Cookbook Review: Rose Water and Orange Blossoms by Maureen Abood

Maureen Abood grew up in a Lebanese family where food was the center of so many wonderful memories and stories. Rose Water and Orange Blossoms is a beautiful tribute to the food and stories from her childhood, and also of a culture she longed to know more about as she grew into adulthood.

Clean, vibrant photographs pair beautifully with mouth-watering and slightly exotic recipes such as roasted red bell pepper and walnut dip, cardamom green tea, and pomegranate rose sorbet. 

Overall, this is a gorgeous and accessible cookbook for the home cook. My main gripe with it is that the food photography, while stunning and mouth watering, does not come even close to looking like how the dish turns out in your own kitchen. I made both the roasted red bell pepper and walnut dip as well as the pomegranate and rose sorbet, and as you can see here, the colors don't come even close to the photographs in the book.


This is but a minor gripe because both dishes tasted delicious (though I thought the sorbet called for too much sugar -- the sweetness overpowered the floral taste of the rose water), but I don't want a cookbook to be so beautiful that it comes off like a song that's been overproduced, which is what people might interpret the photographs to be.

Overall I really enjoyed Rose Water and Orange Blossoms and look forward to discovering more of Maureen Abood's work in the future. As she is a fellow a Michigander, I hope she'll eventually do an event at one of my local bookstore hangouts so I can hear more of her family stories.


Rose Water and Orange Blossoms: Fresh and Classic Recipes from My Lebanese Kitchen by Maureen Abood
Published: April 28, 2015
Publisher: Running Press
Pages: 256
Genre: Cookery
Audience: Adults
Disclosure: Library Copy

If you buy this book or any book through Amazon, it is my hope that you also regularly patronize independent bookstores, which are important centerpieces of thriving communities. While I am an Amazon Affiliate, that by no means implies that I only buy my books through their website. Please make sure you are still helping small, independent bookstores thrive in your community. To locate an independent bookstore near you, visit IndieBound.