MODERN EGYPT

Vestiges of ancient aromas and flavours persist alluringly. There is something peculiarly pleasing about amateurish research about ancient Egypt that confirms widely held opinions based on shakier foundations. Many of the vegetables, fruits and grains common in contemporary Egyptian cuisine are radically different from the ones the ancient Egyptians used. Imagine modern Egyptian cuisine without tomato, rice or sugar. Tomato is an essential ingredient for the most popular modern Egyptian stews. Rice is perhaps second to none but wheat as a staple Egyptian grain. And, bread, made of wheat flour, is literally called eish, a corruption of the Arab word for life, in colloquial Egyptian. And yet, in ancient Egypt, bread made from wheat was the prerogative of the privileged. The poor had to make do with bread baked with the flour of lesser grains such as barley for instance. And, the ancient Egyptians had no refined sugar to sweeten their desserts with, either. Even so, some contemporary Egyptian desserts such as fenugreek paste, hilba maquda, most certainly have their roots in ancient Egypt.

It is perhaps for that particular reason that the American University in Cairo (AUC) Press invited Mehdawy to a book signing assemblage at the 41st Cairo International Book Fair. Not only did they publish an English translation of her bestseller My Egyptian Grandmother's Kitchen, but they will also publish another of her works later in the year on ancient Egyptian cuisine.

"I grew up watching my grandmother cooking most of these dishes. I enjoy preparing them for my family -- her three daughters Noha, Nermeen and Nancy," Mehdawy smiles demurely. She recalls how she declined many seemingly lucrative offers to start up catering businesses. "It was far more fun cooking traditional Egyptian dishes for her brother, Essam, living abroad whenever he visited. "He lives and works in Vienna and has a foreign wife, so he naturally misses home-cooking," she explains almost apologetically. So how did this archeologist by training turn to cooking and writing about food for a living? "The ancient Egyptians gave special importance to the kitchen. The room furthest away from the entrance of the house was always used as the kitchen. Among the kitchen equipment and cooking utensils were the all-important clay-covered oven for baking, lots of earthenware pots, mortars and pestles for grinding grain. They never slaughtered cows, only oxen," she elucidates. There are benefits, I suppose, to being outside the herd.

Mehdawy, nevertheless, is a trendspotter who aspires to become a trendsetter, to boot. "I pray to God that I have been successful in what I set out to do and that the final outcome is of value to anyone seeking traditional Egyptian food," she remarks wryly. "With the progression of scientific discovery in the field of nutrition, the value of our old- fashioned foods has become evident." In her scholarly manner she unearthed several recipes that date back to the days of the Pharaohs.

Mehdawy's masterpiece, My Egyptian Grandmother's Kitchen, was an instant bestseller for which she was awarded the Al-Ahram Appreciation Prize in 2004. It was arguably the most complete collection of Egyptian recipes ever assembled.