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Independent Iraqi scholar, passionate about cooking and its history and culture. Nawal Nasrallah was a professor at the universities of Baghdad and Mosul, teaching English language and Literature until 1990. She is an award-winning researcher and food writer. The first edition of her cookbook Delights from the Garden of Eden: A Cookbook and a History of the Iraqi Cuisine (Author House, 2003) was winner of the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards 2007. Her book Dates: A Global History (Edible Series, Reaktion Books) was released in April 2011. It is a charming account of the date palm and its fruit, informative and fun to read. Her English translation of Ibn Sayyar al-Warraq's 10th-century Baghdadi cookbook Kitab al-Tabeekh, entitled Annals of the Caliphs' Kitchens (Brill, 2007), was awarded "Best Translation in the World" and "Best of the Best of the Past 12 Years" of the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards 2007. It also received Honorable Mention in 2007 Arab American National Museum Book Awards. She co-authored Beginner's Iraqi Arabic, with 2 audio CDs (Hippocrene, 2005). Nawal has been giving talks, cooking demos and classes and presentations on the Middle Eastern cuisine, ancient, medieval, and present.