Creator
Kanika Linden
Cambodian cookbook author and photographer based in London who documented Khmer recipes and ingredients for publication.
Kanika Linden is a London-based cookbook author and photographer who wrote two Cambodian cookbooks with the cook Sorey Long.[1][2] Their first book won the Best Asian Cuisine Cookbook in the World award at the 2009 Gourmand World Cookbook Awards.[3]
Background
Linden left Cambodia in 1975 and grew up in France. She graduated from the French business school ESSEC and then moved to London, where she had lived for 15 years by 2014.[2][1] Her photography studies included Blake College and Westminster Kingsway in London.[2] Living in London in 1999 and missing the food of her homeland, she began learning Cambodian cooking from Sorey Long.[2] The two spent about ten years on their cookbook work, through telephone calls and meetings.[2][3]
Making the books
On a trip to Cambodia in 2008, Linden used her photography training and a brief period of work with a photography charity to document Khmer ingredients, among them the sour ambarella fruit, m'kak in Khmer.[1] She spent three months in Cambodia completing the book.[3] Traditional cooks did not use kitchen scales or timers, so she measured quantities and cooking times herself. She made conversion charts for imperial, metric and American measurements so that the book could be used in any country.[1] She also compiled an ingredient glossary with photographs, Latin names, descriptions and possible substitutes for readers who could not find Cambodian ingredients.[1]
Linden and Long wrote the text together, checking quantities and ingredients and editing and proofreading. Linden took all the photographs of the food and ingredients, and she printed and published the book herself.[4] With friends, she handled the photography, translation, design, editing, publishing and distribution.[1] She also rewrote the instructions as simple steps with many pictures.[3]
Books
Au pays de la pomme cythère (In the Land of Ambarella) was published in French by White Tara Ltd in April 2009 and January 2010. The hardcover has 218 pages, 139 recipes and 158 photographs, including photographs by Jérome Jaymond.[5] Its recipes include fish in coconut milk, salads and lemongrass soup.[3] It won the Best Asian Cuisine Cookbook in the World award at the 2009 Gourmand World Cookbook Awards, chosen from more than 6,000 books entered by publishers in 136 countries.[5] An English edition, Authentic Cambodian Recipes: From Mother to Daughter, was published by Marshall Cavendish Cuisine in 2010.[6][1]
Ambarella, Cambodian Cuisine, their second book, was published in English in October 2013 and presents more than 100 Cambodian recipes.[2][7] Sorey Long contributed hundreds of recipes, and Linden took the photographs.[2] In February 2014 it won the Best Asian Cuisine Cookbook category of the 2013 Gourmand World Cookbook Awards, which put it in the running for the Best in the World title.[1] At the Gourmand Awards in Beijing in May 2014, it won the Asian prize, for Best Asian Cuisine Book published outside Asia.[2][7]
Works
- Saraman Curry (recipe) (Recipe)
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 Khmerization, Mother-daughter cooking duo wins top culinary prize (February 9, 2014)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 Tourism Cambodia, Flavours to savour (June 14, 2014)
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 VOA Khmer, Mother-Daughter Cookbook Takes Gourmand Award (March 22, 2010)
- ↑ Khmerization, Cambodian cookbook: Au pays de la Pomme Cythère (April 15, 2010)
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Khmerization, A Cambodian cookbook wins a world award (April 12, 2010)
- ↑ AbeBooks, Authentic Cambodian Recipes: From Mother to Daughter
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 AbeBooks, Ambarella: Cambodian Cuisine (2014)