Colette Rossant - Apricots On The Nile

(5 stars; 2 reviews)

Colette Rossant Apricots On The Nile-A Memoir with Recipes Cookery writer Colette Rossant's memoir evokes a magical childhood spent in Cairo and Paris during the forties, and captures the mouth-watering flavours of Egypt's cuisine. Read by Barbara Flynn and abridged by Katrin Williams First broadcast: Mon 21st May 2001, 09:45 on BBC Radio 4 FM Producer: Elizabeth Allard Cairo, 1937: French-born Colette Rossant is waiting out World War II among her father's Egyptian-Jewish relatives. From the moment she arrives at her grandparents' belle époque mansion by the Nile, the five-year-old Colette finds companionship and comfort among the other "outsiders" in her home away from home -- the cooks and servants in the kitchen. The chef, Ahmet, lets Colette taste the ful; she learns how to make sambusaks for her new friends; and she shops for semits and other treats in the Khan-al-Khalili market. Colette is beginning to understand how her family's culture is linked to the kitchen...and soon she will claim Egypt's food, landscape, and people as her own. Apricots on the Nile is a loving testament to Colette's adopted homeland. With dozens of original recipes and family photographs, Colette's coming-of-age memoir is a splendid exploration of old Cairo in all its flavor, variety, and wide-eyed wonder. [Goodreads]

This recording is part of the Old Time Radio collection.