The creative writing about the kitchen or set in kitchens, its world and its protagonists are always a good idea of reading, especially in summer, where we can also spend more time between the stoves. there it goes title selection sure we are interested.
Books on cooking — selection
De Re Coquinaria — Marco Gavio Apicio
Apicius lived among the emperors Augustus and Tiberius and in this book he collects classic greek and roman recipes. It is, in fact, the first and oldest cookbook.
I'ts divided into 11 chapters, with titles such as The Sea, The Garden, Birds, Quadrupeds, The Fisherman, The Gourmet, etc. Among what attracts the most attention is the taste for oriental spices, mixed with the Mediterranean, and very fashionable thanks to trade with the East. And you can also find more exotic recipes of the time.
Desire for chocolate — Care Santos
This novel introduces us to three women whose stories take place in three different centuries together with the same chocolatier white porcelain.
So we have Sara, with a surname that in Barcelona is synonymous with chocolate, and which is proud to continue the family tradition. there is also Aurora, the daughter of a servant from a nineteenth-century bourgeois family, for whom chocolate is a prohibited product. And finally Mariana , the wife of the most famous chocolate maker of the XNUMXth century, purveyor to the French court and inventor of a fabulous machine.
Castamar's cook — Fernando J. Múñez
One of the most famous recent titles, which has also been the subject of an adaptation to television series with the same success as the literary one. It tells a story set in Spain in 1720.
The protagonist is Clara, a young girl from grace, who suffers from agoraphobia since he lost his father suddenly. Thanks to his extraordinary gift for the kitchen, managed to get to work Duchy of Castamar and it will change the bland existence of Mr. Diego, the Duke. He lost his wife in an accident and lives isolated surrounded by the service. But that calm precedes a devastating storm whose center will be Castamar, the duke and herself.
The Fenley Cooks — Jennifer Ryan
Another book about cooking is this one, set two years after the Second World War. Tells the story of four british women who participate in a cooking contest in order to improve their lives.
And it is that the postwar period is hard and, to help housewives with food rationing, the BBC radio show called The Kitchen Front Organize a cooking contest. The grand prize is a job as the show's first co-host.
So we have these four women who are one young widow, for whom winning would mean being able to pay off her husband's debts and keep a roof over her children's heads; a maid kitchen, which could stop serving; a Mrs who lives in a mansion and for whom winning would be the chance to escape the increasingly hostile behavior of her wealthy husband, and a Head, who could treat men at the top of their profession as equals.
Miss Eliza's Cookbook — Annabel Abbs
With the subtitle of A wonderful story of friendship forged in the heat of a kitchen, this novel is not going to Victorian London, 1837. In it, and with the changes that exist, spices, food and exotic fruits begin to arrive in the kitchens of all homes. However, the ladies have moved away from them and have put them in the hands of foreign cooks and chefs.
And there we have the lady Elizabeth Acton, a poet on her way to becoming a spinster, who is hoping to publish her second poems in a prestigious publisher. But instead of a new contract, his editor offers him to write a recipe book, something she refuses to even consider. However, when her family finds itself discredited and penniless, Eliza will have to rethink that decision.
won't be alone and will have the help of Ann Kirby, a young woman from a humble family. Together, and despite the difference in classes, they will manage to write a cookbook that will be part of history.
The importance of the fork –Bee Wilson
We end with this book whose subtitle explains everything: Stories, inventions and gadgets in the kitchen.
It is an entertaining study of the history and evolution of the different objects that we find in a kitchen and, also, of the cooking methods and ways of serving the food. Thus we have from the history of the wooden spoon to that of the toaster and how small details can condition our current way of eating and cooking.