You've mentioned many of my favorites, but I would also include the Provence memoirs by Peter Mayle and the Tuscany memoirs by Frances Mayes, and definitely Stanley Tucci's Taste: My Life Through Food!
I agree with listening to the audio--have you really lived if you've never heard the sophisticated Stanley Tucci drop the f-bomb oh so elegantly? I would argue you have not.
If you are up for a little magical realism in your fiction, I recently read and loved Aftertaste by Daria Lavelle. A young man discovers he can summon ghosts through food memories. He becomes a chef to help loved ones find closure from their grief by giving them a last moment with the person who died. There is also a love story involved as well. The author is a big foodie and her food writing is fantastic. We recently had her on our podcast. You can listen here if interested.
I loved it! It was such an interesting concept and I could see his restaurant and ghosts so perfectly in my mind. Thank you so much for the recommendation!
Love & Saffron: A Novel of Friendship, Food, and Love. An epistolary novel that is an easy read, but my favorite was when the character would try a new food that truly changed the way she saw the world. Delightful!
My family book club recently read My Life in France by Julia Child. It goes into great detail about Julia learning to cook French cuisine. It's descriptive about the meals she makes, shopping for ingredients, eating at local restaurants, wine pairings, trying a recipe many times until she got it right, etc. I hadn't even finished the book and had bought the Mastering the Art of French Cooking cookbook she was writing at the time.
I too thought of The Historian, that passage is one of my favorites. Also, when they have tea in Slovenia and the dinner in Budapest. Other food-inclusive novels that I enjoy are Rebecca by Du Maurier (the tea!), Garlic & Sapphires by Reichl, Under the Tuscan Sun by Mayes, Mastering the Art of French Eating by Mah. Also, Louise Penny's Three Pines series often have great food descriptions - who doesn't want to go hang out at the Bistro? And of course, I must mention The Wind in the Willows and Redwall.
Yes! I think they have sardines with bread & butter. Oh the party at Stoichev's house - love that. I just love all the scenes that take place there. Blue beehives... Also, the meals they eat in Istanbul with the Boras; those are dreamy too.
I thought of the Redwall books, too! My son was a huge fan and at one point we gathered some of his friends for a potluck meal of Redwall-inspired foods - the preteens had a blast
Yes! My kids were big fans of Redwall, back in the day. We made several meals based on food descriptions from those books. Great fun and good memories.
I have a book club with my grandchildren, and each month when we meet we have a dinner based on the book we read. Sometimes it's hard to come up with something, but we have tried Cuban food (Turtle in Paradise and The Epic Failure of Arturo Zamora), Persian food (Everything Sad Is Untrue), English food (Sweep, A Place to Hang the Moon, and others), Swedish food (The Children of Noisy Village), Italian food (The Adventures of Pinocchio), French food (The Family Under the Bridge), and regional American fare (Caddie Woodlawn, Shiloh, The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street) including TV dinners (Matilda). The grandkids are getting good at spotting the mention of food in the books.
Fiction: Search by Michelle Huneven. The story of a group of people charged with finding a new minister for their congregation. They meet around food and the dynamics between the group are really interesting. It includes recipes at the end.
Non-fiction: Finding Freedom by Erin French. Memoir about the woman who founded The Lost Kitchen restaurant in rural Maine.
Honorable mention: Bite by Bite by Aimee Nezhukumatathil. Short stories about the traditions and nostalgia around food.
Several of my favorites have already been mentioned (Reichl's books, My Life in France, The Kitchens of the Great Midwest), but I'll add a couple here: Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment by Julie Powell and Babette's Feast by Isak Dinesen. Both had great film adaptations, tool.
It seems like so many books talk about these delicious meals that the characters (or real people) enjoy and I am always on a diet! Not good for my food desires! A fun one was when my boys were into the Hardy Boys books and so I read some (because they were lying around and one reads everything they see, right?) and they were always eating pancakes and sausage it seemed like to me. So I was fixing breakfast for dinner, and guess what we had? 🙂
I read either A Year in Provence or Under the Tuscan Sun while pregnant with my daughter--I forget which because I read both around the same time. Do not recommend reading either of those books while pregnant--all the wine descriptions and I couldn't drink alcohol!
You've mentioned many of my favorites, but I would also include the Provence memoirs by Peter Mayle and the Tuscany memoirs by Frances Mayes, and definitely Stanley Tucci's Taste: My Life Through Food!
Second Stanley Tucci's book Taste -- and the follow-up, What I Ate in One Year. Both are great on audio because he reads them, of course!
I agree with listening to the audio--have you really lived if you've never heard the sophisticated Stanley Tucci drop the f-bomb oh so elegantly? I would argue you have not.
Lol! So true!
Definitely re Mayle and Mayes. Have to check out Tucci's.
If you are up for a little magical realism in your fiction, I recently read and loved Aftertaste by Daria Lavelle. A young man discovers he can summon ghosts through food memories. He becomes a chef to help loved ones find closure from their grief by giving them a last moment with the person who died. There is also a love story involved as well. The author is a big foodie and her food writing is fantastic. We recently had her on our podcast. You can listen here if interested.
https://ThePerksofBeingaBookLover.podbean.com/e/s14ep276-aftertaste-with-guest-daria-lavelle-women-in-stem-book-recommendations-4126/
I am VERY interested in this book.
It's also very good on audio as well. That's how I read it. This is her debut novel and the premise is just so unique.
Adding to my list!
I immediately downloaded this to my kindle!
I hope you love it!
I loved it! It was such an interesting concept and I could see his restaurant and ghosts so perfectly in my mind. Thank you so much for the recommendation!
Oh that makes me happy!
Immediately putting this on my list.
Yay! I hope you love it
Love & Saffron: A Novel of Friendship, Food, and Love. An epistolary novel that is an easy read, but my favorite was when the character would try a new food that truly changed the way she saw the world. Delightful!
Like Water for Chocolate came to mind first, then Heartburn.
Love Heartburn.
My family book club recently read My Life in France by Julia Child. It goes into great detail about Julia learning to cook French cuisine. It's descriptive about the meals she makes, shopping for ingredients, eating at local restaurants, wine pairings, trying a recipe many times until she got it right, etc. I hadn't even finished the book and had bought the Mastering the Art of French Cooking cookbook she was writing at the time.
I love My Life in France… and it also inspired me to get Julia’s cookbook! 😊
Same!
My Life in France is my all-time favorite food memoir.
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, and also several by Joanne Harris - Chocolate, Five Quarters of the Orange, Blackberry Wine...
Food is so literary!
Yes to Guernsey too!
I too thought of The Historian, that passage is one of my favorites. Also, when they have tea in Slovenia and the dinner in Budapest. Other food-inclusive novels that I enjoy are Rebecca by Du Maurier (the tea!), Garlic & Sapphires by Reichl, Under the Tuscan Sun by Mayes, Mastering the Art of French Eating by Mah. Also, Louise Penny's Three Pines series often have great food descriptions - who doesn't want to go hang out at the Bistro? And of course, I must mention The Wind in the Willows and Redwall.
"Also, when they have tea in Slovenia and the dinner in Budapest."
The tea in Slovenia! Don't they have sardines in that scene? And the big party in Bulgaria is a good one, too!
Yes! I think they have sardines with bread & butter. Oh the party at Stoichev's house - love that. I just love all the scenes that take place there. Blue beehives... Also, the meals they eat in Istanbul with the Boras; those are dreamy too.
I thought of the Redwall books, too! My son was a huge fan and at one point we gathered some of his friends for a potluck meal of Redwall-inspired foods - the preteens had a blast
Yes! My kids were big fans of Redwall, back in the day. We made several meals based on food descriptions from those books. Great fun and good memories.
That's such a fun idea! I love that.
Ok this is probably too obvious but anything by Ruth Reichl. I especially liked Garlic and Sapphires, when she was "undercover."
I came here to say that, too! 🥰
Reichl's books were the ones that immediately came to mind for me.
I have a book club with my grandchildren, and each month when we meet we have a dinner based on the book we read. Sometimes it's hard to come up with something, but we have tried Cuban food (Turtle in Paradise and The Epic Failure of Arturo Zamora), Persian food (Everything Sad Is Untrue), English food (Sweep, A Place to Hang the Moon, and others), Swedish food (The Children of Noisy Village), Italian food (The Adventures of Pinocchio), French food (The Family Under the Bridge), and regional American fare (Caddie Woodlawn, Shiloh, The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street) including TV dinners (Matilda). The grandkids are getting good at spotting the mention of food in the books.
This is brilliant. I love it so much!
What a lovely idea!
Fiction: Search by Michelle Huneven. The story of a group of people charged with finding a new minister for their congregation. They meet around food and the dynamics between the group are really interesting. It includes recipes at the end.
Non-fiction: Finding Freedom by Erin French. Memoir about the woman who founded The Lost Kitchen restaurant in rural Maine.
Honorable mention: Bite by Bite by Aimee Nezhukumatathil. Short stories about the traditions and nostalgia around food.
I forgot about Search! I've heard so many good things about that book.
Love these!
Some more favorites, in no particular order:
The Last Chinese Chef (Nicole Mones)
A Year in the World (Frances Mayes)
Feeding Frenzy (Stuart Stevens)
Anything by Ruth Reichl
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (Barbara Kingsolver)
I was going to mention The Last Chinese Chef too. I really enjoyed the story and the food descriptions.
Several of my favorites have already been mentioned (Reichl's books, My Life in France, The Kitchens of the Great Midwest), but I'll add a couple here: Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment by Julie Powell and Babette's Feast by Isak Dinesen. Both had great film adaptations, tool.
Oh, Babette's Feast. So good!
I read Julie and Julia and Julia Child's My Life in France concurrently.
Love Babette’s Feast
A year in Provence by Peter Mayle. Followed by Garlic and Sapphires by Ruth Reichl.
It seems like so many books talk about these delicious meals that the characters (or real people) enjoy and I am always on a diet! Not good for my food desires! A fun one was when my boys were into the Hardy Boys books and so I read some (because they were lying around and one reads everything they see, right?) and they were always eating pancakes and sausage it seemed like to me. So I was fixing breakfast for dinner, and guess what we had? 🙂
I read either A Year in Provence or Under the Tuscan Sun while pregnant with my daughter--I forget which because I read both around the same time. Do not recommend reading either of those books while pregnant--all the wine descriptions and I couldn't drink alcohol!
BRINNER!!!!
Hahaha!! Same Sharon, same.
I truly loved the memoir, From Scratch, by Tembi Locke. I read it while living in Italy and it didn’t disappoint.
I’ve had this on my shelf for many years. I’m going to move it up on my TBR.
It’s a great story of loss and redemption with food at the center. I think it captures the heart of an Italian so well!
The food descriptions are some of the main reasons why I continue to read the Bruno, Chief of Police and Commissario Guido Brunetti mystery series (set in the Périgord region of France and Venice, respectively). The plots can feel a bit repetitive, but I never tire of reading about the gorgeous lunches (and glasses of wine) that each protagonist manages to fit into his work week!