RHYS BOWEN: I was doing an interview the other day when the interviewer said, "I notice you include a lot of food in your books. Do you love to cook?"
The answer to this is that I love to eat, but after all these years of feeding four children, entertaining for my husband's job and having family descend on us I have had enough cooking for one lifetime. What I'd really like is to have Mrs. Patmore to make everything once I've come up with the menu. Or better yet, to have her come up with the menu too. I'm rather tired of having to decide what to eat.
But I do love reading about food. One of my favorite book memories is the picnic on the river in the Wind in the Willows. I've always wanted a picnic like that. And I adore travel books about Tuscany and France with details of meals. So I also like writing about food. It's a great way to eat vicariously without the calories.
It's strange that my two new books have exactly the opposite food experience: THE PARIS ASSIGNMENT takes the reader to France in WWII when people are starving. The Nazi occupiers decreed that adults could have 1200 calories per day and old people only 800. That was if food was available. When my heroine makes it to Paris after she escapes German imprisonment one of the first things she notices is there are no pigeons. They've all been eaten.
Quite the opposite experience in my upcoming THE PROOF OF THE PUDDING. The story features a new French chef for my heroine, Lady Georgiana. He comes with dubious credentials but he certainly knows how to cook. There are two banquets in the story, each filled with food items that I love: fresh crab, asparagus, duck breast, floating islands, and fruit tarts. Of course, being a mystery novel, one of these items is not entirely what it seems...
I had to give Lady Georgie a French chef as she's been eating so poorly for much of the series and lately has had her former maid Queenie to cook for her. Queenie's cooking is not bad but is very much of the stodgy variety eaten by the working class in England to provide enough calories to keep warm in unheated houses. Lots of suet puddings, spotted dick, bubble and squeak, shepherd's pie. Hardly items one can serve to upper class friends when you live in a stately home. So Queenie is relegated to assistant cook where she can't do any harm... or can she?
I try to visit France every year and relish all the little treats: the pain au chocolat for breakfast, the fresh strawberries from the market and, of course, the patisseries. We have nothing like the pastry shops here in America. Tiny works of art, and so inexpensive too. Okay, now I'm hungry just writing this.
So who else enjoys reading about food in books? Do you think descriptions of meals detract from the mystery? In the case of my new book they are all vital clues!
THE PROOF OF THE PUDDING comes out on November 7. I'll be signing at the Poisoned Pen in Scottsdale on November 4 and at Murder by the Book in Houston on November 9. See you there?
I enjoy cooking [and eating] so I am fond of those food moments in the midst of a mystery. And, no, I don't think they are detraction from the mystery . . . .
ReplyDeleteYes to reading about food! When I was young, it introduced me to many new foods. I still remember eating sardine and lettuce sandwiches that were described in a Phyllis A Whitney book.
ReplyDeleteHeaded to the south of France in December - looking forward to the patisseries.
How lovely! South of France. Sigh!
DeleteI used to enjoy cooking and trying new recipes but since the accident I am unable to stand long enough without pain to do anything except basic quick dishes. My husband usually ends up doing most of the cooking. I do like reading about food and different places. Makes me want to visit and try the foods myself. I'm hoping to go to Venice next year if I am able.
ReplyDeleteI’m so sorry! John now finds it hard to stand long enough to cook
DeleteI love et cook and eat all kind of food so it's no surprise that I love to read about food, especially in culinary cozy mysteries. Paris is a foodie's paradise and I enjoy virtually travelling to every bistro, patisserie, cheese shop with the characters.
ReplyDeleteI of course love food in books, since I write two series that come with recipes. Bring it on. I wouldn't mind a private chef, either, although I might be a pretty picky boss.
ReplyDeleteMy new series doesn't have recipes - and I still can't help myself from writing about food! I find myself describing meals all the time.
Oh, Edith, I so want to have breakfast or lunch at the Country Store.
DeleteMe, too!
DeleteAlso, any chance Book Passage can get books early for you for our event on October 30? I hope so!
DeleteIf only Pans 'n Pancakes was a real place. Robbie's menus always make me so hungry!
DeleteYour new series has wine! Much more important. See you soon!
DeleteI love to read about food in stories. Some authors (Debs, Lucy, Jenn) create such amazing descriptions of food that you can almost taste it! I cannot wait to read your latest book with Georgie, featuring the chef she brings back from her perils in Paris;>) I think you excel at sharing food with your readers, especially in the Royal Spyness series.
ReplyDeleteThank you!
DeleteI enjoy cooking, eating, and reading about cooking and eating in books. That's one of the reasons I like the Chief Bruno series of mysteries so much, which are set in one of France's most famous food regions, Périgord. On the way to Spain, where we are now, Peter and I spent the night in Périgeuex, a town in Bruno's bailiwick, and had a fabulous dinner that included brilliantly prepared scallops. France and food---ah! (This is Kim)
ReplyDeleteMartin Walker's Bruno mysteries are so great for the landscape and regional cuisine, aren't they? I also love Donna Leon's Venice based Guido Brunetti for the descriptions of food eaten in his home and in restaurants. And the late Andrea Camillieri's gourmand hero Montalbano is a man after my own heart.
DeleteI love that Montalbano puts the food above his case!
DeleteWe rented a cottage in Sarlat for 2 weeks once and loved shopping at the market and eating in all the small towns. Martin Walker is a favorite of mine!
DeleteOh yes, I forgot about all of Paola's wonderful, seemingly effortless cooking in the Donna Leon mysteries. Will have to go back to Montalbano to remind myself of the food (I've only read two or three of the books.) Rhys: Peter and I stayed a week in Sarlat a few years ago and found it and the surrounding countryside and castles so much fun.
DeleteI love the food in Martin Walker's books. But I'm embarrassed to admit I've never read Donna Leon.
DeleteFrom Celia: I love food in books and the Wind in the Willows picnic is something I used to try and emulate. I love to cook for friends including all the JRW’s gang. But, but like you Rhys, I want Mrs Patmore or Mrs Bridges here with me. I feel I’ve earned some down cooking time Perhaps CJ I should buy that Powerball ticket. Then I could indulge.
ReplyDeleteI still dream of that personal chef but I’d have to import from France or England. And he’d have to tolerate John in the kitchen making comments!
DeleteRhys, look forward to The Proof of the Pudding! I I must say the French have nothing on the British names for their food - suet puddings, spotted dick, bubble & squeak!
ReplyDeleteAfter years of cooking for a husband and four children I also was a little burnt out my husband sort of took over the cooking because he liked it recently he had an accident and I had to start doing all the cooking again.I remembered that I actually did know how to cook! Now I’m actually buying recipe books and trying recipes in my cozies!
ReplyDeleteOur little Georgie, all grown up with a French chef in a stately home! Of course hijinks must ensue.
ReplyDeleteA friend recently gave me a wonderful book of recipes inspired by Agatha Christie mysteries. Up until then I had never paid attention to the talk of food in her books (which I haven't read in ages). But then how else did I even know about toad-in-a-hole, Yorkshire pudding, and suet puddings, if not from reading about them for the last mumble-mumble decades?
Karen, I just saw that book and am now on the waiting list and looking forward to it. I just got Richard Osman and he might be on deck for this afternoon - I wonder if there will any food there, or just the 'occasional' libation.
DeleteKAREN: I think I have the same book on hold at the Ottawa library.,Recipes for Murder: 66 dishes that celebrate the mysteries of Agatha Christie by Karen Pierce, right?
DeleteI don’t know if I’d want to eat recipes inspired by Agatha. Too many characters died of poisoning!
DeleteGRACE, sorry, I didn't see this yesterday. We were on the run all day. Yes, that's the one!
DeleteBoth He Who Harumphs a Lot and I love Louise Penny, and comment more and more on the delicious food at the Bistro, which just like Three Pines, I am sure, is only available to the fortunate who know of it. Otherwise, the Bistro would be a run-down Café serving hamburger and chips, (which often would just fill the spot, as well.) The food has become a beloved character in all her books.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate when books remark on the people and what they eat, whether it be a grabbed McDonald’s on the way, a cup of coffee spilled in the car, or going home to see if Kit has conjured up a special meal or will it be a lasagna from Tesco’s.
I love to eat, and I love to cook – baking only once in a while. Beauty is what is seen on Great British Baking, and for what they make and the patisserie in Paris – well, I would skip eating it only because I don’t really like sweets. The beauty I can admire. If, however the author suggests food, glorious food, I will not only sing in the street, I just might try it for dinner, or at least pig-out in my imagination.
In the last 10 days we ate out every day on Vancouver Island. Most were pub meals – which by the way are not cheap! All were different and a bit of so many cultures that changed from something imagined to something tactile. The best – breakfast Poutine Benny in Montreal (Air Canada screwed up royally so they paid for the meal and the hotel). Before you screw-up your nose, imagine home fries, with fresh cheese curds and poutine gravy, covered in a poached egg, and layered with Hollandaise sauce. Unbelievably all the flavours worked!
So true: you are what you eat. Food as revelation of character!
DeleteThe first time I remember noticing meals in books was in the novels of Mary Stewart. Of course she made even smoking seem delicious and seductive. I like reading about good meals but unfortunately cooking, for me, is mostly a nightly chore to cross off, and while I enjoy eating good meals, I don't care enough about food to go out of my way. Our children are grown and when my husband is not home, I will eat cheese and crackers or a toasted bagel for supper. Still, we are going to Chamonix for our 40th anniversary next year and I'm curious about French food.
ReplyDeleteI just reread Mary Stewart and everyone smoked!
DeleteYes! I wonder if she was a smoker herself. Also in Martha Grimes, everyone smokes!
DeleteIf I could transport myself through the computer, I'd be at the patisserie you photographed. Oh, my!
ReplyDeleteI do like to read about food in books. It's often led me to new adventures in eating!
Me too. I often gaze at those photos and sigh
DeleteRHYS: Love reading about food in mysteries.
ReplyDeleteCurrently re-reading the Bakeshop Mysteries set in Ashland, Oregon. And the Recipes. As I recall, one of your Lady Georgie Christmas Mysteries (either Twelve Clues of Christmas or Ye Royal Gentlemen - I am awful at recalling exact titles) had wonderful recipes. And it is fun for me to try the recipes from the books. Because of my allergies, I tweak the recipes with dairy free and gluten free substitutions. Still yummy, though.
And Movies like Babette's Feast or Chocolat or Like Water For Chocolate had beautiful scenes with food.
When I visited France, the food was wonderful. Also the only time on the entire tour that I liked the wine. Most of the places (Austria, Germany, Italy and Switzerland) had wines that were not to my taste.
And I loved the vegetables in England. Even the dining hall at Oxford had wonderful vegetables. Once they served fish for dinner and some people did not like it though I liked it. One of the American students Definitely did NOT like English food (she really wanted to study abroad in France not England) and she walked over to a French cafe. I tried the food at the French cafe and thought it was lackluster.
Since I am still learning how to cook, I am enjoying it. Always fun to see what is in the fridge and pantry and coming up with something to eat. For me, it is usually improvising instead of really deciding what to eat.
Pre-ordered the PROOF IN THE PUDDING and look forward to receiving the new bookmark in the mail from you.
Diana
English food has received a bad rap but at its best it is superb. Fresh ingredients and meat without all the antibiotics etc
Deletep.s. I recall that Queenie excels at making "nursery food" and I recall Darcy saying something about serving Nursery Food to grown ups. I think it was in the Ye Royal Gentlemen mystery.
ReplyDeleteDiana
True. Children in the nursery would have had rice pudding and mashed vegetables
DeleteI love all the food details in your books, Rhys! I'm a major league foodie, too. I eat to taste.
ReplyDeleteOn food in books... My sister Nora wrote one of the classic foods-in-a-book novels, HEARTBURN. And all the recipes in it are easy peasy and tasty. I love books about food. Movies about food. And of course I love to eat and cook, and improvise on recipes. This morning I had Lucy's granola (my standby) with a cut up apple that I'd sauteed in some butter and cinnamon sugar and doused with heavy cream.
That sounds so yummy. I’ve had Lucy’s granola so I can fantasize
DeleteHallie, that sounds so good. I have an entire flight of apples to taste--one of the vendors brought about eight varieties back from a visit to North Carolina. I will sacrifce one or two to try your sautee!
DeleteI love reading books that have food in them. I especially love books that include recipes or have old time recipes in them. aprilbluetx at yahoo dot com
ReplyDeleteI love food in books. I enjoy the recipes at the end, but I don't think ever tried a recipe. Though I think I'm good cook, I can relate to the failed attempts of Queenie, though I've never lost a button in the Christmas pudding.
ReplyDeleteLOL!
DeleteFood in books is akin to travel in books. They both take you somewhere magical while adding so much to the characters. Getting to taste something I read about (or drooled over) is such a joy. I've lost my desire to cook or bake after years of no shows at mealtimes or looks good but I already ate, or I'll eat later, etc. Give me a foreign trip or a personal chef!
ReplyDeleteA foreign trip sounds good to me!
DeleteI love reading about food! Especially in Rhys’ books because she has cooked most of those recipes at home. I’ve recently developed a gluten allergy so I cook a lot. I like fresh vegetables and free range meat so I cook for myself. But I hardly ever use a recipe! After cooking for a family of 5 for 20 plus years I know what will taste good when I put it together. The exception is baking. Luckily my daughter is a wonderful baker and when she is home she will make me gluten free treats.
ReplyDeleteOf course I love food in books. Jenn’s Cupcake series is a particular favorite and I have made some of her recipes. To me food helps set the scene. Then again, I’m that person who will read a cookbook cover to cover.
ReplyDeleteToday I am making mini cupcakes & mini cheesecakes for an order. So I suppose that makes me more likely to be Mrs.Patmore than to hire her.
What a delicious post, Rhys! I have the Pen on my calendar! XOXO
ReplyDeleteWhat fun, Rhys. You know I love writing and reading about food. Can't wait for The Proof of the Pudding!!
ReplyDelete