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Food in Books


Eleonora

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Hi there! :006:

My book club is going to have a special event in a couple of months: we will celebrate the end of our "bookish season" with a dinner based on books we've read so far.

Being italian, we have plenty of italian fiction books with delicious recipies in them.. food becomes a sort of "character". :snack:

So, I was wondering.... have you ever read novels where dishes or recipes were described? Is food important in non italian fiction too?

Edited by Eleonora
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How nice your book club is doing such a dinner :).

 

A recent read of mine that comes to mind is The Kitchen Daughter by Jael McHenry, which is an American book. Most chapters start off with a recipe and recipes and cooking play a big role in the story. I think there are other fiction books who have recipes in them, that I've read, but they don't come to mind right now. I can't remember reading any Dutch books with recipes in them, but I could be wrong.

 

As far as dishes being described goes, that happens in quite a few of the books I read, particularly in fantasy, science-fiction and historical fiction novels, and to a lesser extent in rom-coms ( / chick-lit) and contemporary fiction (literary fiction).

 

An interesting idea for a topic :).

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There are actually a few threads on food in books:
 
Food centric fiction
Ever tried food after reading about it in a novel?
Food from books
Food fiction

I've read a few novels with recipes in, a few of Jenny Colgan's books are based in bakeries, sweet shops and cupcake shops and they call have some recipes in. I've mentioned in one of the threads that Anthony Cappella often writes novels with a food theme where the particular food or drink is like the main character of the book.

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I've read all, or most of the Cat Who books.  They feature a pair of Siamese cats that aid their human in detecting the bad guys.  It's cute. 

Anyhow, they always featured some interesting food choices in the books.  Finally someonewrote a cookbook featuring recipes of said food.  Here is the link. http://www.amazon.com/Cat-Who-Cookbook-Updated/dp/0425207633/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1459183147&sr=1-1&keywords=The+cat+who+cookbook

 

I bet you have some absolutely wonderful recipes concocted for your dinner!  Sounds like a good time. :)

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The Hannibal Lecter books by Thomas Harris focus on food a lot (not just people as food, but food in general) and do a great job of exploring both our literal and psychological consumption of food.

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Donna Leon's novels, set in Venice, tend to feature a lot of food, her main character is always going home or into a bar for a snack or lunch, I think she even brought out a cookbook with some of the recipes from the books.  And they always seem to be eating in Harry Potter.

 

The Little Paris Bookshop also has some recipes at the back.

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