This week, my guest is Lior Lev Sercarz. Lior is the chef, spice blender, and owner of La Boîte, a spice shop in New York City. He's previously released the cookbooks The Art of Blending, The Spice Companion and Mastering Spice. This week, he released his 4th book, A Middle Eastern Pantry. In this new cookbook he focuses on the everyday ingredients used throughout this vast region, including Turkey, Tunisia, Yemen, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Armenia, Jordan, and more, as he offers an homage to the pantry staples that define Middle Eastern cuisine.

In addition to discussing his cookbooks, we talk about why he started his spice company, and how it’s evolved since its inception. Currently, he has around 100 spice blends that are available to the public, but he makes an additional 200 blends specifically for other restaurants and businesses. Additionally, he sells 80-90 single spices.

We also talk about the procurement process, the quality of his spices, and spice use today vs back in the 80’s. You know…way back when your mom probably had just pepper, granulated garlic and a musty old can of paprika. And not related to spices, we talk about the formation of the Galilee Culinary Institute, something he’s really passionate about.

LIOR LEV SERCARZ

Buy the book A Middle Eastern Pantry
The La Boîte website
Instagram: Lior & La Boîte
The Galilee Culinary Institute
Other books: The Art of Blending, The Spice Companion and Mastering Spice

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