bookgazing | The Spice of Life Reading Challenge

Yes, I’ve joined another challenge (look it’s a small one, it sounded fun and I’m absolutely not going to sign up for the other challenge I saw while looking at this one because that would mean adding 12 more books to this years reading list). I’ve joined the ‘Spice of Life’ challenge, where participants ‘read and/or review books about food and eating our way through the good life’. Books for the challenge can be recipe books, non-fiction, fiction and memoirs/biographies. I’ll be joining at the ‘Taste’ level, which means I’m only committing to reading two books for this challenge.

If you knew me in real life you’d probably be on your ass laughing by now at the thought of me cracking a recipe book. In fact if you were my friend Kate (she of the professional knife set) you would now be telling everyone about the time we tried to make fudge. Her cooking reputation apparently isn’t tarnished by the pound of fudge that wouldn’t set, even though we left it in the fridge for two days, because we made it in my kitchen. Alright and because she can make Creme Brule and posh sauces while I can just about make toast. Someone else might tell the story of the time I left the plastic wrapper on the bottom of the pizza. Thankfully no one would tell the story of the lasagna that melted in a plastic puddle because I didn’t check if you were supposed to remove it from its container before putting it in the oven – I’ve managed to keep that one under wraps. Being a good sport I would probably reply with the story of the tremendously hot curry my flat mates and I forced ourselves through because we’d made it (it took about two hours and we used the entire tea caddy of sugar trying to calm it down). Or I might tell you how cold Dominoes pizza and peanut M&Ms were my favourite breakfast snack during my last essay writing panic. It would all be very jolly.

But inside I would be weeping, weeping I tell you. See, I have always wanted to be the kind of person who can just whip up a three course meal with cocktails and a tiered cake in an afternoon. I think once I started Food Technology in year nine I realised that probably wasn’t going to be the kind of person I was. For our final project we had to make and decorate cakes, so we went to the food show at the NEC the food show at the NEC to get ideas from the beautifully decorated cakes they display each year. Right by the entrance was a gigantic 3D Wizard of Oz masterpiece. It had the emerald city, the yellow brick road and all the characters made out of sugar, with edible glitter ruby slippers. I desperately wanted to be the kind of girl who could make that kind of cake. Instead I was the girl whose second layer sank at ten o’clock at night (you were allowed to bake the final cakes at home). I made a chameleon cake, which everyone had to have explained to them (it had three bands of colour and the chameleon was done in the same three bands of colour so it matched its environment) while one of the other students made a sugar Noah’s ark. I wanted to stove its little sugar paste roof in.

I now know there’s a very small repertoire of meals I can make successfully and sadly only one of those is a desert that involves cooking ((crumble). ‘I’m crafty in other ways,’ I tell myself ‘Look at all those fools rushing around on ‘Come Dine with Me’, much better to buy ready made pies and pasta.’ But while I’ve now (mostly) stopped myself optimistically starting meals that might give Gordon Ramsey pause for thought I do still enjoy reading about cooking and watching cookery shows on tv. Whether you’re a great chef whose dinner parties are the talk of the neighborhood or if there’s not a hope in hell of you turning out a passable tarte tatin you should find something to enjoy in my collection of fabulous food resources below:

Television

Until last year Gordon Ramsey’s was my favourite tv chef. The ‘Ramsey’s Kitchen Nightmares’ showed the man would eat anything to get good ratings and the ‘F Word’ left you pondering the question – will his kids group up stone cold killers or manic vegetarians. Then he ate a puffin. ‘Nuff said.

This year Heston Blumenthal launched ‘Heston’s Feasts’, a series that ‘recreated’ historical dishes with an insane Heston twist to them. The man mixed vibrators with jelly, created an edible garden and did some potentially dangerous things with fire. I now have a new crazy male tv chef to cheer on.

When I want more food, less crazy I watch ‘Something for the Weekend’. Not only can you watch just the good bits of shows like ‘The Apprentice’ you can also see Simon and celebrities cook easy, yet effective dishes that sound and look fabulous. Their cocktail segment features award winning mixologists who always have interesting facts about the history of their cocktails on hand.

Fiction

It probably won’t surprise you that Joanne Harris is the first author in this list. She made me want to brew my own cordial and make my own chocolate. She showed me how destructive an orange could be. Harris is the queen of the sensuous use of scent, texture and taste.

Her male equivalent has to be Anthony Cappella. ‘The Food of Love’ is designed to make you want to bed a chef and with its descriptions of the delicate meals Bruno cooks from authentic Italian produce it succeeds. Food is also integral in ‘The Wedding Officer’, the story of a young man sent to stop British soldiers marrying their Italian girlfriends. There are feasts, cheeses and a very strong attachment between a girl and her milk producing buffalos. I’m hoping ‘The Many Flavours of Coffee’ which I’ll be reading for the challenge will be just as good.

This year I read ‘The Sugar Queen’ by Sarah Addisson Allen, which was less about food than I was expecting after reading the blurb. However this book evokes all those Christmassy food smells (like peppermint) and is probably good for Americans, who will like the nostalgia candy aspect. I did almost salivate over Cloe’s hot sandwiches; her shop sounded like it would put Subway out of business.

‘The Food Taster’ by Peter Elbing is a little trashy for a historical novel but the descriptions of the Italian banquets will have you groaning throughout the book.

If you want more food fiction check out this list at ChowHound (scroll down a few posts to see links to other lists).

Non-fiction

Jessa Crispin occasionally reviews food book for a ‘Smart Set’ column called ‘The Kitchen Library’, where she tries out a few recipies to see how they turn out. Her publication ‘Bookslut’ also features an irregular column called ‘Cookbookslut’ written by Charlotte McGuin Freeman. You can also visit LivingSmall where she sometimes talks about food (and currently hen raising).

Wishlist

There are still so many food books I want to read, he’s what I can think of off the top of my head:

‘Madonna of the Almonds’ – Marina Fiorato (amaretto)
‘The Short Life and Times of Mrs Beeton’ – Kathryn Hughes
‘Like Water for Chocolate’ – Laura Esquivel
‘Julie and Julia’ – Julia Powell
Falling Cloudberries – Tessa Kiros
The Coffee House: A Cultural History – Markman Ellis