Cold Kitchen

Reviews

Into her Edinburgh kitchen, Caroline Eden tenderly gathers the ingredients and memories from a hundred journeys in Turkey, the Baltics, the Caucasus and Central Asia. A wonderful feast of a book by a multi-talented author. A quiet and beautiful book, a unique blend of history, place, love, food and belonging. Eden writes so sincerely and so intimately you miss her as soon as you’ve read the last page. We’ve really enjoyed Cold Kitchen, Caroline Eden’s travel memoir hewn through recipes from as far and wide as Central Asia, Ukraine, the Baltics and Turkey. Travel, history, food and identity – it’s all here in intrepid traveller Caroline’s tenderly written memoir. From her basement kitchen in Edinburgh, she re?ects on past culinary adventures, including plucking cloudberries in the Scottish Highlands and the magic of Riga’s rye bread pudding, sharing memorable recipes along the way. There are few with Caroline Eden’s ability to convey the particularities of people, place and landscapes through food … This honest, personal food memoir takes the reader from Eden cooking the recipes in her Edinburgh basement kitchen to a Russian railway for pies, Latvian capital Riga for dark beer and rye pudding, and much more besides. A special book to read, cook from and be transported by A moving reflection on how meaning is accrued through time and memory A hugely accomplished work that manages to be wildly enjoyable, often moving and always thoughtful. A beguiling book overlaid with a tinge of melancholy for a world that is so often in a state of violent upheaval. Anyone who has ever felt the pangs of homesickness will understand how cooking can transport you. Powerfully evocative and beautifully written Cold Kitchen will warm your heart. Curl up with this book and let it gently take you places near and far; you will find a sense of home, the hearthstone of our shared humanity. A unique memoir to savour by an explorer of our time. Eden’s cultural and culinary map takes us into a wonderfully rich world. One of the most brilliant travel writers of her generation, Caroline Eden is masterful at evoking the flavours and emotions of her encounters while on the road in eastern Europe and Central Asia. In Cold Kitchen, she weaves together the contemporary and the historical, the mundane and the magical, in a heartfelt memoir on the meanings of both distant adventures and the comforts of home. Expand reviews