At its peak, the wealthy Ottoman Empire indulged its love of food extravagantly. One pastry chef in a great home would specialize in making filo for baklava and another one a subtly different filo for savory boreks. A banquet might feature as many as 50 dishes, the guests tasting only a mouthful of each. It was a cuisine of subtlety as well as richness. Compare this with Charles Perry’s January talk, “Banquets of Marrakesh.”

Charles Perry majored in Middle East Studies at Princeton University and the University of California, Berkeley. After graduation he pursued a writing career, serving as an editor and staff writer at Rolling Stone from 1968 to 1976 and a staff writer at the Los Angeles Times Food Section from 1990 to 2008. He began collecting medieval Arab cookery manuscripts in 1980 and has published widely on Middle Eastern food history.