Award-winning food and travel writer Caroline Eden goes on a gastronomic adventure, finding hope and a sense of home in the shared language of food.
After journeying from Uzbekistan to Ukraine, Eden returns to her subterranean Scottish kitchen, which she fills with treasured ingredients, recipes, and trinkets brought back from her travels.
Her “cosy as a nut” kitchen is a source of everyday comfort, where she bakes with her beloved beagle, Darwin curled up at her side “like a cinnamon bun.”
As Eden cooks, she culinarily conjures the countries she has explored, finding herself transported to foreign lands in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, whose food has left an imprint on her heart and mind.
An ordinary place, yet also an extraordinary one, a kitchen magically opens “up the world through taste and flavour and imagination.”
One day, the simple act of preparing a watermelon, feta, and mint salad stirs memories, whisking Eden back to the Silk Road city of Samarkand, where she ate luscious winter melons at a roadside during a lengthy traffic jam.
Her words act as portals to other places and eras, and as she recounts this memory, Eden also paints a picture of ancient times—of Uzbek kings who once sent this juicy fruit, packed in snow and carried by camel caravan, as gifts to Chinese emperors.
A country’s food is seasoned with stories of its past and its people, telling us much about its culture, its politics, and its history, and Eden’s memoir is richly satisfying, blending her experiences with tales from the countries she has visited.
Her words, too, are infused with the philosophy of mindfulness, reminding us to find contentment, peace, and flow in simple things, such as preparing a meal.
This soulful approach serves as an antidote to fast food and the speed of modern life, encouraging us to slow down and savour, whilst accepting setbacks such as the occasional “scorched porridge”.
Peppered with fascinating references and delicious recipes drawn from her wanderings, Eden’s literary style is lyrical yet authentic, and her description of the Trans-Siberian Railway and the “calming clickety-clack of the train, rhythmic as poetry” could easily describe her writing.
With an MA in Jewish Studies and Diaspora, Eden writes with a keen awareness of how groups of people can become scattered from their homeland, and what this book does best is to subtly remind us of our shared humanity in the face of global unrest.
One night, as Eden makes an apple, blueberry, and rum strudel, she is reminded of one she ate in Ukraine, and her thoughts turn to the fragility of home. Ultimately, the recipes and memories Eden gathers from across the globe go beyond borders, gifting us with a taste of other countries and continents, revealing how food is “deep-rooted in love.”
A Financial Times and Observer “best summer read”, and Times Literary Supplement Book of the Year, Cold Kitchen comes highly recommended for anyone with wanderlust, a love of food, or curiosity about the ways in which food can bring us together.
Cold Kitchen: A Year of Culinary Journeys (Bloomsbury, 2024) by Caroline Eden. Reviewed by R.B.L. Robinson.
