Eating Like a Literary Character

LUCY BURDETTE: If you know me, you know I'm always thinking about food--what to have for lunch as soon as I finish breakfast, what to make for dinner, what Key West restaurant we haven't tried, and so on. (Of course, my low sodium diet has forced some changes, but let's ignore that for a moment.)  

My food critic character Hayley Snow is a lot like me. She loves nothing better than a little snack to fuel her writing, and she's an even better and more adventurous eater--except for slimy things with tentacles. Food is laden with meaning too. She spends days figuring out what cake she should bake for Valentine's day. 

But would this cake transmit the message that I cared a lot, but without any pressure, and that it was for Valentine's Day, but no declaration intended, nor anything expected in return? Would it send the message of love and care, without appearing needy, too sweet, or cliched?This, I realized, was a lot to ask of any cake. from​ Fatal Reservations

When Ingrid was set to join us here at Jungle Red (hooray for Ingrid and Jenn!), I of course picked up the first book in her Fina Ludlow series. And I have to admit, I'm a little worried about Fina. Diet Coke? Diet iced tea? Mallomars? Nutter Butters? She never cooks and she never seems to have anything in her refrigerator. All this becomes fascinating background for Ingrid's character.

And has me wondering, how big a part does food play in your characters' lives? And do you eat the way they do?

HALLIE EPHRON: Considering how obsessed I am with food--planning what to eat, shopping, cooking, enjoying--it's amazing how little of that translates into my characters. I did a serious homage to the jelly donuts of my youth in NEVER TELL A LIE. And I have fun with low country cooking in the new book, YOU'LL NEVER KNOW, DEAR. There's a mouth-watering scene with biscuits and sausage gravy. Southern cooking is exquisite. I make a mean biscuit. But none of my main characters (so far) have been into cooking.

RHYS BOWEN: As one who is not too keen on cooking, I love to read about meals. It all started with the picnic hamper in The Wind in the Willows. Eating vicariously is sinless and calorie free. But I do describe long and formal dinners that Georgie has to attend, contrasting them with the miserable baked-beans on toast existence she had to endure during the early books of the series. Molly has also moved up from near starvation to feeding a family but she serves good old Irish cooking: stews, hot pots, meat puddings. But I've set three books at Christmas now and really enjoyed going to town with the food preparations and the elaborate meals.

Of course In Farleigh Field is set in WWII and the food described is utterly dire and miserable, apart from one man who deals in the black market!

INGRID THOFT:  Lucy, you're not the only one worried about Fina.  I admit I was surprised when the first book in the series, LOYALTY, was released, by the number of comments I heard from readers about Fina's diet.  The most common feedback:  How does she eat like that and stay thin? No one could really eat that way!  Do you eat like that?  In terms of maintaining a healthy weight, Fina doesn't actually eat a large quantity of food; she nibbles and pecks throughout the day, and her meals and snacks are interspersed with foot chases and fistfights, which help burn calories.  Also, I know people who eat this way and stay thin.  They may be the exception, but they do exist.  Do I eat like Fina?  No, which is exactly the point.  Part of the fun of writing this character is that she doesn't worry about her cholesterol or her intake of leafy green vegetables.  One trait we do share is an equal opportunity palette.  She can sink her teeth into a Reese's peanut butter cup and also appreciate the fare at Boston's finest restaurants, and I'm the same way.  I can appreciate the merits of a Cadbury Crème Egg and lightly seared scallops!  As long as someone else does the cooking, Fina and I are game.

DEBORAH CROMBIE: I'm glad to know I'm not the only one worried about Fina! When Ingrid and I had lunch in Seattle and she had a salad, my fears were allayed, however, but we did share a really sinful dessert. And Lucy, oh my! Can I just mention the Cuban coffee and the maple-glazed bacon doughnut she brought me when I stayed with her in Key West??? I was in Hayley heaven.

I do love reading about food, and writing about food. If my characters eat or drink something, you can be pretty sure I've either eaten it in a London restaurant, or cooked it myself. (This my excuse--or one of my excuses--for all the outing to London pubs and restaurants...) And I think we can all look forward to more food in the next book (and I will be enjoying the research!)

JENN MCKINLAY: Cake. Pie. Tarts. Cupcakes. Donuts. Ice cream. Gelato. Candy. Chocolate. Basically, all the sweet things. The only part of the food pyramid that I enjoy is the tippy top fats, oils, and sweets part. I love to bake but find cooking to be utter drudgery, except breakfast cooking because...chocolate chip pancakes, strawberry filled crepes, Belgian waffles! Need I go on? Minus the diet beverage thing (I loathe anything with the word diet in it), I am pretty sure Fina is my people! My love of baked goods is likely how I ended up writing a mystery series about a cupcake bakery because my characters eat their product and live on sweets just like I would if I didn't have to be a good mom and cook real food for growing hooligans. Also, it's allowed me to create recipes for everything from cherry cola cupcakes to mojito cupcakes. The research and development part of the recipes is one of my favorite aspects of writing this series.

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: The main character of my new book (still no title, ahhhh) eats canned tuna and a lot of toast. And wine. And pizza. And coffee. No, she is not sick, she is just busy.  But I have to say, if you added almonds and diet coke to that menu, I would be okay. Typing that out right now, it's very sad, when you all are talking about mojito cupcakes and honey glazed bacon and seared scallops. All of which sound delicious.  But my main characters so far have all been journalists, and often they have to hurry hurry hurry and grab food on the run. So far, in the new book, there's no fun in the food. And my main character is unhappy. So that works, right?

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: It works, Hank! Food ought to reveal something about the character. I don't do recipes in my books, but I do describe the food Clare is cooking (or the coffee she's brewing) in some detail when I need to. She loves to cook and has every little gadget you could think of, which is the result of a decision I made when I was figuring out who she was before I ever started to write the first book. At the start of the series, Clare is in her early thirties and has been moving constantly since her college days, courtesy of the US Army. What sort of hobby or diversion would someone like that have? Well, she runs, and..she cooks. Because cooking is a highly transportable past time - in fact, traveling to different areas of the country or abroad is an advantage. 


Russ, on the other hand, can make himself burgers and macaroni and cheese. It's not that he doesn't like food, it's just that he went from a mom who coked for him, to a wife who cooked for him, to...another wife who cooks for him. 

Reds, which literary character do you eat like? And who would you enjoy meeting for dinner?