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  books with a food theme

  am starved to read a good book with food as a central theme- can be fiction or non fiction.... the last one i read was madhur jaffreys autobiography and before that like water for chocolate....
  please share from your enormous libraries...

  buoyant started this discussion 3 months ago. ( reply )

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  Marcus 

  That's surprisingly difficult! The obvious one is Water for Chocolate, and I can only come up with movies not books [ 'Babette's Feast' and "The cook, his wife, the thief and his lover" by Peter Greenaway.]
  
  Maybe Margaret Atwood's 'Edible Woman'?

  posted 3 months ago. ( reply )

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  Jonas D (edited)

  Try 'Hash' by Torgny Lindgren, a wild tale about the quest for the ultimate Hash, a specialty of northern Sweden. Humorous, intelligent and probably quite exotic for most people here, it is a celebration of the food and culture of poor people living in a harsh and isolated corner of the world. Highly recommended.

  posted 3 months ago. ( reply )

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    uplandpoet 

    Chocolat.
    
    I have often toyed with the idea of writing a book called the travelin poets cookbook and dinin guide mixing my poems (which are kinda heavy on the food already, with reat dinin experiences and favorite recipes. toyed with it, but never written anythin in an organized way.

    posted 3 months ago. ( reply )

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    buoyant 

    Sounds very good. Putting it up in my search list. thank you.

    posted 3 months ago. ( reply )

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    Aimeesue (edited)

    I ♥ Chocolat. Harris' sequel to that one, The Girl With No Shadow is just out too.

    posted 3 months ago. ( reply )

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  Meemee 

  if you are looking for something simple try any of the books by Diane Mott Davidson. The Goldy the Chef series. It includes the recipes. Cute books, easy to read and they have a small mystery theme.

  posted 3 months ago. ( reply )

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  Tara L 

  I recently read The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd. I recommend it...it was well written and a touching story.
  
  As a side note, my father was a beekeeper when I was a child and I have fond memories of going out with him to check on the bees and the sweet sticky goodness that comes with harvest time. :)

  posted 3 months ago. ( reply )

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  Heather D (edited)

  As far as non-fiction goes, "Kitchen Confidential" by Anthony Bourdain is great as is "Service Included" by: Phoebe Damrosch. Both are about behind the scenes at swanky New York eateries but Bourdain's talks more about the food than the other. Both are great reads!

  posted 3 months ago. ( reply )

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  HuSh! 

  I'd also say Chocolat!
  
  =)

  posted 3 months ago. ( reply )

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  Kiki68 (edited)

  Trail of Crumbs by Kim Sunee. She's a food editor for Oxmoor HousePublishing and had an intense relationship with Olivier Baussaun, founder of L'Occitane--she describes her life growing up in New Orleans as well as her life w/Baussaun in Provence, France, and every chapter is interspersed with recipes as well as detailed descriptions of her food preparations for their friends and family. This is someone who lives for food--it is her life's work, and this book will make you hungry, and entertain you!

  posted 3 months ago. ( reply )

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  Page Turner 

  My favourite book with a food them is Stanley Park by Timorthy Taylor. Canadian book about the struggles of an independent chef in an industry where profit goes to the chains. It was very fast paced and had some famous Canuck landmarks e.g. Stanley Park.
  I highly recommend this book.

  posted 3 months ago. ( reply )

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  Ken H 

  Just finished Like Water for Chocolate myself as well, but another one I enjoy a lot is "A Year in Provence" by Mayles. French, and food. Not in French, but a lovely FRench backdrop. Will make you want to run out and pay a lot of money to fly over there right now. :)

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    buoyant 

    i am already salivating. thanks for the rec.

    posted 3 months ago. ( reply )

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  Annie 

  This is a non-fiction book but it is food themed - Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser.

  posted 3 months ago. ( reply )

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  Sara K 

  How about Garlic and Sapphires? It is non-fiction by Ruth Reichl, about her time as a restaurant critic in the 1990s.

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    buoyant 

    sounds good... elsewhere on shelfari i was recommended - Tender at the Bone by ruth reichl- i loved the title.

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    Paula F 

    I agree - all of Reichl's memoirs have been very good. Maybe also consider Alice Waters and Chez Panisse, by Thomas McNamee.

    posted 3 months ago. ( reply )

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    Paula F 

    I agree - all of Reichl's memoirs have been very good. Maybe also consider Alice Waters and Chez Panisse, by Thomas McNamee.

    posted 3 months ago. ( reply )

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  Reese V 

  I really enjoyed The Last Chinese Chef by Nicole Mones. I picked it up at the library simply because the cover caught my attention and it turned out to be a really good book. It was very informative on the history of Chinese cuisine while telling an engaging story. I like it better than Like Water For Chocolate.

  posted 3 months ago. ( reply )

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  criss r 

  Two of my favorites: Ann Tyler's "Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant" and Richard Russo's "Empire Falls." Ruth Reichl's memoirs are so fun. Also "The Sharper the Knife, the Less you Cry" by Kathleen Flinn.
  It seems all I read about is food.

  posted 3 months ago. ( reply )

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  uplandpoet 

  How could I forget??!!!??!! Bailey's Cafe, by one of my all time favorites Gloria Naylor. I can think of a couple of others, but they arent really as foodie as they sound, well one is i guess, the chef mystery series, which i cant exactly remember, but i bet you can google that and find them. also the honk and holler cafe opening soon by billie letts, nice read, not so much about the food. fried green tomatoes also a good read, but not as foodie as one might think, but there is a bit of a food theme, especially a certain chili:), sadly tomatoes is her only work i would bother reading...

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  Tamia B 

  I'm a Dick Francis fan...the protagonist of one of his most recent books, Dead Heat, is a chef. One of the interesting things about this novel is that Francis consulted chef Gordon Ramsey! The food definitely plays a large role in this mystery.

  posted 3 months ago. ( reply )

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  Aimeesue 

  Memoirs and the like:
  
  
  The Year of Eating Dangerously ,Tom Parker Bowles (yes, he's Camilla's son), about his year of searching for, well, dangerous food. One of my favorites.
  
  Toast Nigel Slater - A memoir of his youth, told around the food he was eating at the time. Much candy involved.
  
  Candy Freak Steve Almond, about his journey across America to visit the last of the independent candy makers. Idaho Spud, anyone?

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    Harvey Booth 

    The Year of Eating Dangerously is also one of my favourites.

    posted 3 months ago. ( reply )

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  Michael L 

  Nonfiction:
  In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan
  
  Fiction:
  Tender at the Bone: Growing Up at the Table by Ruth Reichl
  
  Nero Wolfe detective novels by Rex Stout. They all have marvelous food in them.
  
  The Spenser detective novels by Robert B. Parker are also full of good food.
  
  (Ditto on Like Water for Chocolate, too)

  posted 3 months ago. ( reply )

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  deactivated member 

  Am I the only one getting hungry just reading this thread?

  posted 3 months ago. ( reply )

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  NOLADawn 

  Being a NOLA gal... there's the Poppy Z. Brite series set in the New Orleans restaurant industry: Liquor, The Value of X, The Devil you Know, Prime....
  Simply delicious :D

  posted 3 months ago. ( reply )

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    uplandpoet (edited)

    how could i forget? Managing Ignatius, a non fic look at the world of Lucky Dogs!!!!

    posted 3 months ago. ( reply )

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    Rotten Fifteener 

    Ah, the Brite series is exactly what I was about to recommend :)
    A few things you should know beforehand, however:
    Brite was best known for her vampire novel, Lost Souls, and other dark, gritty urban fantasies. These books (Liquor, Prime, etc.) feature much the same style of writing but are really NOTHING like her previous novels. So don't go into them with notions of what to expect.
    Also, the main characters are two involved gay men, and if you have any issue with that...I wouldn't recommend them.
    Personally, I loved them. I think Brite has really grown as a writer, and as cheesy as her first novels may have been, I will always be a fan of everything she writes.

    posted 3 months ago. ( reply )

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  buoyant 

  just a quick thank you for all the books shared.... keep it rolling and kneading.

  posted 3 months ago. ( reply )

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  Teacher Terry 

  I am thinking of the great writer and foodie M.F.K. Fisher. Hers are older essays, from the thirties and forties, so some old fashioned ideas of food. But the travel writing is fabulous and she is so interesting. The food seems to be of the mostly simple, elegant, old-fashioned kind. Cool stuff. I have an anthology called The Art of Eating that has many of her works collected.

  posted 3 months ago. ( reply )

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