There’s a lot of great food writing out there. Cookbooks, with beautiful food photography and intricate recipes, are their own genre. Memoirs like Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain and Taste by Stanley Tucci are also immensely popular. If you love reading about food, chance is you’ve probably indulged this genre.
But have you come across foodie fiction? Some of the best writing about cooking and meal sharing can be found in fiction and memoirs. Instead of taking a straightforward path, these books use food as a creative tool to tell the reader about their characters’ lives, emotions and the social context they inhabit.
If you love reading about delicious meals along with rich characters and settings, this list of books is for you!
My Brilliant friend: for when you want to be immersed
So much has already been written about the Neapolitan novels by Italian pseudonymous author Elena Ferrante. The books, which sold 15 million copies worldwide, are a piercing portrait of a six decade complicated friendship between two poor girls, Lila and Elena, growing up in post-war Naples. The quartet is well-known for how it tackles female friendships, feminism, sex, motherhood, class and the painful reality of female adolescence. They’re also highly addictive, as readers are immersed in every small detail of Elena’s and Lila’s world (for over 1600 pages).
That includes the many Neapolitan dishes featured throughout the books fom Pasta e Patata to frittelle, and sfogliatella. My Brilliant Friend depicts how food, like much else in the books, is a marker of social class. After devouring the series, there are many recipe you can try to combat your withdrawal such as Frittelle and pistachio cream puffs.
Crying in H Mart: for when you want to be devastated
The only memoir on the list! Crying in H Mart has one of the best opening sentences I have ever read: “Ever since my mom died, I cry in H Mart.” This line captures what this memoir is about: how food can be an outlet to process grief after losing a loved one. Author Michelle Zauner, who is also an acclaimed musician under the stage name Japanese Breakfast, renders the complicated relationship between herself and her Korean mother unflinchingly, as the reality of high expectations and cultural misunderstandings tear them apart. After her mother’s death, H Mart, the largest Asian supermarket chain in the United States, is where she finds comfort.
“I know we are all here for the same reason, we’re all searching for a piece of home, for a piece of ourselves. We look for it in the food we order and the ingredients we buy,” writes Zauner. Cooking authentic Korean food was her mother’s way of showing she loved her, and food becomes a language that they both share. When Zauner starts cooking her mom’s recipes on her own, she is also reclaiming her Korean identity. Full of gorgeous writing and brutal honesty, Crying in H Mart will make you both hungry and sad. If you enjoy audiobooks, we’d recommend listening to the book because it’s narrated by Zauner herself. Be warned though, you may end up crying your eyes out on public transportation. Here’s a few recipes from the book including: Cold Radish Soup, Tteokbokki (hot and spicy rice cake), and Kimchi Jjigae.
Crescent by Diana Abu-Jaber: for when you want some romance
One of the most interesting elements of Crescent is its nuanced portrayal of the complicated dynamics within an Arab American community in Los Angeles. Our narrator, Shirin, is an Iraqi American chef who works at Lebanese restaurant. Her main enjoyment in life is cooking Arabic food, but her budding relationship with an exiled Iraqi professor leads her to question her fractured identity as an Arab woman. Abu-Jaber demonstrates the multitude of experiences in Arab communities, but the best thing about Crescent are the many dishes featured beautifully described in the book. If you’re a foodie, you will enjoy the lyrical and descriptive style of this book which brings Arabic spices, scents and flavours to life.
A Gentleman in Moscow: for when you want a warm hug
The book that has graced too many Instagram posts. Amor Towles’ A Gentleman in Moscow is almost universally beloved for its comforting, elegant and vivid prose. It starts off when Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov, an aristocrat, is bound to house arrest for life in the infamous Metropol Hotel, just across the street from the Kremlin. It sounds much grimmer than it is, as Count Rostov explores how his home is full of beauty and makes the most out of his confines with a (very) fun set of characters. Throughout the book, eating dinner at the hotel’s restaurant becomes one of his most treasured rituals. From Latvian stew to dill bread and okroshka, a cold soup of Russian origin, you will want to try them after you finish the novel. Beyond his poetic writing, Towles uses food as a device to show the tumultuous change in Russia following the Bolsheviks revolution. As ingredients become more scarce, fewer lavish dishes are cooked. Cooking also binds the characters of the story together as they conspire for months to find all 15 ingredients to prepare an infamous dish. Check out this blog if you want to make A Gentleman in Moscow inspired meal and here’s a Latavian stew recipe from Towles.
Like Water for Chocolate: for when you want to be charmed
This book is a classic and one of the most well-known translated novels from Mexican literature. A family story, Like Water for Chocolate, begins each chapter with a monthly recipe. The book’s structure integrates food in a thoughtful manner and recipe instructions are sprinkled in between the narration so that they fit seamlessly in the story. The protagonist, Tita, is forbidden to marry because, as the youngest daughter in her family, she has care for her mother in her older age. Of course, she falls in love with Pedro who returns her affections. Cooking is a key element of their love story and Laura Esquivel explores how food is at the heart of her characters’ various relationships and motivations. It is also one of the few ways Tita can express herself in her limited environment and inhabit an independent space of her own. Like Water for Chocolate shows the intimacy of sharing a meal, and how it can bring people together.
Which one of these books caught your attention? Did we miss a favourite pick of yours? Let us know on social media: @warmbelly
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