Banquets of Marrakesh

Morocco is the only Arab country that the Turks never conquered,

and it has preserved and elaborated unique culinary traditions with

roots in medieval Moorish Spain and North Africa. Even today, its

king can organize huge food festivals, which give us a sense of what

it was like to dine there four centuries ago when it was a major

player in Mediterranean politics. Compare this with Charles Perry?s

December talk, "Banquets of Istanbul."

Charles Perry majored in Middle East Studies at Princeton University

and the University of California, Berkeley. After graduation, he

pursued a writing career, serving as an editor and staff writer at

Rolling Stone from 1968 to 1976 and a staff writer at the Los

Angeles Times Food Section from 1990 to 2008. He began collecting

medieval Arab cookery manuscripts in 1980 and has published

widely on Middle Eastern food history.

Host or Publisher Los Angeles Public Library