How did that book make you feel? HUNGRY!

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: A theme! You know how much I love it when my Reds week develops a coincidental theme—et voilà! Today we have one.

The other day we had a fun blog about our stomachs as our co-author. And of course our Lucy and Jenn write wonderful books about fabulous food.

And today we welcome another bookie foodie!


Stories that Make Us Hungry

 by Jenn Bouchard

I think most of us really enjoy stories where the FOOD stands out. Or maybe I’m always just a little hungry.

When I started writing my debut novel First Course ten years ago, I decided that I was going to craft it with a strong food angle. I kept thinking of Nora Ephron’s classic story Heartburn, in which a woman grapples with her husband’s affair through her food writing and cooking some meaningful recipes (key lime pie plays an important role in the book). And because this was Nora Ephron—sister of Jungle Red Writer Hallie Ephron!—it’s quite funny. Years later, I am working on my fourth novel and have submitted my seventh short story to literary magazines. Every single one of them is full of food and cooking. I even give out customized spatulas that I have made on Etsy with the title of my most recent book engraved on the handle.


At every author event I do, people ask me about the food aspect of the books. Why food? I think of food as a connection point. 

We have to eat something, right? We might as well eat something good. 

I’m always thinking about what a person might eat in a situation. Even those times that people are just sitting around, sharing a pizza and some drinks can be memorable. This is real life that we’re writing about as authors. In my book Considering Us, the main character Devon has a few go-tos in her life: ice cream, whiskey sours, and iced coffee. There is nothing remarkable or special about this, but like anyone else, she has her favorites. We all have them!

Food also evokes strong emotions and memories. There are foods that make us feel nostalgic, like something you used to enjoy eating as a child or a meal or dessert your family traditionally made for holidays and other special occasions. 

In Considering Us, the primary setting is a boarding school in coastal New Hampshire. Devon is the new director of dining, and she is trying to find ways to bring comfort and connection to her students. She introduces a really delicious cookie recipe, and the students and staff can’t get enough of these treats. Trust me, they taste like a chocolate-covered cherry!

The other question I often am asked is about my own cooking. Yes, I cook all the time! It’s a form of therapy for me. 

Now that my children are teenagers, there are times when the house is empty, and I’m not rushed to get dinner cranked out in record time. I can move more slowly through a new recipe or an old favorite, enjoying each step and often learning things along the way. Music is playing, and I’ll enjoy a glass of wine. And then a new character might pop into my head, and I know just what she wants to cook.

What’s a book that you’ve read that incorporates food in a unique way? Have you ever made a recipe based on something you’ve read in a book?

HANK: I have never made anything from a recipe in any book other than a cookbook. MAAAYYYYBEEE I made Nora Ephron’s carbonara, come to thing of it, but that was in like, 1972. Or whenever. 

 Food writers, do you test your recipes? Food readers, to you just read the recipes (I always do) or do you actually make the things? Like what? (And I have to say, that cookie recipe sounds pretty delish!)

And a copy of CONSIDERING US to one lucky commenter!

CONSIDERING US

“Bouchard dishes up the sweetest second chance romance that will warm your heart to the end.” –Caitlin Moss, author of You First and Goodbye Again

After an affair with a client's husband leads to scandal, private chef Devon Paige is left with only one client in Boston -a reclusive professional basketball player with a craving for cookies. With no other choice, Devon lands on the doorstep of Rockwood, a boarding school on the New Hampshire seacoast, taking a job leading their dining services. She is shocked to soon discover Kyle Holling on staff, who she hasn't seen in over fifteen years since a memorable night just before departing for college in different cities. Devon and Kyle must determine what their relationship looks like years later, all while dodging the cameras of an underground newspaper, dealing with the installation of a controversial campus sculpture, and grappling with the arrival of Devon's former lover's daughter as a newly-enrolled student.

When Devon meets a handsome paramedic named Heath, she ditches the possibility of romance with Kyle in favor of what appears to be a more straightforward relationship. But a trip to Los Angeles to keep her client well-fed ahead of his basketball game threatens to upend everything, forcing Devon to finally answer the one question she has been avoiding: is fifteen years too late to rekindle a one-night stand?

ABOUT JENN BOUCHARD

After moving eight times before college, Jenn was happy to land in Maine. At Bates College, she helped run large concerts and campus-wide events, survived the ice storm of 1998, met her future husband, and graduated with a degree in Political Science.

From there she moved to Boston, where she fell in love with the Red Sox and earned a master's degree and teaching certification from Tufts University.

After a twelve year stint in Chicago, she and her family moved back to Boston, got season tickets to Fenway, and Jenn began working on FIRST COURSE, her debut novel. She has been a high school social studies teacher for 25 years, and she is a regular presenter at the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) annual conference. In her spare time, Jenn volunteers as both a fundraiser and secretary for her Bates College class and is a past president of the alumni association.She is a member of Grub Street and the Women Fiction Writers' Association, as well as a board member for her local Dollars for Scholars chapter. She is an avid cook and is always planning her next adventure. FIRST COURSE was published in 2021 by TouchPoint Press and released as an audiobook in 2023 by Tantor Audio. It is now available in a second edition through Coastal Whisk. You will find her short stories in The Bookends Review, Litbreak Magazine, The Penmen Review, MARY, the Little Patuxent Review, and FOLIO. She also teaches short story classes for adults in the Boston suburbs. 

Her second novel, CONSIDERING US, came out February 6, 2025.