I belong to a forum for authors called Romance Divas which are some of the funniest people and best authors around (no I am not an author incognito)! I have been slowly reading their books and find myself just needing to mention the debut novel by Louisa Edwards. It is simply delicious (pun intended).
The book is based on Miranda Wake who is a food critic that has a reputation for taking down chefs and restaurants for their crappy service and bad food. She has a 'don't touch me attitude' that protects herself from getting close to anyone. As the heroine, she has a multi-faceted personality: she is the ultimate career woman yet underneath that frosty exterior is a fragile woman with a whole lot of emotional baggage. She is spunky and quick with the verbal sparring. She has very strong opinions and doesn't even try to soften her tone or watch her words. (If you know me at all, you know I totally identified with her)!
Of course this is a contemporary romance so the conflict starts when Miranda attends a media party for the opening of Market Restaurant run by Chef Adam Temple that is going to specialize in locally grown organic food made into high end cuisine. Mirands has way too many cocktails before the appetizers are served and finds herself face to face with the Chef verbally sparring with him. She isn't too drunk though to find herself in the middle of a bet to spend a month in the Market Restaurant working with him. In her mind...a journalistic dream come true to write an exposé on restaurants - a tell all book on what really goes on behind the scenes of a trendy restaurant.
The hero is Adam who is a passionate chef and who quickly catches on to Miranda's most embarrassing secret - she doesn't even know how to cook yet has become this famous food critic. The odd crew Adam has hired to help him in the kitchen of his new restaurant is a fun, colorful group of old co-workers and friends who work so well together, they make going to work a fun experience. Even though I have waitressed before, I particularly liked reading how each job interacts with the other, so together that the finished product is a work of all from the vendors who furnish the food, to the chef and line cooks who experiment with food until it just explodes with flavor in your mouth, to the waiters and waitresses who serve it. The book also included tips on how to pick items from the vendors and also includes recipes. But don't be discouraged by these additions as the author interweaves this all into the characters and plot so seamlessly you never realize until later just how many cooking and restaurant business details there are in the book.
As the month passes, Miranda finds herself thawing and she begins to have a hard time forgetting that she is there to write an exposé especially with Adam's private personal cooking lessons (even I learned how to poach a perfect egg). She wants to get closer to the handsome, passionate, strong magnetic Adam instead of destroying him and his restaurant and his dream. I loved Miranda's character the most as she so reminded me of myself - she made mistakes, she regretted them, and she owned them. She made a journey and learned that without her flaws and imperfections she wouldn't be the person she was.
I am not going to give the ending away but rest assured, this has a HEA (happy ever after) ending.
There was one passage I absolutely adored from the book:
Food is also life. It's who we are. People say 'You are what you eat' all the time, but that's not really how the saying goes. It's not so simple as 'If you eat bacon, you're a pig'. The actual quote is 'Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are.' Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, a French guy who wrote about taste and gastronomy in the 19th century, said it. And he meant that food is like this big clue - how we eat reveals a lot about how we feel about ourselves and our world'.
I highly recommend this author and this book! I give it 5 stars out of 5! Just don't read it on an empty stomach.
No comments:
Post a Comment