# food fiction



## phoebe (Jul 3, 2002)

Hello all,

Aside from Like Water For Chocolate , what are your favorite novels or short stories that feature food or the food business?


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## suzanne (May 26, 2001)

I haven't read that many novels or short story collections, but 2 favorites are _The Debt to Pleasure_ by John Lanchester (? not sure) and _The Devil's Larder_ by Jim Crace.

Least favorite, although foodservice is somewhat incidental: _Gone Bamboo_ by Anthony Bourdain. Sorry, Chef; stick to personal memoirs!


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## kimmie (Mar 13, 2001)

_My Kitchen Wars_ by Betty Harper Fussell


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## monkeymay (Feb 11, 2002)

Anything by M.F.K Fisher
"On Persephone's Island" by Mary Taylor Simeti
"Prizzi's Honor" by Richard Condon
"A Christmas Memory" by Truman Capote
"The Luncheon" by Somerset Maugham

And a very sweet book published in the late '80's called
"Christmas Memories with Recipes" featuring Bert Greene, Julia Child, Craig Claiborne, Marcella Hazan, and a dozen others with wonderful stories and recipes to follow...

I know there's a few more lurking about but I can't remember right now.

Monkey


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## pete (Oct 7, 2001)

I read a great one, a few years back called "Food Chain". I will have to find it again to find who the author is, but it is one twisted tale involving food, hedonism, and mystery.


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## kimmie (Mar 13, 2001)

Pete,

Are you referring to Geoff Nicholson's book?


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## thebighat (Feb 21, 2001)

Anyone ever read The Alice B. Toklas Cookbook?


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## isa (Apr 4, 2000)

Rabelais' Pantagruel and Gargantua.


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## suzanne (May 26, 2001)

Yes, TBH, and I've even cooked from it.  It's fascinating reading as history, biography, and not least as a food document.


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## alexia (Mar 3, 2002)

TBH & Susanne. I've also cooked from it. Her recipe for baked shad is lovely and a repeater, and I've even used her fruitcake recipe.

Aside from the recipes, it's a great "gossip" book for people interested in art and literature. Stein & Toklas's guests were a modernist's who's who


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## isa (Apr 4, 2000)

How could I forget Le ventre de Paris by Zola. One of my favourite novel.


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## jim berman (Oct 28, 1999)

Reservations Recommended by Eric Kraft. A gifted writer that absolutely drags in you into each of his works.


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## pete (Oct 7, 2001)

Kimmie, that name does kind of ring a bell. I can't be absolutely sure though, and the book is still packed away somewhere (God knows where!!!!). Have you read it?


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## pollyg (Mar 12, 2001)

Loaves and wishes-writers writing on food. Ed. by Antonia Till
Feeding Frenzy-Stuart Stevens
Banquet of the mind-Don Anderson
Fasting, Feasting-Anita Desai
Tart and Juicy- Ed. by Michael Gifkins
I also love anything by M.F.K Fisher
Almost forgot! The night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak. Beautiful, beautiful childrens book.


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## jim berman (Oct 28, 1999)

Pollyg... Good call - The Night Kitchen is phenomenal!! 
If you have kids, don't dismiss this read just because it is a children's work. Great illustrations and cute story. I give this to 'newbies' joining my kitchen after a few months as a "welcome to the crew" gift.


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## shawtycat (Feb 6, 2002)

There are actual books about food that aren't cookbooks or history books?  Ah geez....now my spending at Barnes and Noble is going to skyrocket.  Im hastily scribbling down the titles everyone has mentioned to add to my wish list. Which BTW is starting to look like a kids list to Santa Claus. :blush:  

Thanks

Jodi


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## isa (Apr 4, 2000)

Welcome to the club Jodi!


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## rachel (Oct 27, 2001)

The South Seas by Manuel Vazquez Montalban. A detective story set in Barcelona where the detective is also a gourmet chef. There is a whole series of Carvahlo (as the detective is called) and in each one there is an amzing range of food to be read about and recipes to be copied (he gives enough detail). One of the funniest ones is when Carvhalo has to go Madrid and he is NOT happy about the food on offer there. There's great rivalry between Barcelona and Madrid, sort of like Milan and Rome.
All the Carvahlo series is available in English.


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## isa (Apr 4, 2000)

It haven't started reading it it yet but it looked so good I couldn't resist it:



The Discovery of Chocolate 
James Runcie


In The Discovery of Chocolate, a young Spaniard sets off for South America in 1518 with Cortez and the Conquistadors, propelled by his love's declaration that she will not marry him until he returns with a special treasure that no man or woman has ever before received. During his travels, however, he falls in love with a native woman who teaches him the secrets of the most delicious potion he has ever tasted: a chocolate drink. Soon our hero discovers that the chocolate elixir has given him the gift of immortality.

The magical and adventurous tale captures the spirit of Paris during the Revolution, Vienna during the early 1900s, Victorian England, and modern America. With delightful appearances by Montezuma, the Marquis de Sade, Sigmund Freud, Gertrude Stein, and Alice B. Toklas, it detail one man's fervent quest for love, understanding—and chocolate.


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## judy (Jul 6, 1999)

I have just picked up a book by Catherine Davidson called The Priest Fainted. It is a sweet gentle book on ' one woman's modern day odyssey through Greece'.
A must for greek food lovers I could not put it down.


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