Looking for books that feature food as part of the plot
February 26, 2019 4:41 PM   Subscribe

I realized that I really enjoy reading about food. Cookbooks and educational texts, yes, but in this case I’m looking for fiction that includes the topic of food, or descriptions of food, as part of the plot.

One of my favorite books of all time is Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto. The way meals are described in this book just gives me the warmest feelings (at one point, the main character takes a taxi far across the city to bring her love interest a container of indescribably delicious hot noodle soup). I’m currently in the middle of reading Sourdough by Robin Sloan. Bread is featured heavily in the plot and I’m noticing these happy emotions and bread-making daydreams associated with reading this book.

Can you share your favorite novels that feature food? (I did search, but apologies if this question has been asked and I missed it! The effect of eating a pile of sourdough slices slathered with butter and salt might be hitting me.)
posted by sucre to Media & Arts (43 answers total) 39 users marked this as a favorite
 
The Birdwoman's Palate is literally just an excuse for the author to go on about Indonesian food.
posted by ChuraChura at 4:45 PM on February 26, 2019


"Like Water for Chocolate"
posted by Dolley at 4:45 PM on February 26, 2019 [7 favorites]


A Civil Campaign by Lois McMaster Bujold. The dinner scene is infamous and delightful. Disclaimer: futuristic food produced by insects.
posted by jenfullmoon at 4:54 PM on February 26, 2019 [5 favorites]


You might enjoy the Nero Wolfe mysteries by Rex Stout. Food comes up a lot and is often lovingly described. Special mention to Too Many Cooks (warnings: this was written in the 1930s and has several black characters, though I feel like it's at least making an effort for the period?) and "Poison a la Carte", which is a novella that can be found in the collection Three at Wolfe's Door.
posted by darchildre at 4:59 PM on February 26, 2019 [4 favorites]


Babette s Feast....both the book and movie are swoonworthy.
posted by tipsyBumblebee at 5:00 PM on February 26, 2019 [4 favorites]


The Last Chinese Chef by Nicole Mones.

After reading it, I became obsessed with searching out sheng jian bao, and pork spare ribs in lotus leaf in my area.
posted by socrateaser at 5:15 PM on February 26, 2019 [3 favorites]


A Face Like Glass by Frances Hardinge involves an underground society revolving around magical food and drink ("delicacies beyond compare") and has been described as "cheesepunk" by the author. That said, I can't remember if the prose typically made the food sound delicious or just dangerous and intriguing.
posted by space snail at 5:31 PM on February 26, 2019 [1 favorite]


The Debt to Pleasure, by John Lanchester. He was a food critic before writing it as his first novel. Very sly, unreliable narrator who’s obsessed with food, and the book literally includes recipes as part of the plot.
posted by chappell, ambrose at 5:43 PM on February 26, 2019 [4 favorites]


Fun question! Check out Kitchens of the Great Midwest by J. Ryan Stradal.
posted by sk932 at 5:45 PM on February 26, 2019 [1 favorite]


The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake tells the story of a girl who learns she can "taste" the feelings of the person who has prepared the food ... it's a weird and moody book, about family secrets and the bittersweetness of growing up. Put it on your list if you're looking for something unique.
posted by duewestfromhere at 5:47 PM on February 26, 2019 [3 favorites]


Iris Murdoch's The Sea, The Sea has some infamous meals that have prompted debate--hilarious parody or good, simple British cookery?

I really disliked Ian McEwan's Saturday because it felt like the smug dude spent half the novel cooking fish, but if you want to read a fish recipe, there it is. McEwan's novels tend to have lots of food in them; I suspect he brainstorms them while wandering through Waitrose.

The original version of Brideshead Revisited (available for cheap used) had a lot of food in it that Waugh later edited out because he said it was an embarrassing result of rationing.
posted by betweenthebars at 5:53 PM on February 26, 2019 [1 favorite]


He doesn't go into a lot of detail but Haruki Murakami tends to tell you what his characters are eating. There are also stories like "The Second Bakery Attack" where food plays an important role.
posted by betweenthebars at 5:57 PM on February 26, 2019


Cooking for Mr. Latte is a love story with recipes sprinkled liberally throughout. The main character is a food writer who meets and falls in love with a man she meets at a dinner. Cute story, and the recipes are great.
posted by ananci at 6:10 PM on February 26, 2019


Relish a graphic novel by Lucy Knisley has wonderful food memories and a real recipe for pickles. The Magic Thief series also has recipes for Benet's biscuits one of which actually turns out to be edible.
posted by coevals at 6:17 PM on February 26, 2019


Does manga count? I read several manga series that have cooking as a theme.

- Shinmai Shimai no Futari Gohan (New sisters eating together): two step sisters bond through cooking
- Maiko-san Chi no Makanai-san (Caterer at the Maiko manor): about a girl who is the cook at a training house for Maiko (apprentice geisha in Kyoto)
- Gohan no Otomo (Rice and Friends): various short stories around food and eating
- Misoshiru de Kanpai! (Let's have miso soup): budding middle school romance, and more information about miso soup than you thought possible
- Yuru Camp (licensed in English as Laid-Back Camp): camping, cooking
- Wakako-Zake: office lady Wakako likes to go out after work for a meal and a drink
- Her Special Seat: what do you do when a supernatural terror stops by for dinner? (award winning one-shot short manga)

Most of these series are on-going and all are (to my mind) SFW.
posted by ralan at 6:21 PM on February 26, 2019 [2 favorites]


Heartburn, Nora Ephron
posted by theora55 at 6:33 PM on February 26, 2019 [2 favorites]


Kitchens of the Great Midwest, by Stradal, is great and is right up this alley.
posted by gatorae at 6:59 PM on February 26, 2019


Kerry Greenwood’s Corinna Chapman baker/mystery series is a delight. Includes recipes too!
posted by mollymillions at 7:00 PM on February 26, 2019


Cooking with Fernet Branca by J Hamilton Paterson is pretty hilarious. The recipes, as you might expect from the title, seem completely inedible, but food is pretty central.
posted by Jasper Fnorde at 7:41 PM on February 26, 2019 [1 favorite]


It's probably not quite the sort of thing you're thinking of but fiction which describes imprisonment or other extreme circumstances often centrally involves the scarcity of or privation from food.

I Am David, in which the protagonist is a child who grew up in a Nazi concentration camp, describes how other prisoners and guards ensured that he got enough food. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich focuses on a prisoner in the Soviet gulag system meticulously procuring food to keep going.

In Nineteen Eighty-Four the dystopian government manipulates newspaper headlines to make it appear as though ration amounts have been increased rather than decreased. I've only seen the film version but if I recall correctly in V for Vendetta, which is another dystopian narrative, one character expresses surprise when offered a meal of real bacon and eggs.

Wilderness survival narratives often involve obtaining food. One which might be of more interest to you is The Clan of the Cave Bear, since as it's set in pre-historic times the main character's hunting and food preparation are closer to her normal cuisine. Those sequences are also particularly detailed because they're reconstructions from archaeology of paleolithic lifestyles.
posted by XMLicious at 7:45 PM on February 26, 2019


I loved Sourdough and will echo recommendations for The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake, Heartburn, and of course Like Water for Chocolate.

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee is ostensibly about the parlor game, but there's quite a lot of story surrounding the existence of Korean food in Japan. This is all around a great book, but the food story is very memorable and affecting.

The Edible Woman isn't warm and fuzzy, but is interesting and about food and emotion in a sort of Like Water for Chocolate (but Atwoodian!) way
posted by assenav at 7:58 PM on February 26, 2019 [2 favorites]


Crazy Rich Asians is a fun read, and about 5 percent of the text is about food, with detailed descriptions of various Singaporean dishes.
posted by Mr.Know-it-some at 8:48 PM on February 26, 2019 [4 favorites]


Andrea Camilleri's Inspector Montalbano series is full of delicious, lovingly described, often-Sicilian food.

The scent of fried mullet coming from the restaurant won the duel. He ate a special appetizer of shellfish, then had them bring him two sea perches so fresh they seemed to be still swimming in the sea.

“You’re eating without conviction, Inspector.’’

“It’s true. The fact is, I’ve got something on my mind.’’

“The mind should be forgotten when the Lord in His grace puts such perches in front of you,’’ Calogero said solemnly, walking away.

Later on, in the same story, Montalbano stays for an impromptu dinner at an elderly couple’s house.

The soft vegetables, which consisted of the leaves and flowers of Sicilian zucchini – the long, smooth kind, which are white, lightly speckled with green – had come out so tender, so delicate, that Montalbano actually felt deeply moved.

posted by cnidaria at 8:59 PM on February 26, 2019


Steven Brust writes a great food scene. The narrator and main character of the Vlad Taltos books has Opinions about food and frequently cooks and/or eats things described in detail. Dzur in particular is set around a meal in his favourite restaurant and each chapter begins with a dish description. High fantasy with a noir narrator.
posted by I claim sanctuary at 9:27 PM on February 26, 2019 [1 favorite]


“Heat” by Bill Buford is a book I find myself thinking about even though I read it over 10 years ago. Food, travel, and professional kitchens are all featured. It’s not fiction, but reads like a novel.
posted by quince at 9:46 PM on February 26, 2019 [2 favorites]


The Montalbano mystery series lead character sure loves his seafood! See the books and also the Italian tv series Young Montalbano for many lovely meals out and shopping for ingredients and cooking for his wife --between murder investgations...
posted by chapps at 10:38 PM on February 26, 2019


Modern Library Food republished Clementine in the Kitchen (fictionalized account) and Katish (which I recently learned was pure fiction) in the early 2000s.
posted by brujita at 11:30 PM on February 26, 2019 [1 favorite]


It’s not a vital part of the plots, but the Yashim the Ottoman Detective series has a lot of descriptions of Turkish food and methods of cooking. Yashim, the main character, is a eunuch who channels his angst into cooking wonderful meals. The first book, Jannisary Tree, is definitely the best. If you get inspired, the author has also produced a cookbook related to the series.
posted by Concordia at 1:12 AM on February 27, 2019 [1 favorite]


Joanne Harris's trilogy Chocolat, The Lollipop Shoes, and Peaches for Monsieur Le Curé feature food in this way. The scenes describing the final feast in Chocolat are particularly evocative.
posted by notquitejane at 6:13 AM on February 27, 2019


Gourmet Rhapsody by Muriel Barbery -- a dying food critic reflects on the flavours and food experiences that have shaped his life.
posted by Rora at 6:52 AM on February 27, 2019


Ntozake Shange's novel Sassafrass, Cypress, and Indigo includes both recipes and loving descriptions of food. It's also a gorgeous novel.

Monique Truong's novel The Book of Salt is a fictionalized account of the life of Gertrude Stein and Alice Toklas's Vietnamese chef, and includes some gorgeous descriptions of meals he makes them, as well as meals he eats and makes for others.

Both of these are books I teach in a food + literature class that has also, in various iterations, included The Edible Woman and Gourmet Rhapsody, mentioned above. If you read Heartburn, you might also like to read Susan Leonardi's article "Recipes for Reading," which is academic but quite accessible, and discusses Heartburn and The Joy of Cooking before ending with a recipe. Feel free to MeMail me if you want a pdf of the Leonardi article, or the syllabus for the class.
posted by dizziest at 9:54 AM on February 27, 2019


Happy Snak by Nicole Kimberling is about a human who owns a snack stand on an alien space station. It is a fun read and food is very much part of the plot (and crucial to diplomacy).
posted by esoterrica at 10:01 AM on February 27, 2019 [2 favorites]


Sourdough by Robin Sloan!
posted by ghostpony at 11:55 AM on February 27, 2019


The stars dispose and the stars compell. Both are fantasy books by Michaela Roessner and there’s a lot of renaissance Italian food
posted by azalea_chant at 3:56 PM on February 27, 2019


Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking by Anya von Bremzen is part family memoir and part history of 20th-century Russia, tied together with descriptions of representative dishes from different eras.

It's not fiction but it reads more like a novel than a work of history.
posted by pierogi24 at 4:00 PM on February 27, 2019 [2 favorites]


Very entertaining and inventive cooking/sourcing of ingredients on the high seas!

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13158378-cinnamon-and-gunpowder
posted by cat_link at 4:32 PM on February 27, 2019


If you’re okay with kidlit, Farmer Boy has amazing descriptions of enormous meals that are in stark contrast to some of the meager fare eaten by author Laura Ingalls Wilder’s family in many of the Little House books.
posted by elphaba at 5:00 PM on February 27, 2019 [2 favorites]


Steven Brust writes a great food scene.

Worth adding that while the novels are fantasy the food is Hungarian. Paprikash chicken is encountered more than once but there's an entire novel framed around dishes of Vlad's native "Fenario".
posted by mark k at 7:28 PM on February 27, 2019


"Sweet Potato Queens' Book of Love" by Jill Conner Browne and the rest of the series
"Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe" by Fannie Flagg
posted by TrishaU at 2:36 AM on February 28, 2019


“House of Day, House of Night” by Olga Tokarczuk features mushrooms heavily, including a number of recipes.
posted by Paper rabies at 12:43 PM on February 28, 2019


You might enjoy the Verlaque and Bonnet mystery series by M.L. Longworth. The 7th one recently came out.
posted by matildatakesovertheworld at 1:54 PM on February 28, 2019


Response by poster: Such wonderful suggestions! Thank you, everyone!
posted by sucre at 10:55 AM on March 3, 2019


Maybe The Whole World Over by Julia Glass? Lots and lots of cake (the main character is a pastry chef).
posted by kristi at 12:50 PM on March 3, 2019


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