Robin Keuneke
The Iberian Table
Former food editor for Total Health Magazine, award-winning health author, natural foods chef, and fine artist
Palm Beach/Miami, FL and Atlanta, GA
BOOK COVER
BOOK DETAILS
Pub Date: October 22, 2024
Genre: Cookbook / Health
Publisher: Bay of Roses Books
Page Count: 474
Format, ISBN, Price:
Paperback, 978-069298-2198, $24.99
ABOUT THE BOOK
“Keuneke celebrates good food and good health in this cookbook and love letter to the flavors of the Iberian Peninsula…. A thoroughly sumptuous guide to some of the world’s most nutritious cuisines…. Get it.”
–Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
A health book, cookbook, and culinary travel memoir blended to serve as a love letter to Spain, The Iberian Table decodes one of the world’s healthiest and most delicious food cultures. Spain has more restaurants in the world’s top 50 than any other country, and its people also enjoy a unique longevity, second only to Japan.
Robin Keuneke, award-winning author of Total Breast Health and coauthor of The Detox Revolution, offers a celebration of Spanish food and culture while giving readers fresh insight on improving their health through what they eat. The Iberian Table highlights the benefits of the undiscovered Spanish Mediterranean diet, which she presents as the most life-extending in the basin, and offers more than 100 delicious, easy-to-follow recipes that Keuneke created for the American home cook, plus advice on meal planning and weekly menus.
With a fresh voice, she pays homage to the cooking of the famed northern region, which boasts 9 of the 11 restaurants in Spain to earn 3 stars in the 2018 Michelin Guide. Keuneke examines the development of this distinguished gastronomic movement, which impacted not only the entire Iberian Peninsula, but the world. Special contributions by renowned Michelin Star chefs Carme Ruscalleda and Elena Arzak provide further health insights, plus a few favorite recipes from their legendary repertoires.
Through Keuneke’s rich exploration of Spain’s mosaic of culinary cultures, each with its own gastronomic identity, readers will gain understanding of the Mediterranean pattern of eating. The Iberian Table begins as she tours Barcelona’s Boqueria Market with YOU, the reader, to talk about cooking and health. Together you discuss the history of the market and interact with its vendors. The author shares recipes in an informal way, seamlessly woven into the narrative.
There are also 86 recipes presented in conventional cookbook format, including Catalan Tomillo Soup and Rice with Scallops and Shrimp. Additional resources include an overview of Spanish cheeses, how to build a Spanish pantry, a recipe and general index, a bibliography, travel tips, and information on Spanish food importers making this book a well-organized and complete experience.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Robin Keuneke is an author, natural foods chef, and fine artist. The former food editor for Total Health Magazine, where her articles and recipes were regularly featured, she has been a guest on nationally syndicated radio programs in the US and Canada, speaking about women’s health.
She is the author of Total Breast Health: Power Foods for Prevention and Wellness, a Publisher’s Weekly Best Book of the Year, and coauthor with Thomas J. Slaga of The Detox Revolution: A Powerful Program for Boosting Your Body’s Ability to Fight Cancer and Other Diseases.
Spain’s Mediterranean diet was a story she had to tell. For The Iberian Table: Healthy Cooking Secrets from the Land of Longevity – Introduction to the Spanish Mediterranean Diet, Keuneke created over 100 recipes for the American home cook based on the Spanish Mediterranean diet.
Keuneke has exhibited her oil paintings in New York City and London in one-person shows, and her etchings are in the permanent collection of the New York Public Library, where they were included in the show “Twentieth Century Prints”.
With her husband, Thomas, Keuneke divides her time between Atlanta and Delray Beach. Her next book project, Basque to Barcelona and Stories Along the Way, is a collection of historical fiction around the theme of Spanish culinary pursuits.
TALKING POINTS
- The signature characteristics, health benefits of and science behind the Spanish Mediterranean diet
- What the Spanish are NOT eating that contributes to their country having the second highest life expectancy in the world (after Japan)
- Why this diet is nutrition’s best-kept secret and has been understudied
- The anticarcinogenic benefits of Spain’s ubiquitous sofrito
- Insights from Michelin Star chefs Carme Ruscalleda and Elena Arzak
- The longevity example of Maria Branyas, who was the oldest woman in the world until her recent death at 117–years-old and who lived in Catalonia, a region at the heart of the book
- The unique aspects of Spanish cuisine that make it so celebrated by food critics worldwide
PRAISE
“Keuneke celebrates good food and good health in this cookbook and love letter to the flavors of the Iberian Peninsula…. A thoroughly sumptuous guide to some of the world’s most nutritious cuisines…. Get it.”
– Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“I believe that one can probably eat better in Spain today than anywhere else in the Western world—from the most basic of foods…to the most other-worldly innovations of modernist cuisine—and Keuneke has done a remarkably comprehensive job of telling us why and how. Her recipes are clearly written and seductive, and she eloquently evokes the soul and spirit of Spain—even those parts of it that are far from the Mediterranean—and, yeah, okay, all the health and nutrition stuff is pretty useful and informative as well, and only enhances the rest.”
– Colman Andrews, author, Catalan Cuisine: Europe’s Last Great Culinary Secret and Ferran: The Inside Story of El Bulli and the Man Who Reinvented Food
“The Iberian Table is many things—a story, a referenced text on health, a cookbook and a memoir helping us understand the Mediterranean diet on all levels. With thorough research and the voice of a seasoned storyteller, Keuneke brings the Spanish Mediterranean diet to life.”
– Isabel Bertomeu, formerly nutritionist-dietician Mediterranean Diet Foundation, Barcelona
“Keuneke uses her senses to bring a country, culture, its geography, food and people alive on inked pages. It is unusual for a writer to be so good at doing it.”
– Udo Erasmus, Ph.D., author of Fats That Heal, Fats That Kill
“The Iberian Table whisks me away emotionally, historically and scientifically to incorporate this way of eating into my lifestyle. So simple and so much fun! With Robin’s recipes I can visit Spain in my kitchen every night knowing that, in the process, I am promoting good health for my family.”
– Sandy Gooch, author and natural foods retail pioneer
“The Iberian Table, a fascinating road trip through the gastronomy of Spain, serves us on a plate the secrets of the Mediterranean diet. With two cups of grace and a pinch of passion, Keuneke reveals the ancestral tradition of the Spanish people: that of simply eating our own landscape. Reading this book, you will discover that Spaniards have never been very impressed by Cordon Bleu recipes, but very attentive to fresh produce of the street markets; that a good fish doesn’t need much more than a sprinkle of olive oil to be broiled to excellence. As you will find out in the fascinating interviews with chefs Arzak and Ruscalleda, eating in the Iberian Peninsula is not a refueling chore but a destination to an after-dinner conversation that can go on forever. So take a seat and enjoy!”
– Guillermo Fesser, journalist, writer, filmmaker and creator of Gomaespuma
“The Iberian Table represents the wisdom of Mediterranean women in the development of culinary knowledge for a more delicious, sustainable, and healthy diet. A complete delight!”
– Alba Adat Caballero, formerly nutritionist-dietician, Alícia Foundation, Catalunya
“Keuneke introduces us all to the unique and health-promoting ‘Iberian Table.’ It is filled with traditional, flavor-packed recipes that provide our hearts, minds and bodies with an array of phytonutrients sure to promote optimal health. Enjoy!”
– Donald R. Yance, MH, CN, master herbalist, nutritionist, and author of Herbal Medicine, Healing & Cancer and Adaptogens in Medical Herbalism
“Keuneke has succeeded at a difficult task: writing about health statistics and recipes without becoming tedious. Most readers of such subjects eventually switch off. But Robin is a very fine, engaging writer. In addition, she is preserving in print, while it is still possible, an ancient way of life, now threatened by globalization, commercialism, and climate change. For this, we should be grateful.”
– Dr. Andreas Buttimer, radiologist, Ireland
BOOK DETAILS
Pub Date: May 17, 2022
Genre: Memoir / Christian Inspirational
Publisher: She Writes Press
Page Count: 304
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 978-1647429003
Price: $15.99