Silk Roads and Ottoman Routes: How Ingredients and Tastes came to Europe

Her acclaimed debut cookbook, Silk Roads: A Flavour Odyssey from Baku to Beijing, blends recipes with travel, family stories, and cultural history, exploring how ingredients move, settle, and transform across borders. With academic training in Asian and Middle Eastern studies, Anna lives in London with her husband and son, and believes deeply in the power of the kitchen and cooking to tell global as well as personal stories.

Her books include Samarkand, Black Sea, Red Sands, Green Mountains and a memoir, Cold Kitchen, which was a 'book of the year' for The New Yorker in 2025. Caroline's work has won prizes including the prestigious André Simon Award in the UK and the Art of Eating prize in the US. Her writing has featured in the Financial Times, The Guardian, The Times Literary Supplement and her own weekly newsletter, Journeys Beyond Borders.

She frequently travels to teach Turkish cookery in the USA, Türkiye, UK, Europe and Jordan. Özlem is passionate about her homeland, has hosted numerous culinary tours to İstanbul and Türkiye. Her debut book, Özlem’s Turkish Table, as well as her second cookery book, Sebze: Vegetarian Recipes from my Turkish Kitchen, both won the Gourmand Best in the World Award. Özlem’s latest cookery book, İSTANBUL; Delicious Recipes from the Heart of the City, is out in May 2026. Özlem shares her recipes, travels and events at @ozlems_turkish_table.

He completed his doctorate at SOAS in 2018, focusing on the writing of historical narratives in Türkiye and the Soviet Union in the 1920s and 30s. Michael's areas of specialism at the Library include manuscript and print cultures in Armenian, Kurdish, Syriac, and Turkic languages. Prior to returning to academia in 2013, he worked as a diplomat for the Canadian foreign service in the Middle East, Spain and Latin America.

Irina Janakievska is an award-winning Macedonian-British food writer and author of The Balkan Kitchen, which won a James Beard Award (International, 2025), the British Library Narrative Cookery Book Award (2025), and received a Special Jury Award and ‘Best of the Best’ distinction at the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards (2024, 2025). It was also shortlisted for the Jane Grigson Trust Award and the Fortnum & Mason Debut Cookery Book Award. Her writing has appeared widely, including in The Guardian and National Geographic and she has featured on BBC Woman’s Hour and international radio and podcasts. Her work centres on Balkan cuisine, history and cultural identity.

Brought up in Cumbria, Roopa Gulati crossed continents and lived in India for two decades. Here, she worked as a chef in New Delhi’s kitchens, where she cooked in large hotels, TV studios, palace kitchens, and on stoves across India. Now based in London, she continues to create recipes, write about food and share her skills with fans of regional Indian cooking. Her latest book, Indian Kitchens is published by Bloomsbury.