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Rose Baboian is an Armenian-American cookbook author. She was born in Aintab (present day Gaziantep in Turkey). During World War I she moved to Aleppo with her school, formerly the Aintab Seminary, which was renamed the American High School for Girls of Aleppo. She graduated from the school on June 28, 1923.^[1] She was around 17 years old when she left Aintab (also called "Antep", short for Gaziantep) and for around two years lived in Aleppo before moving to Massachusetts in the United States.^[2] Mark Zanger, a Boston-based food reporter wrote that Baboian's book "stands out as a model of American ethnic food because she recorded so many traditions".^[3] Her book made Turkish Armenian recipes accessible for younger generations of Armenians who spoke only English.Cite error: There are <ref> tags on this page without content in them (see the help page). She is considered to have anticipated Armenian American fusion cooking with recipes like "chocolate yogurt".^[4]

While a student at the school Baboian learned to bake cookies, cakes and doughnuts. She was taught how to write recipes as part of her domestic science courses. She has written that her interest in Armenian cooking was awakened by her mother's menus, which she says she sought to record before moving to the United States. Because the recipes were not written recipes, but rather informal, Baboian developed recipes from her knowledge of the ingredients and dishes her mother used to cook.^[5]

She writes in her cookbook The Art of Armenian Cooking published in 1964 that the recipes will be familiar to persons of many cultures including Arabs, Greeks, Jews, Turks, and Syrians, thus explaining that the recipes bear Arabic, Turkish and Armenian names. The recipes in her book are mostly from Aintab, but Aleppo, Marash, Kilis, Arapgir, Harput, Izmir and even Watertown, Massachusetts are represented.^[2]

She explains that there are many different versions of the staple dishes including pilafs, kebabs, sarmas, dolmas, lahmacuns and koftas. Baboian, familiar with both American and Armenian cooking, notes some basic differences in how food is typically prepared. In American cuisine, she says, the vegetables are usually cooked separately from the meat and cereal grains, while meat and vegetables are cooked together in Armenian cuisine.^[2]

In her discussion of Armenian pastry Baboian describes three methods of making the pastry sheets for baklava , noting that this pastry is one of the most difficult to make from scratch.^[2] Many of the recipes include allspice and cinnamon. She gives recipes for Aleppo mortadella and describes cheese making prior to refrigeration where cheese was preserved in salted brine. She has three such cheese recipes: "Salted Cheese" (Aghov Banir), "Squeezed Cheese" (Kamvadz Banir) and "String Cheese" (Lar Banir) seasoned with mahlab or nigella seeds (sev hoondig).^[6]

She gives several different recipes that can be prepared with yogurt (madzoon) like Barley Yogurt soup, Easter Spinach Salad (which she calls Jajek ) and served over koftas.^[7] She has also a yogurt spice cake with cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves served with coconut and walnut topping.^[8] Her recipe for fruitcake, also made with yogurt, includes dried fruits, nuts, baking spices and assorted candied fruits.^[9]

• Baboian, Rose (1971). The Art of Armenian Cooking. Doubleday & Company, Inc.
• Kraig, Bruce (2004). The Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, Volume 1. Oxford University Press. p. 711-712. ISBN 9780199734962.
• Zanger, Mark (2001). The American Ethnic Cookbook for Students. ABC CLIO. ISBN 9781573563451.

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