Tastes of Heaven Tales from the Arab kitchen

Tastes of Heaven

Tales from the Arab kitchen

Opening date: 14.7.23

Closing date:  4.5.24

Curators: Dr. Limor Yungman, Adi Namia-Cohen

Creator: Edna Assis

In the series of the Arab conquest from 632 across the Middle East and beyond, the nomadic Arab tribes came into contact with local populaces and their diverse cuisines, ingredients, and cooking techniques. The cultures that lived side by side united into Arab culture, which included the ruling Muslim majority and many minorities, including Jews, Christians, Zoroastrians, Pagans, and more. The collective culture that emerged also found expression in the culinary world with the creation of a new cuisine – Arab cuisine.

From Tharid, the Prophet Muhammad’s favorite dish, through Muhallabiya, Hummus, and Mujaddara, the exhibition presents the birth, evolution, and formation of the Arab cuisine on a timeline stretching over one thousand years.

The exhibition will proceed along a timeline beginning with the simple food that characterized nomadic life in the desert, based primarily on camel milk, dates, and camel meat, through the rich food culture that developed in the Middle Ages around the cities of Baghdad and Cairo which included the creation of recipes, the construction of sugar palaces, the composition of cookbooks, and chef games and competitions, up to the food enjoyed by Ottoman sultans.