Foodie Fiction

I love food. From appetizers to dessert and soup to nuts, I love it all. I devour food blogs for new recipes to try, I love to browse the newest cookbooks for gorgeous pictures that make my mouth water and, while traveling, I am always seeking the perfect meal.

From eating elaborate five course meals around my Italian grandparents’ dining room table or discovering new and exotic foods late at night while living in Manhattan as a frugal college student (I lived on lots of hummus and pho), some of my best memories revolve around food. It is my love language. Food has a powerful way of igniting all five senses to create meaningful connections between people.

So, when I am not cooking for my friends and family or dining out at my favorite restaurant, I find myself taking my love of food from reality to fiction. Foodie fiction feeds both my brain and my soul.

Here are some of my favorite mouthwatering reads:

Little Beach Street Bakery by Jenny Colgan

Summary: Polly Waterford flees to the Cornish coast to escape a ruined relationship. To keep her mind off her troubles, she throws herself into her favorite hobby: making bread. But her relaxing weekend diversion quickly develops into a passion. As she pours her emotions into kneading and pounding the dough, each loaf becomes better than the last. Soon, Polly is working her magic with nuts and seeds, chocolate and sugar, and the local honey--courtesy of a handsome beekeeper.

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender

Summary: Being able to taste people's emotions in food may at first be horrifying, but young, unassuming, Rose Edelstein grows up learning to harness her gift as she becomes aware that there are secrets even her taste buds cannot discern.

The Kitchen Front by Jennifer Ryan

Summary: Two years into World War II, Britain is feeling her losses - the Nazis have won battles, the Blitz has destroyed cities, and U-boats have cut off the supply of food. In an effort to help housewives with food rationing, a BBC radio program called The Kitchen Front is holding a cooking contest - and the grand prize is a job as the program's first-ever female co-host. For four very different women, winning the competition would present a crucial chance to change their lives.

Delicious by Ruth Reichl

Summary: Working as a public relations hotline consultant for a once-prestigious culinary magazine, Billie Breslin unexpectedly enters a world of New York restaurateurs and artisanal purveyors while reading World War II letters exchanged between a plucky 12-year-old and James Beard.

Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto

Summary: Kitchen is an enchantingly original book that juxtaposes two tales about mothers, love, tragedy, and the power of the kitchen and home in the lives of a pair of free-spirited young women in contemporary Japan.

Heartburn by Nora Ephron

Summary: Seven months into her pregnancy, Rachel Samstat discovers that her husband, Mark, is in love with another woman. The fact that the other woman has a neck as long as an arm and a nose as long as a thumb is no consolation. Food sometimes is, though, since Rachel writes cookbooks for a living. And in between trying to win Mark back and loudly wishing him dead, Ephron's irrepressible heroine offers some of her favorite recipes.

A Pho Love Story by Loan Le

Summary: Bảo Nguye̋n would describe himself as steady and strong: his grades are average, his social status unremarkable. He works at his parents' phở restaurant - as his parents' fifth favorite employee. Linh Mai would describe herself as a firecracker: stable when unlit, but full of potential for joy and fire. She dreams of pursuing a career in art, while working practically full-time at her family's phở restaurant.

- by Melissa Brown, Lawrence Branch