Just as food memoir is one of my favorite literary genres, so is fiction that revolves around food. When we think about food fiction, our minds often go straight to those books set in the restaurant industry.
But food fiction as a (loose) genre is broader than this: it might include characters who are restaurant critics, enjoy cooking for their loved ones, or who relish a good meal and have distinct opinions about who makes the best taco or cinnamon roll.
This list might make you hungry. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
20 flavorful novels where food takes center stage
Garden Spells
Small Change
Little Beach Street Bakery
With the Fire on High
All Four Stars
Recipe for Persuasion
Heartless
Like Water for Chocolate: A Novel in Monthly Installments with Recipes, Romances, and Home Remedies
Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe
American Dreamer: A Multicultural Romance (Dreamers Book 1)
The Mistress of Spices
Tikka Chance on Me
The City Baker’s Guide to Country Living
Idlewild
The School of Essential Ingredients
The Marriage Game
Sourdough
The Way You Make Me Feel
The Proposal
The Lager Queen of Minnesota
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What favorite food fiction would you add to this list?
P.S. If you like reading about food, don’t miss these 20 tasty and tantalizing food memoirs, or my go-to cookbooks.
115 comments
I would definitely add Kitchens of the Great Midwest, also by J. Ryan Stradal. I absolutely loved both this one and Lager Queen!!
i concur! Kitchens is one of my all time favorite books, I have recommended it to so many.
Omg. I just came on to say Kitchens of the Great Midwest, too. Loved that book.
Yes! Was going to add this also. Both great reads. The Lager Queen Of Minnesota was our April book club read via Zoom. I invited author, J. Ryan Stradal, to join & he did. It was wonderful!
I couldn’t get through Kitchens of the Midwest, but I must have bought at least 10 copies of it at Dollar Tree for a dollar and sent them all over the country through paperbackswap. Everybody wanted it!
Kitchens of the Great Midwest was fantastic!
I haven’t read Lager Queen yet, but I loved Kitchens on the Great Midwest. The main character’s outdoor meal experiences made me crave amazing food! Not the Lutefisk though! LOL!
Oh and for 1950’s Betty Crocker kind of recipes, read Recipe for a Perfect Wife. For amazing San Francisco Chinatown food, check out Natalie Tan’s Book of Luck and Fortune. My mouth watered while reading that one.
The Master Butcher’s Singing Club.
I read this last year and it was quite good, I’m thinking I’ll be wanting to read it again sometime soon…
I would add the Bruno, Chief of Police series by Martin Walker to this list. Set in southern France, the food Bruno cooks in each book is just as good as the mystery he is solving (sometimes it’s better!).
And Martin Walker’s wife and daughter published a cookbook with Bruno’s recipes!
We discovered Bruno after spending several days in the Dordogne and I must agree! I have 10 quarts of vin de noix maturing as I type.
I loved Crescent by Diane Abu-Jaber.
Same, yes!
I would also add Tweet Cute by Emma Lord to this list. Super cute story, but I wish it included recipes.
Loved Tweet Cute too! ❤️
It’s an old one, but I enjoyed Heartburn by Nora Effron. My two favorite cozy mystery series are food related. There’s the Goldy the Caterer series by Diane Mott Davidson (her books are little bit above the average cozy) and the Presidential Executive Chef series by Julie Hyzy.
Love Heartburn! Highly recommend the audio book narrated by Meryl Streep.
Sourdough was such an unexpected sweet book. Very unique!
The Goldy books are great on audio as well!
I also like Diane Mott Davidson’s Goldy books. They’re fun, well-written, and the recipes are fabulous.
Goldy’s Scout’s Brownies have been a family favorite for many years. The books are a fun listen.
I loved Sourdough! I even gave a copy to a baker friend of mine.
Robin Sloan has just finished a serialized novella (basically a better, updated version of an older short story) that starts with burrito cannons! You can find it for free here:
https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/06/07/serial-the-strange-case-of-the-new-golden-gate-chapter-1/
I’d add Chocolat by Joanne Harris and Kitchens of the Great Midwest by J.Ryan Stadal. I’ve read and loved MANY of those on your list–Like Water From Chocolate and With The Fire On High being two favorites among all books! Great post! I also love non-fiction foodie books and have read/reviewed many.
Yes! Chocolat by Joanne Harris perfect. I’d add The Cafe by the Sea by Jenny Colgan.
The Coincidence of Coconut Cake by Amy E Reichert! Easy, fun, read.
I came here to add Coincidence of Coconut Cake – such a delight, and reads like a love letter to Wisconsin food! Also the Simplicity of Cider by the same author – reminded me of Sarah Addison Allen’s writing.
Yes, I was going to put down The Coincidence of Coconut Cake also!
I was going to add this book, too:)
I loved The Blue Bistro by Elin Hilderbrand, especially on audio. Her books are sometimes hit-and-miss for me, but this one was my favorite.
I LOVED the food, restaurant, beach setting of this book. I thought the people/relatinoships came second to the amazing setting of the restaurant.
Yes! The Blue Bistro is my favorite Hilderbrand novel, and a perfect summer read. The restaurant and foodie scene is so well done in this book.
Currently listening to audiobook of School of Essential Ingredients.
Love it !
I just recently posted a similar list of fiction for foodies and we only have a few overlaps! The Marriage Game is one of yours that I’m most looking forward to reading!
“Burnt Toast makes you Sing Good” by Kathleen Flynn Is great in both written and audio.
Delicious by Ruth Reichl- her departure into fiction – fun and light read!
I was going to suggest that one, too! I loved it! Another I’d like to suggest is Quentin’s by Maeve Binchy.
Love that one! Scarlet Feather is good also, about caterers.
Anything by Maeve Binchy is classic, and Quentin’s is no exception. Also interesting is the way the restaurant that is front and centre of this novel crops up in subsequent ones.
Oh, I so agree! It was one of my favorites last summer!
One of my favorites! I read it in tandem with “Save me the Plums” and really enjoyed them both.
The Recipe Box by Viola Shipman.
One of my favorite books is Eat Cake by Jeanne Ray. It’s humorous, meaningful and has great dialogue–and also great cake recipes too.
Me too! I love Jeanne Ray and Eat Cake is one of my favorites. I love how it addresses the lives of grown-ups: a long-time marriage, caring for elders, etc. It has a great opening. Plus I baked the almond cake recipe in this book with great results.
I loved “Eat Cake”! It’s probably my favorite of Jeanne Ray’s books, but I love everything she’s written. Our little book club was lucky enough to get her to come to our discussion of “Calling Invisible Women” and she was a delight! (Funny story- I had been trying to get in touch with her for our book club without success for a while. One day, I was out on a run and saw Ann Patchett walking her dog. I ran past her and did a double take when I realized who she was. I yelled, “Are you Ann Patchett?” She looked a little nervous but said yes. I told her that I love her books, but I had been trying to reach her mom Jeanne Ray about coming to our book club. I guess I didn’t look too scary, because Ann Patchett gave me her email address and got me in touch with her mom!)
I also loved Little Beach Street Bakery, City Baker’s Guide to Country Living, and Lager Queen! Added Recipes for Persuasion to my TBR, along with Eight Hundered Grapes that was mentioned in comparison to City Baker’s Guide. I love this genre so thanks for the recommendations!
Great list! There are several on here that I haven’t read and put on my wishlist.
I would add the Bakeshop Mystery series by Ellie Alexander. The side plots are a little bit cheesy, but every bit delicious and I really like all the “characters” in town. It kind of reminds me of Gilmore Girls, mother/daughter, tiny town with quirky villagers.
Also can we add a category for middle grade novels. We recently read Adventures with Waffles and every member of my family LOVES it, kiddies to grown ups.
Love Ellie Alexander’s Bakeshop Mysteries! They’re such great cozy mysteries.
The Bakeshop Mysteries are wonderful…& Gilmore Girls with mystery is a perfect description! I’ve enjoyed many on this list, but also recommend Chocolat, Bread Alone, and Delicious by Ruth Reichl.
The Hundred-Foot Journey by Richard C. Morais
The audio version is great and there’s also a film.
Food fiction is my favorite, especially when the author includes recipes! I would add Natalie Tan’s Book of Luck and Fortune by Roselle Lim, Rosalia’s Bittersweet Pastry Shop by Rosanna Chiofalo, Deep Dish by Mary Kay Andrews, and the Hannah Swensen mystery series by Joanne Fluke (includes recipes).
I would add Lizzie and Jane to this list by Katherine Reay. It is a sweet story of a sister who leaves her job, tries making amends with her newly cancer-diagnosed sister, and then ultimate starts a business of cooking food geared toward patients going through chemotherapy. I loved this book!
Have you read The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake? It’s so, so good and makes you look at food and cooking in a different (albeit slightly disturbing) way.
I would add anything by Stacey Ballis. Her characters are passionate cooks and reading her books always leave me hungry. I believe some include recipes as well.
I would add The Secret Ingredient of Wishes by Susan Bishop Crispell, Rosie’s Travelling Tea Shop by Rebecca Raisin and The Glass Kitchen by Linda Francis Lee. I just adore books with food and magical realism. 🙂
Good and magical realism? I will be checking these out. Thanks!!
My mom loved Natalie Tan’s Book of Love and Fortune and I am about to start reading it this week! I haven’t read any of these so I’m excited to try a few of them. I’ve always had Babette’s Feast on my TBR after seeing the movie, but I can’t even think of any other food fiction I’ve read!
Babette’s Feast is wonderful!
I loved The Blue Bistro by Elin Hildebrand!
What does it mean when you label a book “open door?” I couldn’t find an explanation anywhere, but it seems like maybe it’s related to how descriptive it is in regards to…romantic encounters? Thanks!
I believe Anne has described it this way…A quick guide: if you prefer sex scenes to be minimal or only hinted at, look for “closed door” romance. If you’re okay with your romance being more explicit, look for “open door.”
Stones For Bread by Christa Parrish is one I enjoyed years ago.
The book has bread recipes interspersed throughout, too.
I just re-read Garden Spells. I love all of Sarah Addison Allen’s books and many deal with magic and food. I read With the Fire on High last year and the book was delightful. Many of these titles on on my massively TBR!
I would recommend The Hundred-Foot Journey by Richard C. Morais. I tell as many people about Lager Queen!! One of my favorites of last year.
The Hundred Foot journey—yes!! So good!
The Hundred Foot Journey is also one of our families favorite movies!
I’m new to your website and booklists — and loving it all, BTW! Sorry if this has been answered elsewhere — I poked around a bit and couldn’t find the answer: What does “open door” and “semi open door” mean in these reviews?
thanks for all the great content and inspiration!
It referes to the level of descriptiveness of the sex scenes. Closed door = less descriptive or just hinted at. Open door can be pretty explicit.
huh. 🤔 Okay, thanks for the clarification! — I was thinking of it backwards to that! …Like, explicit = closed door because “go away, kids! I need a little privacy for this!” 😉😂
Sourdough and Heartless are two of my favorites! I just recently inhaled Recipe for Persuasion. Pretty much all the rest were on my TBR or are being added. For fun lighthearted reading, Ellie Alexander has quite a few food themed cozy mysteries.
The summer of Jordi Perez and the best burger and the best burger in Los Angeles
https://www.theamyspalding.com/the-summer-of-jordi-perez
I lived in Rwanda for a year and also liked this one:
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/126948/baking-cakes-in-kigali-by-gaile-parkin/
Please read The Truth About Twinkie Pie by Kat Yeh. It’s a middle-grade novel about an indomitable motherless child with a strong Southern voice who tells her story through family recipes and goes on an adventure to learn the hard truth about her past. It’s funny, heartwarming, and the recipes in it are legit! I actually made the Impossible Pie recipe and my family was bowled over.
Love this list! We read Sourdough in our Preheated Baking Podcast book club, Episode 69: Two for the Dough. I also want to add Garden of Small Beginnings by Abbi Waxman. While not a book about food, the characters loved to cook (and eat!) and there were so many vivid, descriptive food scenes…I highlighted the heck out of that book.
The rest of the Beach Street Bakery series are just as good as the first. And if you like recipes and cozy mysteries, the Hannah Swensen series by Joanne Fluke are cute.
I am excited to see The School of Essential Ingredients on this list. It is one of my favorite books of all time! I would recommend Barbara O’Neal’s books as well. There is often a food component in them, and her writing is gorgeous. I loved The Lost Recipe for Happiness and How to Bake a Perfect Life.
The Peculiar Sadness of Lemon Cake – unique, interesting, heartbreaking.
The Good Luck Girls of Shipwreck Lane by Kelly Harms
Two complete opposites with the same name arrive to claim a sweepstakes prize – a dream house. One is a gourmet chef and the food descriptions are divine when she is the narrator. The other’s idea of cooking is making Kraft Mac ‘n Cheese but she learns to bake bread as the story unfolds. Love, heartache, friendship, and plenty of laughs. I loved it on audio.
Has anyone read Cinnamon and Gunpowder by Eli Brown? I’m just starting the audio version.
I loved the cozy culinary mysteries by Josi S. Kilpack. There is 13 in all but “Lemon Tart” is the first.
Vanessa Yu’s Magical Paris Tea Shop coming in August and The Secret French Recipes of Sophie Valroux coming in September.
It’s several years old, but I liked The Restaurant Critic’s Wife by Elizabeth LaBan. I read this shortly after I read Ruth Riechl’s Garlic and Sapphires and felt like they were a great pairing. LaBan’s husband was a restaurant critic in Philadelphia so the foodie and lifestyle details are spot on.
The Saturday Night Cooking Club by Carla Laureano is a fun, light read.
Kitchens of the Great Midwest!! So. Much. Love.
Author Anthony Capella! The Wedding Officer and another book about coffee are both delightful foodie reads!
This is an amazing list! Thank you to all of you who left your recommendations. I recommend ‘The School of Essential Ingredients’as well! One of my favorite books.
One of my all-time favorite books is “Delicious!” by Ruth Reichl. It’s faction ,but based on fact.
These are a few foodie books I’ve read and enjoyed, which should be included on the list: The Love Goddess Cooking School by Melissa Senate; The Book of Unholy Mischief by Elle Newmark; Eat Cake by Jeanne Ray; The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender.
Hello all!
The Saturday Night Supper Club, Brunch at Bittersweet Cafe, and the Solid Grounds Coffee Shop by Carla Laureno – so good!
I sobbed at the end of Heartless. I will never reread that book because I can’t take the feelings.
Great list!
I would add How To Change a Life—great book about friendship and food.
Chocolat by Joanne Harris
On Rue Tatin: Living and Cooking in a French Town. by Susan Herrmann Loomis
Oh my goodness, I can’t believe Natalie Tan’s Book of Luck and Fortune didn’t make it. I devoured that book and swear I could almost taste her recipes!!
Great list! If I could make a suggestion? I would consider adding another series for middle-schoolers to this list. I really enjoyed reading them, & I’m in my 50’s! The series consists of (in order) Bliss, A Dash of Magic, & Bite-sized Magic written by Kathryn Littlewood.
Delicious! by Ruth Reichl is one of my favorite books.
A Place at the Table by Susan Rebecca White is quite good, as is The Lost Art of Mixing by Erica Bauermeister (I loved School of Essential Ingredients).
I Love this list! I just got Little Beach Street Bakery to read next! 🙂
Maybe someone can help me find a book I started to read and then had to return to the library … I’m pretty sketchy on the details … I think it was in England … the woman in the story was a fantastic cook, lives in a London flat she inherited from her grandma? .. a guy, who has just returned from a trip, showed up for a dinner invitation at his friends home next door but no one was home, turned out it was the wrong night … she invites him in because it’s raining and offers to cook dinner for him. She’s not his type, plain, but I think her cooking and kindness ends up winning him over. She has family in the country … that’s about as much as I remember. Anyone know this book?
Shawna, this sounds like September by Rosamunde Pilcher to me.
I really liked Bread Alone by Judith Ryan Hendricks and the sequel Baker’s Apprentice.
I tried finding fiction set around cooking last weekend on Google, Goodreads, Amazon to no avail. They all need your list. Thank you for serving these.
Awesome post! Thanks for sharing 🙂
food fiction, where books that contain well-written tales that center on or associated with food. There are many food fiction books in literature, some of them already made it to the shelves of the readers while others are still sitting in the bookstores.
Please read my blog: The Common Challenges in Writing a Fiction Book about Food
have a great day!
Love, love, love this list! Thank you for initiating it, and thank you everyone for adding to it!
I have one obscure gem that hits several joys for me: Recipes for Love and Murder by Sally Andrew. It is a cozy mystery set in rural South Africa with wonderful characters and amazing sounding food (recipes included). I was pleasantly surprised with the progressive attitudes of the main character and those who she calls friends. The setting and the food were very different from my own experiences, and the author described it all so well I could imagine it in front of me.
I enjoyed reading “Cooking for Picasso”!
I haven’t read it in years, but Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain is probably my all-time favorite. It might be sad to read now.
If you like historical fiction, “The Kitchen Front,” by Jennifer Ryan is good. Especially the audio version.
Also, The Mothers Arms Recipe Service by new author Cindy Roos Young. A great first novel! A beautiful collection of short stories that takes you through life’s ups and downs through interesting events in history, leaving you with warm feelings of comfort and hope. A real tribute to the bond between mothers and their children and family love. The recipes really took me back to my own childhood. Left me hungry for more, both literally and figuratively!
you can read an excerpt here: https://www.amazon.com/Mothers-Arms-Recipe-Service-Culinary/dp/B0B5NP9TL8/ref=sr_1_1?crid=14G5KGWEDIBNS&keywords=the+mothers+arms+recipe+service&qid=1659629469&sprefix=the+m+others+arms%2Caps%2C109&sr=8-1
Love and Saffron? 🙂
That’s a great addition!
Battle Royal by Lucy Parker – two bakers, one a judge on a well-known baking competition show and one a former contestant, compete to make a royal wedding cake. It’s a lot of fun. Open door romance.
Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake by Alexis Hall – the heroine competes on a well-known baking competition show. Hijinks ensue. Also open door.
I recommend the nonfiction Burnt Toast Makes You Sing Good: A Memoir of Food
and Love from an American Midwest Family by Kathleen Flinn
Absolutely charming. Sweet, old fashoined and wholesome. Kathleen Flinn’s memoir tells the story of her extended family and recognizes their impact on the person she became.
“My father was gone, but I had not lost the flavors of my childhood, nor the lessons that he left me. When everything else seemed so unsettled the simple act of cooking saved me somehow.”
I listened to the audio book which I borrowed from HOOPLA through my library
A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher
A fun book featuring some magical baking
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