The "International Cookbook for Quinoa: Tradition and innovation", recently published by FAO, includes recipes from world-renowned chefs and indigenous Andean communities and can be downloaded for free in both English and Spanish.

FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva delivered the first copies to the President of Bolivia, Evo Morales, and the President and First Lady of Peru, Ollanta Humala and Nadine Heredia, during the closing events of the International Year of Quinoa 2013.

The cookbook includes contributions from famous chefs such as Joan Roca (Spain), Claus Meyer (Denmark), André Chiang (Singapore) and Claude Troisgros (Brazil), as well as traditional preparations from the indigenous peoples of the Andes that have protected and preserved this food for thousands of years.

The cookbook combines tradition and innovation in a unique collection of quinoa recipes from several continents, highlighting the great versatility of this "super food".

An ally for food security

Quinoa has the potential to play an active role in the eradication of hunger, thanks to its unique nutritional qualities and enormous adaptability, which allows it to flourish in a variety of agroecological conditions and to withstand adverse conditions such as drought and high salinity.

Due to the interest created by the International Year of Quinoa, a large number of countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle East are developing projects to implement this crop, with the support of FAO.

"Quinoa has followed the path set down by maize and potatoes, two foods that also originated in the Americas and are now part of the daily diet of millions of people around the world," said the FAO Director-General.

Chefs against Hunger

The Cookbook is the result of the successful collaboration between FAO and Chefs against Hunger, a campaign that was born out of the Hunger Free Latin American and the Caribbean Initiative, in which prestigious international chefs, cooks and gastronomic critics participate.

The quinoa cookbook is the third such book produced by FAO and Chefs Against Hunger, with the previous versions focusing on other unique Latin American foods such as potatoes, maize and legumes, as well as a publication produced with the Government of Chile, focused on seafood.

The members of Chefs against Hunger are committed to improving the nutrition of the population of the region, with special emphasis on the most vulnerable sectors, while the Hunger Free Latin America and the Caribbean Initiative is an effort on behalf of all the countries in the region to completely eradicate hunger by the year 2025.