for a special lecture by Hélène Jawhara Piñer, chef and historian of medieval and early modern Europe and its foodways. Based in Bordeaux, Hélène is an expert on Sephardic cuisine and how it has historically developed in the Iberian peninsula and in the American (especially the Latin American) diaspora. She has used medieval Arabic cookbooks and later Spanish-medium Inquisition tribunal records for her research. Hélène is the Gourmand World Cookbook Award-winning author of Sephardi: Cooking the History and Matzah and Flour: Recipes from the History of the Sephardic Jews.
Abstract: Exploring Jewish recipes from a contemporary cookbook seems entirely natural. However, examining Jewish recipes from a medieval cookbook feels remarkably incongruous. This is because the dominant-dominated relationship and their associated practices, including culinary ones, position religion as a tool of power, reflecting the broader social and political context of the time. Thus, both the recipes that are documented and those that remain absent carry significant meaning. Historiography sheds light on the complexities of life in the Iberian Peninsula under Muslim rule since the 12th century. Against this backdrop of tense coexistence and forced conversions, the Kitāb al-ṭabīẖ (“The Cookbook” in Arabic) emerges as a distinctive witness to these layered realities. As the oldest surviving culinary manuscript from the Iberian Peninsula, dating to the 13th century, it holds a unique place in history as the earliest known source to explicitly reference Jewish recipes. The Kitāb al-ṭabīẖ features two noteworthy characteristics: a logical structure categorizing dishes and an original culinary profile that reflects the multiculturalism of its territory. Yet, the presence of Jewish recipes within a cookbook written under an unfavorable socio-religious climate is strikingly paradoxical. In this context, several intriguing questions arise: What was the role of Jews in the cuisine of Al-Andalus under Almohad rule? Why do explicitly Jewish recipes appear in a cookbook written in Arabic? How do these Jewish recipes compare to the other recipes in the Kitāb al-ṭabīẖ? By delving into these questions, the Kitāb al-ṭabīẖ serves as an invaluable resource for understanding the complexities of cultural and religious interactions in medieval Al-Andalus.
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