In her new book, Chef Hawa Hassan shares dishes and stories from conflict zones, showing how food can preserve culture, even when so much else is lost.

When Ali Zaman makes Uzbeki Kabuli pulao – Afghanistan's national rice and lamb dish – he always adds a splash of toasted sesame oil to enhance the flavour. The New York City coffee-shop owner, whose roots stretch from Queens to Kabul and Maimana, is passionate about sharing the flavours of his heritage. "Home isn't merely a place on the map," he is quoted as saying in Setting a Place for Us, the new book by James Beard Award-winning chef Hawa Hassan. "It's a feeling that transcends borders."

That sentiment flows through every page of Hassan's latest work, which explores the powerful connection between food, identity and displacement. Echoing the format of her acclaimed debut In Bibi's Kitchen, this latest collection combines history, personal stories and traditional recipes from eight countries affected by conflict and displacement, including Yemen, El Salvador, Lebanon and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

From the poignant account of a Baghdadi brewer who had to flee his home twice to a recipe for the intoxicating flavours of Egyptian fil fil mahshi (stuffed peppers), the book chronicles the stories and dishes people carry with them when war, disaster or exile forces them to leave everything else behind, while exploring the larger question of how food helps ground people in times of trouble.

BBC Travel spoke to the Somali-American chef and author about documenting diaspora through food, what she learned from the people she interviewed and what it means to set a place at the table for cultures often left out of the story.

There are now so many places around the world where people have been displaced through conflict and disaster. How did you choose which places to represent in the book?

I always tell people that I picked them because I also wanted to examine my own story and what that looked like, but the truth is that I chose these countries based on conflict and instability, humanitarian concern, and then, lastly, historical and cultural significance. Despite their struggles, these nations hold such deep-rooted parts of our own history. I wanted to talk about the cradle of civilisation in Iraq; I wanted to talk about trade in Lebanon; I wanted to talk about ancient Egypt. When we think about displacement and........

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