I don't know which i'd rather do first: put on my baking shoes or my travelling shoes. Anissa Helou's tempting breads and savory pastries are introducing me to new tastes of the Mediterranean with recipes she's found from families and bakers around that sea. Sweet and spicy Greek saints' day bread; Lebanese pizza breads topped with wild thyme, sumac, and sesame seeds; Moroccan semolina bread; Tunisian bread with harissa and cayenne-flavored filling; sweet olive oil bread from Spain; and Ramadan breads with dates. Hurray for her regional research. My copy bristles with many markers; my fingers yearn to plunge into the doughs.
Carol Field , author of The Italian Baker, Celebrating Italy, and Italy in Small Bites
Anissa has done it again; I wouldn't have believed it possible. Mediterranean Street Food is one of my favorite cookbooks and was an inspiration at my restaurant in Washington. Her newest contribution, Savory Baking from the Mediterranean, will inspire many bakers. It's recipes are clear and simple. The foods are wonderful. The book will inform home and professional bakers alike of the ubiquity of wonderful bread.
Mark H. Furstenberg, founder of Marvelous Market and The BreadLine and co-owner of Ma-Mi Bistro and Bakery
Anissa Helou's new book, Savory Baking from the Mediterranean, is not just a comprehensive look at a fascinating subject but it's compiled and written with Anissa's wonderful combination of knowledge, wry wit, and passion for the subject. Her travels have ranged widely throughout the Mediterranean, up and down, back and forth, and found both delicious secrets and new and delighful ways to approach beloved standards.
Nancy Harmon Jenkins, author of Cucina del Sole
Anissa Helou has brought back wonderful recipes from her travels around the Mediterranean and presents them with engaging charm, evoking the places she visited and the people she met.
Claudia Roden, author of Arabesque: A Taste of Morocco, Turkey and Lebanon
Anissa Helou's books are the only hopeful sign I see coming out of the Middle East these days. No fight-to-the-death factionalism for her. She reaches out to the entire region, from Izmir to Fez passing through Jerusalem, Athens, Crete, Sardinia, Malta, Naples, and Marseilles in a fabulous, openhearted periplous, a voyage over Mediterranean waters worthy of Odysseus or Sinbad. But on her trip, the bread is better, much better.
Raymond Sokolov, author of A Canon of Vegetables
I love the spirit of this book. It opens the reader up to the diversity and magic of bread, it's versatility, and it's ability to bring people together.
Alice Waters, Chez Panisse
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