It's amazing, when you think about it, how many authors seem to be obsessed with food, and work it in to their tales.

I've been researching food as it relates to detective stories, for instance, for an eventual book to be called The Gumshoe Gourmet. No matter how hard-boiled the main character, no matter how fast the action, there's always time to stop for lunch. Even Sherlock Holmes did it.

The ultimate in this, of course, was Nero Wolf, who only worked at all to support his three passions (food, orchids, and books). Rex Stout, the author of the series, went so far as to actually publishe The Nero Wolf Cookbook.

More recently there are several series going in which the protagonists are cooks, caterers, or the proprietors of gourmet food stores. And, in one case, she's the food writer for a major newspaper.

I have been meaning to ask you how that book is going, it sounds mighty interesting. And you are absolutely correct in that almost every book you read the detailed info is there about what that particular character is dining on! Gotta love it!

a few years back "Chocolat"? The author of that book is Joanne Harris and she also wrote "Five Quarters of the Orange" which is a tale of the unique saga of a European mother w/ any number of angry & bitter dysfunctions, many of which stem from her WW2 childhood. The tale is busting apart w/ cooking & food- also mystery, intrigue, murder, betryal, lost love, long-unanswered questions, etc. I highly recommend it for folks who enjoy stories that include kitchen happenings very much in the style of Laura Esquivel's "Like Water For Chocolat".

Another fantastic food read that links cuisine & eros is Isabel Allende's "Aphrodite".

Could it be that so many novelists fit the "starving artist" image, that their food obsession just spills over into their work?

Hmmm... good idea, KYH! Nice train of thought...