Anyone investing time and energy into writing books – tragically considered an almost obsolete medium by the millennium generation – deserves recognition and applause right from the conception of the idea. So it is heartening that Sayeeda Leghari’s efforts, that went into writing the magnificent Pakistan Heritage Cuisine – A Food Story, just got globally acknowledged at the Gourmand World Award for the category, ‘Best Asian Cookbook in the World’. The book was nominated in two categories: ‘Asian - Published in Asia’ and ‘Culinary Heritage’ and picked up one of the awards, making it the only book from Pakistan to get a nod from the prestigious annual awards in 2018.
The book is a thoroughly researched production - we’d also call it a passion project - and it assembles the unique and exotic foods and recipes that are intertwined in our culture. It’s a big coffee-table book, with beautiful photography capturing the heart and soul of South Asian cuisine. This is also a victory for Markings Publishing, led by Kiran Aman, for having the love and vision to choose and project the right projects. This is the third Gourmand Award for the publication house; it previously won for Deliciously Yours by Lal Majid in 2014 and for the Pakistan-India collaborative cook book, Flavours of the Frontier in 2015.
While social media and platforms like Instagram or Snapchat may appear to be the future of visual communication and information, we believe in books, the written word and believe that a generation that does not read has no future.
