The Food of Love by Anthony Capella

The Food of Love

Anthony Capella

With its mouthwatering recipes and colourful descriptions of the Italian countryside, this light-hearted romance could almost be non-fiction, but it's really chick lit with a twist. Two young men - one a chef and one a waiter who is pretending to be a chef - are vying for the hand of the same girl. The only drawback to enjoyment could be the frequent use of Italian which requires footnotes to aid the linguistically challenged, but this in no way spoils the story. Not to be read when hungry!

Extract
Bruno reached for another mixing bowl with his left hand. He poured in equal amounts of passion fruit puree and pastry cream for the souffle and flicked the second mixer on. Luckily he had kept the egg whites left over from the sabayon. Still with his left hand, he started to whisk them in a bowl, at the same time adding a thin trickle of hot syrup to the sabayon with his right.
'A faccia d'o cazzo!*' one of the other chefs breathed. 'A DJ couldn't work those decks better.'
Parallels
  • Chocolat by Joanne Harris
  • Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
  • A Good Year by Peter Mayle