Claudia Roden - Unwelcoming hunting lodge in Sardinia (52/155)

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Claudia Roden (b. 1936) is an Egyptian-born British cookbook writer and cultural anthropologist of Sephardi/Mizrahi descent. She is best known as the author of Middle Eastern cookbooks including "A Book of Middle Eastern Food", "The New Book of Middle Eastern Food" and "The Book of Jewish Food". In this unique interview for Web of Stories, Claudia Roden is talking to her granddaughter Nelly Wolman about her life in food. [Listener: Nelly Wolman; date recorded: 2022]

TRANSCRIPT: I had a letter from the 'Sunday Times', and it didn't always work. For instance when I was in Sardinia, I drove up to... I wanted to see the cooking of the mountains. And I went up to a hunting lodge, where people were hunting wild boar. And I went in, put my bags down, and quickly went to the kitchen. And I saw them cooking stew of wild boar in red wine. And I saw them making 'carta di musica', which is a very, very fine bread, almost paper-thin. Like a sheet of music. And also, they were making food for themselves, which was pasta with a cheese, cream cheese. And suddenly a woman came in, a real battle-axe, and she just shouted at me, 'Fuori, fuori!' 'Get out, get out'. And I brought out my letter. I'm here for the 'Sunday Times', writing about you. She didn't know how to read English. But she just kept telling me get out. And so, I did.

And in the evening, I went out to dinner in the restaurant of this hunting lodge. And there was only me and a long table full of hunters who had come to hunt. And they were there and after they were served the first course, they started singing hunting songs. And I was there, far away from them, and one of them said, 'Would you like to join us?' And I said, 'Yes'. And I went and joined them. And then the woman suddenly came in and she said, 'Go back to your table'. I went back to my table. But I heard them singing. And then the next morning I thought I'd stay on, two days – I had booked for three days. And as I came down in the morning she said, 'Have your breakfast and pack your bags'. And then she said, 'Haven't you got a husband?' So, there was at that time this thing that women travelling alone were... what are they doing here. But for mostly, for me, to be researching food gave me a reason to be there. And a very plausible one.