Romance and Me: Culinary Romances, yummy!

Filed in featured , Romance and Me , The Latin Lover Posted on September 5, 2012 @ 3:00 pm 13 comments

Hey Everyone!

Today let’s talk food. Or rather romances where food plays an important role. I’m sure you have come across some of those stories where either due to the hero’s or heroine’s job creating meals, cooking and/or baking, sampling food features heavily in the story, almost like an additional supporting character.

I remember the first such novel I read, it was Summer Desserts by Nora Roberts. The heroine (Summer) was a pastry chef and her sweet creations provided plenty of sinful tasting opportunities for the hero 😉 After that first delicious book it was drought for a few years and it is only now that I find myself surrounded by delicious-looking and sounding books once again.

There is Amanda Usen’s Scrumptious and Luscious, which not only feature chef heroines, but due to Amanda Usen being a  chef herself her descriptions of cooking were luscious and the most basic ingredients came to life with bursting colours and tantalizing scent. As I said in my review of Luscious:

“Meals became art and their sampling and enjoyment poetry. Luscious definitely lives up to its name: through her writing Amanda Usen enchants the reader with such succulent descriptions of the meals that even those who lack any imagination or creativity when it comes to cooking can see and smell those culinary creations. So be warned, do not read this book while dieting or being hungry, you’ll just torture yourself!”

(and besides their yummy titles have equally delicious covers as well 😉 lol)

Then there are some of Entangled Publishing’s culinary treats: first came Table for One by Ros Clarke, which was a delicious bite of a story with its mere 52 pages. It featured a brooding but oh so creative sexy chef and a restaurant critic heroine (what I would give to have her job 😉 lol), and as I wrote in my review of Table for One

“If you only have half an hour or an hour and want to sink your teeth into a well developed entertaining story Table For One is the perfect choice, I’m sure you won’t find anything lacking with the story, though you most certainly will be left craving some delicious treats 😉 Table For One is an explosion of the senses, a virtual orgasm for the taste buds. […] a culinary and sensual experience”.

And their latest release in their new Bliss line: Sugar Rush by Rachel Astor, whose tagline is “There’s nothing quite like your first bite.” 😀 The heroine not only owns a candy shop but is a chocolatier as well, yum! Can you tell I’m excited to read it?

Besides the enjoyment of reading about food I also believe that it can be highly erotic and conducive to romance to have the hero/heroine discover and enjoy food together. And what’s even better? If the book contains some recipes I can try out later 😉

Do tell me,

Do you like to read about food in your romance novels?

Any great culinary romances  you could recommend?

Do you like to see chef, baker, waiter/waitress, pastry chef, etc. heroes/heroines?

ps. I found these lists on Goodreads when I searched for Sweet Reads, Sugar Rush and Food Romance. And these on Amazon when I browsed Food Romance and Chocolate Romance.

About Stella


Stella is a proud bookaholic and a self-taught multilinguist in training. Besides reading, her other great passions are travelling and baking. When she is not globetrotting she lives in sunny Budapest, where she loves to spend her free time preparing (and feasting on) delicious cookies or devouring equally yummy books. Her favourite genres are urban fantasy and romance and she couldn't live without her daily dose of sunshine. Besides being the Latin Lover on BLI Stella also blogs about books and a bookish life on Ex Libris.

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13 Comments

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  • Ros September 5, 2012 at 4:40 pm

    Laura Florand’s The Chocolate Thief – almost as good as eating the real thing!

    • Stella September 6, 2012 at 6:45 am

      Thanks Ros, I love stories about chocolate creating, loved the movie with Juliette Binoche as well 😉

  • Susan September 5, 2012 at 6:31 pm

    There are gazillions of contemps with a foodie theme–Robin Kaye’s Romeo, Romeo and Susan Mallery’s Buchanan series just for starters. But one of my favorites is Sherry Thomas’s historical Delicious.

    (See, I *can* write a short comment!)

    • Stella September 6, 2012 at 6:45 am

      Thanks for the recommendations Susan! (and no worries, I love your loong comments 😀 )

  • JenM September 5, 2012 at 7:05 pm

    I love food themed romances! So yummy to read. I just got through with one called Too Darn Hot by Pamela Burford that featured a struggling chef and a food critic. It was quite enjoyable. Although not specifically about food, I also just finished Giving It Up by Amber Lin, which has a very dark storyline, but the lead female character is a baker and makes yummy cakes and pies. There’s also Pink Buttercream Frosting by Lissa Matthews which is a short erotic romance.

    Let’s see, a few others – Louisa Edwards has a whole series of food-themed romances. Sarah Addison Allen wrote a wonderful book, not really a romance, but kind of literary/women’s fiction/paranormal called Garden Spells that features a lead character that bakes edible flowers into her food that cause people to feel a certain way. Also, A Taste of Magic by Tracy Madison about a witch who bakes spells into her food. I could go on – as you can see, I love books with this theme LOL!

    • Stella September 6, 2012 at 6:47 am

      Thanks so much Jen, taking notes here! I’m also looking forward to Christi Burth’s second novel in the Aisle Bound trilogy as the hero is a baker/chocolatier 😀

      • JenM September 6, 2012 at 10:11 am

        Yum. I’ll have to keep an eye out for that one. As if I don’t already have enough on my TBR mountain….

        • Stella September 6, 2012 at 10:59 am

          LOL I know, but for these yummy stories one has to make an exception, right? 😉

  • draconismoi September 5, 2012 at 8:27 pm

    Great, now I’m hungry.

    • Stella September 6, 2012 at 6:46 am

      LOL and you haven’t even read the actual stories! Those made me salivate! 😉 LOL

  • Izz September 6, 2012 at 12:25 am

    reading this post made me hungry.LOL.
    I only have read two romance books with food theme, The Food of Love by Anthony Capella and a harlequin, I forgot the title.

    • Stella September 6, 2012 at 6:46 am

      Adding them to my list, thanks Izz! 🙂

  • aurian September 7, 2012 at 2:20 pm

    I love books with food, perhaps you should try some cozy mystery series with foody themes. Those almost always have recipes in them as well. Not so much romance perhaps, but still very entertaining.

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