Travel and food writer Caroline Eden talks to Janet Christie about her new book Cold Kitchen

Transcript

00:00Okay, this is Janet Christie at The Scotsman. I'm here today with Caroline Eden talking

00:05about her new book, Cold Kitchen. And first of all, I wondered if you could tell us, Caroline,

00:10what's in the book?

00:12So it's a book which looks back at my 20-odd years of travel. And what it does is it takes

00:18a year of me cooking here in my Edinburgh kitchen. And through each dish that I'm preparing

00:23over 12 chapters, we then travel out to different lands that are covered within the book.

00:29And can you tell me your favourite food from all of the places that you've been, and also

00:32list some of the places, perhaps?

00:34So the book starts in Uzbekistan and ends in Ukraine. And between those two chapters,

00:39we travel to places like Poland, to Russia, to the South Caucasus. And I would say out

00:46of all of the dishes that are in the book, there's just one recipe at the end of each

00:50chapter. It would have to be plov, which is the Central Asian pilaf-style rice dish. Cooks

00:55in layers, often with lamb or mutton, sometimes with quail eggs. And it's a really delicious

01:00dish.

01:02And is there anything, what role does food play for the traveller, would you say, for

01:07you and for anybody that's travelling?

01:09I think it's really important for people when they travel. I think most people enjoy an

01:14aspect of food and travel, whether it's sitting at a cafe or going to a bistro or eating in

01:18a train carriage. I think food is really good at evoking memories of a place. And I think

01:24it's often our first way in to a country when we arrive somewhere, you know, what's

01:28on the menu, first of all.

01:31And we spoke about some of the things that you have on the table, which are from your

01:35travels. Could you describe them to us?

01:37Yeah, so there's just a small selection here, but this is something I picked up in Georgia,

01:41in Tbilisi recently. These sort of ceramic mushrooms I picked up in Istanbul. These are

01:48some chocolates from Ukraine, I was just there in February. And this is a spice mix called

01:53Svan Salt, which is from the northern part of Georgia.

01:57And we've got scones from Scotland.

01:58Yes.

01:59Made by Caroline herself for us today. Thank you very much.

02:03You can read all about it anyway in Cool Kitchen and one of Caroline's other books. And you

02:09can also have a look at her website, carolineeden.com. Look at events for her upcoming events in

02:15Scotland and elsewhere. And you can read more of my work at scotsman.com. Thank you very

02:22much.