Ruth is a well-known food expert in Israel, where she hosts a food TV show, owns her own trendy cold-pressed juice company (called “Jusso”), writes a regular food column, and is a former guest judge on Iron Chef Israel and Game of Chefs (a popular culinary reality TV show). She is also one of the stars of a new documentary on Israeli food called In Search of Israeli Cuisine, which will air on PBS nationwide next year (and is currently touring the film festival circuit, to great acclaim).
As you may know, Israeli food is very hot right now: At the most recent James Beard Foundation Awards, the award for “Best New Restaurant” in the US went to Israeli-born Alon Shaya’s Shaya restaurant in New Orleans, and Michael Solomonov’s Israeli cookbook, Zahav: A World of Israeli Cooking, won “Book of the Year.” And this comes on the heels of a surge in popularity of Israeli restaurants opening up all over the country, from Balaboosta and Timna in New York to Yalla in Atlanta to Shaya in New Orleans—and soon, in fall 2016, a new Israeli restaurant in Los Angeles from Portland star chef Jenn Louis (inspired by a food tour of Israel last year, which we helped arrange).
ABOUT CHEF RUTH ROUSSO:
Chef Ruth Rousso has been touring the world - Milano, Beijing, Istanbul, Addis Ababa, Manila, Hanoi- demonstrating the fine dining of her homeland - Israel, while participating in the most important television shows and international networks, such as CNN and NBC.
When she’s back home, Rousso is the owner of the trendy and successful Cold Pressed Juice Company, “Jusso”, and hosting a TV food show on National TV. Rousso writes for the Italian Newspaper, Corriere della Sera. Her food column, evolving around Middle Eastern cuisine, is highly popular, with its mouthwatering pictures and easy to follow recipes.
Chef Rousso has been a guest judge on Israel Iron Chef, and on the new and high rated culinary reality “Game of Chefs”. She was recently chosen to be the promotional model for Zucker Studio. Two years ago, Rousso co-founded the first and only Palestinian heirloom market in Israel, with Chef Hussam Abbas, operating during the summers, and offering the beautiful and endemic product of the country. She is considered one of not too many successful female chefs, and thus is invited to participate in international female-chefs event all over the world. Rousso lives in Tel Aviv, with her husband and two daughters; she plays the sax, enjoys birding and yoga, and can’t stand dill.
DENVER NICKS - HOT SAUCE NATION: AMERICA’S BURNING OBSESSION - HOW HOT SAUCE AND CHILI PEPPERS CONQUERED AMERICA’S TASTE BUDS
Hot Sauce Nation is a red-hot ride through the story of hot sauce in America, from the humble South American plant that made its way to Mexico, the Caribbean, and (via Columbus) Spain and beyond, to an excruciating encounter with a 3.3-million-Scoville heat unit scorpion-pepper tincture, one of the spiciest things on earth. Why should the world’s most painful food have inspired such adoration in the United States? While chili pepper–based sauces have been potent elements of cuisines worldwide, successive waves of immigrants landing in the New World have turned up the heat on the American palate with their native pungent sauces. Today, the super-fast-growing hot sauce industry has transformed everything from salsa chips and dips to barbecue, buffalo wings, chocolates, and cocktails, inspiring passionate romances and changing people’s lives along the way. With fascinating detours into science, history, folklore, and current events, and sprinkled with the stories of the people who make, use, sell, love, and cook with hot sauce, this flavorful volume explores the unique hold the dark prince of condiments has on the American appetite.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Denver Nicks (born c. 1984) is a journalist, writer, producer, and a regular contributor to TIME. He is the author of Private: Bradley Manning, WikiLeaks, and the Biggest Exposure of Official Secrets in American History. His second book, Hot Sauce Nation, is set for release in Fall/2016. Nicks holds a bachelor’s degree in political science and international studies from Southern Methodist University and a master’s from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.