As the title says, I love reading about food descriptions in book. So please recommend any fictional books which good food descriptions. Food doesn’t have to be the central theme of the book and the descriptions don’t have to be very fancy and luxurious meals with exotic ingredients. They can be as simple as a family putting together a simple meal for dinner ( Eg: all the scrappy meals the mother used to put together in a Tree grows in Brooklyn, or the meals mentioned in Jane Eyre)
Looking for any such recommendations..thank you
by BrunokiMaa
10 Comments
Chocolat by Joanne Harris
Like Water For Chocolate by Laura Esquval (?)
Both food novels, very different, both wonderful
Reading Nnedi Okorafor made me start cooking nigerian food. (In my town there’s no nigerian restaurants and I had never tried it.)
And Gail Carriger made me bake british dessert recipes from the 1880s.
Agree about the Brooklyn food; I really wanted to try it!
I ‘ve always liked the description of the simple, hearty food in Robin Hobb’s books; stews, soups, fresh bread.
Marlena de Blasi’s One Thousand Days in Venice is actually semi-memoir; ie it’s based on the true facts of her life [goes to Venice, falls in love with a Venetian, moves to Italy] – but is heavily embroidered etc to make a better tale! Lots of gorgeous descriptions of food, as de Blasi is a chef and food writer – will make you want to move to Italy too.
Edit: just thought of another one. Wendy Holden’s light, funny Hollywood romance, Beautiful People, has the most sensuous, mouth-watering descriptions of food I think I’ve ever read. I think she must have been on a diet when she wrote it – it’s full of yearning for chocolate, butter and cream!
It’s unfortunately deep into a series, but Steven Brust’s _Dzur_ has a “wrapper story” that takes place over a meal in a restaurant, and the MC and a companion discuss how good the food is and how it’s made in between the bits where the action takes place.
If you’re into fantasy, the series might interest you. The MC is a human assassin/crime lord in an Empire mostly inhabited by elves. (Well, kinda. You find out more as time goes on.)
The Hannibal Lecter novels have pretty good food descriptions.
Both happen to be memoirs of sorts but Taste by Stanley Tucci; and Heartburn by Nora Ephron do this very well.
Sweetbitter by Stephanie Danler!
kitchen by banana yoshimoto
Five Quarters of the Orange by Harris
would you by chance be interested in a manga that may seem a bit more adult in images but the food looks amazing and it actually includes recipes and is very interesting like japanese iron chef from the 90s but set in a high school its called food wars it has a anime but the manga includes recipes you can try