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| Marlena Spieler | |
Food writer Marlena Spieler, whose best work "combined a globe-trotting knowledge of world cuisine (she spent around a third of the year travelling) with a sunniness of tone and consistently exciting recipes," died July 6, the Guardian reported. She was 74. Hot and Spicy, her groundbreaking 1985 cookbook, "included a host of Mediterranean recipes that could easily come from one of [Yotam] Ottolenghi's books, including spiced versions of hummus and baba ganoush as well as other Middle Eastern delights such as zhoug (a fiery Yemenite green sauce seasoned with green chillies), and shakshuka, that staple of the modern brunch scene."
Spieler wrote more than 70 cookbooks, starting with Naturally Good in 1974, and co-authored or contributed to more than 25 others. Her titles include Jewish Cooking; Best-Ever Book of Jewish Cooking; Recipes from My Jewish Grandmother; Grilled Cheese: 50 Recipes to Make You Melt; A Taste of Naples; and The Vegetarian Bistro. Her book Yummy Potatoes led to a role as an ambassador to the United Nations' International Year of the Potato conference in Peru. Above all, she wrote about the cuisines of her favorite countries, especially Mexico and Italy.
"I love garlic passionately. I yield to its voluptuous presence often, even at the point of destroying my social life," she once wrote. The Guardian noted that "her good-humored ebullience did not always endear her to the stuffier elements of British food-writing circles. Although she lived in Britain for the last 35 years of her life... her work was less recognized here than it was in her native U.S."
From 2000 to 2010, she wrote the Roving Feast column for the San Francisco Chronicle, and in 1992 she won a James Beard Award for her book From Pantry to Table: Creative Cooking from the Well-Stocked Kitchen.
"She would travel the world and bring back wonderful tales of food and adventure, and relate them all to what we were all eating and feeling here in Northern California," said Miriam Morgan, former food editor at the Chronicle. "Her recipes sparkled with life and were incredibly popular with readers.... She would come in with bags full of the most interesting and fabulous ingredients, and in a matter of minutes whip up something wonderfully delicious that we would then be able to share with our readers."