The Last Sweet Bite - by Michael Shaikh (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

A powerful and heartwarming exploration of cuisine in conflict zones, highlighting the heroic persistence of people struggling to protect their food culture in the face of war, genocide, and violence.

War changes every part of human culture: art, education, music, politics. Why should food be any different? For nearly twenty years, Michael Shaikh's job was investigating human rights abuses in conflict zones. Early on, he noticed how war not only changed the lives of victims and their societies, it also unexpectedly changed the way they ate, forcing people to alter their recipes or even stop cooking altogether, threatening the very survival of ancient dishes.

A groundbreaking combination of travel writing, memoir, and cookbook, The Last Sweet Bite uncovers how humanity's appetite for violence shapes what's on our plate. Animated by touching personal interviews, original reporting, and extraordinary recipes from modern-day conflict zones across the globe, Shaikh reveals the stories of how genocide, occupation, and civil war can disappear treasured recipes, but also introduces us to the extraordinary yet overlooked home cooks and human rights activists trying to save them. From a sprawling refugee camp in Bangladesh and a brutal civil war in Sri Lanka to the drug wars in the Andes and the enduring effects of America's westward expansion, Shaikh highlights resilient diasporic communities refusing to let their culinary heritage become another casualty of war.

Much of what we eat today or buy in a market has been shaped by violence; in some form, someone's history and politics is on the dinner table. The Last Sweet Bite aims to tell us how it got there. Weaving together histories of food, migration, human rights, and recipes, Shaikh shows us how reclaiming lost cuisines is not just a form of resistance and hope but also how cooking can be a strategy for survival during trying times.

Review Quotes

"Michael Shaikh knows what our mothers and grandmothers have known for generations: that our recipes tell the stories of who we are so that we never forget. The Last Sweet Bite tells the powerful and personal stories of the heroic home cooks fighting to keep their food--and their identity--alive."--José Andrés, World Central Kitchen

"The power of food cannot be underestimated! Whether it's children eating together at school or parents preserving a cherished family recipe in a refugee camp, The Last Sweet Bite beautifully demonstrates how a cuisine can not only hold communities together but also help them rebuild after a crisis."--Alice Waters, founder of Chez Panisse and New York Times bestselling author of The Art of Simple Food

"Thanks to Michael Shaikh the world will now be able to further appreciate and amplify the food, culture and resilience of the Rohingya, Uyghur, Tamil, Quechua and many others buried behind the front page."--Michael W. Twitty, James Beard Award-winning author of The Cooking Gene and Koshersoul

"Countless cultures around the world, past and present, endure the destruction of their identities and foodways. It's important we learn how to celebrate and protect these diversities globally, by taking the time to learn from those cultures who have survived atrocities and attacks on their food systems--as well as those fighting to survive them right now. The Last Sweet Bite is a truly unique and crucial step in that direction."--Sean Sherman, Oglala Lakota and award-winning chef, author and founder of The Sioux Chef and NATIFS

"From Japan to Afghanistan, the Czech Republic to Sri Lanka, Michael Shaikh takes readers on a vivid journey of cultural and culinary discovery. With the same care and curiosity he employed as a human rights investigator, he uncovers how food nourishes not just the physical body but how it enlivens memories, shapes identities, and carries hope from one generation to the next. A book of resilience for our times."--Rachel Martin, award-winning journalist and host of Wild Card on NPR

"A rare and brilliant examination of the abuses of state power against marginalized cultures through the destruction of their culinary heritage. As such, it subtly illuminates the geopolitics of complicity and urges readers to ask ourselves how we are connected to the people whose food is on our plates."--Grace M. Cho, author of the National Book-award nominated Tastes Like War

"Through intimate stories of community and resistance, Michael Shaikh shows us how violence is erasing beloved food traditions and how people are risking it all to save them."--Nathan Thrall, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Day in the Life of Abed Salama

"Michael Shaikh is an experienced human rights investigator with a knack for compelling storytelling. He is also a sophisticated guide who shows us how communities facing repression not only lose their political freedoms but also parts of their culture."--Kenneth Roth, former executive director of Human Rights Watch and author of Righting Wrongs

About the Author

Michael Shaikh is a writer and human rights investigator who has worked for twenty years in areas marred by political crisis and armed conflict. He has worked at Human Rights Watch, International Crisis Group, the Center for Civilians in Conflict, the UN's Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and the New York City Mayor's Office of Climate and Environmental Justice. Michael is on the board of Adi Magazine. Originally from Cleveland, Ohio, he lives in New York City.