The Chef’s Secret by Crystal King combines all my favourite genres into one beautiful book – historical fiction, mystery and culinary writing! What more could a girl want?
Title: The Chef’s Secret
Author: Crystal King
First Published: February 12, 2019
Publisher: Atria Books
Categories: Historical Fiction, Mystery, Food & Wine
Acquired: from blog tour organiser Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours
*** Thank you to Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours and the publisher, Atria Books, for providing me with a digital copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review. ***
A captivating novel of Renaissance Italy detailing the mysterious life of Bartolomeo Scappi, the legendary chef to several popes and author of one of the bestselling cookbooks of all time, and the nephew who sets out to discover his late uncle’s secrets – including the identity of the noblewoman Bartolomeo loved until he died.
When Bartolomeo Scappi dies in 1577, he leaves his vast estate – properties, money, and his position – to his nephew and apprentice Giovanni. He also gives Giovanni the keys to two strongboxes and strict instructions to burn their contents. Despite Scappi’s dire warning that the information concealed in those boxes could put Giovanni’s life and others at risk, Giovanni is compelled to learn his uncle’s secrets. He undertakes the arduous task of decoding Scappi’s journals and uncovers a history of deception, betrayal, and murder – all to protect an illicit love affair.
As Giovanni pieces together the details of Scappi’s past, he must contend with two rivals who have joined forces – his brother Cesare and Scappi- s former protege, Domenico Romoli, who will do anything to get his hands on the late chef’s recipes.
With luscious prose that captures the full scale of the sumptuous feasts for which Scappi was known, The Chef’s Secret serves up power, intrigue, and passion, bringing Renaissance Italy to life in a delectable fashion.
AMAZON | BARNES AND NOBLE | BOOKS-A-MILLION | INDIEBOUND
A FEAST FOR ALL SENSES
Even if Crystal King’s author bio didn’t state that she’s a culinary enthusiast it would have been easy to guess that she loved food by reading her writing. The Chef’s Secret isn’t only a great historical fiction based upon the celebrated, but mysterious, chef Bartolomeo Scappi, but it is a feast for the senses and a must-read for all food fiction fans.
As someone who LOVES reading about food history, this book completely captured my imagination. Set in 16th century Renaissance Italy, the author’s descriptions of the cities, the characters’ lives and, of course, the food, are all lush and incredibly beautiful.
It is a story of romance, murder, intrigue and well-kept secrets. Along with the gorgeous descriptions of incredibly feasts and mouth-watering dishes, I found myself reading late into the night – I couldn’t put this book down! I enjoyed the depth of the characters and the well-researched historical touches. I felt completely transported into the story and was swept along for the opulent ride.
The story takes place in two timelines – the “present” day, with Giovanni trying to solve the mystery of his uncle’s coded journals, and the “past”, which takes place in the journals and paints the picture of Scappi’s past. As mentioned in previous reviews, I’m not that great with stories that jump back in forth in time, so I sometimes had to really focus to keep track of which timeline I was in (I seriously need to get better that this!)
GETTING TO KNOW BARTOLOMEO SCAPPI
The real-life historical figure of Bartolomeo Scappi is one that I’ve known about for a long time. As a food blogger and cookbook enthusiast (I have over 200 cookbooks!) Scappi is well known to me as one of the first “celebrity chefs” and the author of the famous Opera dell’arte del cucinare, in which he describes nearly 1000 recipes of Renaissance cuisine. As famous as he was, there isn’t that much known about his life, so I was excited to read King’s fictional account of his life and wasn’t disappointed.
The Chef’s Secret is definitely one of my favourite culinary fiction books and now I’m on the search for more culinary historical fiction to devour!
Crystal King is the author of The Chef’s Secret and Feast of Sorrow. A culinary enthusiast and social media professional, her writing is fueled by a love of history and a passion for the food, language and culture of Italy. She has taught classes in writing, creativity and social media at Harvard Extension School, Boston University, Mass College of Art, UMass Boston and GrubStreet, one of the leading creative writing centers in the US. A Pushcart-nominated poet and former co-editor of the online literary arts journal Plum Ruby Review, Crystal received her M.A. in Critical and Creative Thinking from UMass Boston, where she developed a series of exercises and writing prompts to help fiction writers in medias res. She resides in Boston.
You can connect with Crystal online at:
WEBSITE | FACEBOOK | TWITTER | INSTAGRAM
Tuesday, June 18
Review at Tar Heel Reader
Review & Interview at Passages to the Past
Wednesday, June 19
Review at 100 Pages a Day
Thursday, June 20
Review at My Reading Chronicles
Interview at Jathan & Heather
Friday, June 21
Review at Amy’s Booket List
Guest Post at Let Them Read Books
Monday, June 24
Review at A Chick Who Reads
Review at Historical Fiction with Spirit
Tuesday, June 25
Review at Chicks, Rogues and Scandals
Excerpt at Myths, Legends, Books & Coffee Pots
Wednesday, June 26
Excerpt at The Lit Bitch
Review at Orange County Readers
Thursday, June 27
Review at Book Frolic
Interview at Jorie Loves a Story
Friday, June 28
Review at Mama’s Reading Corner
Feature at What Is That Book About
Monday, July 1
Review at Comet Readings
Review at Stephanie’s Novel Fiction
Tuesday, July 2
Review at Melissa Reads
Review at Clarissa Reads it All
Wednesday, July 3
Review at Henry and Benny’s Book Nook
Guest Post at A Bookish Affair
Thursday, July 4
Review at Just One More Chapter
Friday, July 5
Review at Coffee and Ink
Review at Girls Just Reading
Review at Book Reviews from Canada
During the Blog Tour, one winner will receive a set of Feast of Sorrow and The Chef’s Secret! To enter, please use the Gleam form below.
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Great review, Stephanie! I am thrilled that you enjoyed The Chef’s Secret! Thank you for hosting Crystal’s tour.
Amy
HF Virtual Book Tours
Hallo, Hallo Stephanie,
I am so thankful you had a chance to read this story! I was grateful to meet it ahead of the blog tour – which is why I hosted the author today for an interview. You’ll find a lot of behind-the-book secrets & trivia facts about how she tucks into these lives who truly gave the culinary world so much throughout their lifetimes. I was fascinated by the histories of the foods but also, how important these people were at a time period where we don’t often highlight the histories and legacies of those people who truly helped shaped key aspects of our lives.
You and I said the same thing!!!
I mentioned this too – how its a foodie delight of a novel to be reading!! lol #greatminds #thinkalike
I *loved!* the time shifting in the novel – it added more layers to the intrigue but also, it was just a great juxtaposition between the two characters. This was the first time I had heard of Scappi as although I came into cooking a bit ahead of Julia Child (meaning, I only beat her by a few years!! lol) I didn’t get the attraction of reading cookbooks like my Mum who read them (still does really) like we devour novels. I appreciate cookbooks to experiment with recipes but I’m more interested in just taking the ingredients on hand and sorting out a pattern of how to use them in different dishes. This is why I have notebooks of recipes and loads of cookbooks too – to just go back and forth and see what inspires me next.
My wanderings for cooking though are more vegan + vegetarian centred as I have had an aversion to meat, poultry and pork since I was a young girl. Couldn’t always devout my eating habits to that passion though nor can I now but one day I’ll be able to ‘give up what I don’t enjoy’ and only eat what makes me happy. Til then, I enjoy researching how to bake GF and vegan; which seasonal veg is avail per each new season that gives me joy to cook/bake and sorting out my flavours with spices & herbs.
Truly loved reading your review!!