ALGIERS – In her book entitled “Culinary memory of Algeria, history of recipes”, Yasmina Sellam offers her readers to explore Algerian gastronomy through the prism of the history of food, universal gastronomic literature and the authenticity of a rich local heritage enriched over time, while going back to the gastronomy of antiquity.
Published by the Anep edition on the occasion of the 25th International Book Fair of Algiers (Sila), held recently, this beautiful 110-page book is based on a rich documentation work on the history of food from prehistory and the rules of healthy food in the Empire of China of Confucius (5 century BC) or the Rome of Apicius, to the potential of contemporary culinary art.
The author has chosen to publish what our distant ancestors ate and to give readers the desire to explore this diet by considering “that a dish is the story of a terroir (…) and that Algeria’s gastronomic wealth is the result of local genius and the footprints of other civilizations”. Yasmina Sellam, who has moved away from the simple recipe book, wonders about the reasons that have left this heritage bequeathed from generation to generation “completely unknown”.
This trained agronomist also exposes summaries of ancient writings on culinary art using the example of the Babylonian tablets dated 400 years before our era, considered the first culinary documents, and which give “recipes achievable nowadays”.
The author also cites “Kitab Al Tabkh” by Ibrahim Ibn El Mahdi, the first cookbook in the Arabic language unfortunately disappeared and another eponymous book by Ibn Sayyar El Warrak which is “the first book to reach us in full”.
Yasmina Sellam proposes to trace the thread of Algerian culinary art, based first on the oldest utensils discovered on the few available writings and research that provide information on the diet of the Numidians or on the Umayyad, Abbasid, Andalusian or Ottoman heritage.
In terms of recipes, the author proposes the oldest known achievements of Algerian culinary art such as “Chicken Numidian style” and “stuffed dates”, cited by Apicius, a figure of Roman high society, and Algerian couscous whose diversity, authenticity and origins are no longer to be demonstrated since its classification as a world heritage of humanity.
A small selection of authentic recipes are also proposed by Yasmina Sellam who has chosen to also highlight the enrichment of the Algerian culinary art by different under the influence of different cultures.
An agricultural engineer by training and a teacher at the École normale supérieure, Yasmina Sellam opened her table d’hôtes in 2011, after her retirement, with the objective of making known the traditional cuisine typically Algerian. Member of the jury of the “Master Chef Algeria” competition, she also intervenes in many television programs to transmit a little-known or forgotten culinary heritage and healthy cuisine based on academic knowledge.
Translated by Hope from APS
