My passion for food is a long-held one. On and off for decades, I helped in my family’s Maui restaurant, and I spent over 20 years serving tables, baristaing, and bartending elsewhere. As I moved again and again, local cuisine became one of the first ways I experienced a place. When I leave somewhere, I grieve dishes. Hawai‘i’s saimin and poke. Pasties from Michigan. West Virginia’s pepperoni rolls. Seafood gumbo, crawfish, and shrimp in myriad ways from the Gulf Coast.
No matter your unique connection to food, it’s something we have in common. We spend our days orbiting food and the subject of it: devouring meals, snacking, fantasizing about a little treat, discussing our next feast with beloveds, and adding items to our shopping list. I wonder why food doesn’t appear more in literature, so I’m drawn—across genres and formats—to the books that feature it. While cooking or when served a dish, I snap pictures. Maybe that’s one reason why when I want to read about food, graphic novels and memoirs beckon me.
Savor this list of six titles ranging from middle grade to adult titles. From fantasy, romance, nonfiction, and fiction with a touch of horror, something delectable awaits every reader.
Basil and Oregano by Melissa CapriglioneAt the costly, exclusive Porta Bella Magiculinary Academy, a witch named Basil Eyres strives for “top student” honors to maintain her performance-based scholarship. When social media-famous Arabella Oregano enrolls, Basil develops an instant crush, and Basil, Villy, and Addy enfold her into their friend group. Undoubtedly drawn to one another and perhaps with a dash of fate, Arabella and Basil become partners for the Senior Festival, sharing a familiar and, then, a secret. When a jealous bully learns what Arabella’s hiding, she threatens to reveal her. Capriglione’s comforting exploration of class, passion, and tenacity kept me reading well past my bedtime snack. |
Batter Royale by Leisl AdamsIn Adams’s sweet young adult romance loaded with baking show puns and recipes for “Apple Crumble” and a “Maple Chocolate Cream Cheese Tart,” Rose waits tables at the Quayga Diner, where her best friend, Fred, cooks. When a food critic sampling the establishment’s dessert offerings becomes enamored with Rose and her strawberry shortcake, the 17-year-old receives a potentially life-changing opportunity. As her parents’ separation and her acceptance to an elite, but expensive, culinary school cloud her mind, Rose focuses on the titular televised baking competition in London that comes with a substantial cash prize and publishing deal. She just has to convince wanderlusty Fred to be her teammate as his mother’s business flounders. |
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