I had to read The Chef’s Secret because I’ve lived extensively in Italy. I’ve also read Crystal King’s The Feast of Sorrow and enjoyed her approach to food. Her newest historical novel did not let me down. The descriptions of food were enough to make me salivate remembering the pasta and other delights I ate there.
Written in dual points of view alternating between Bartolomeo Scappi, the private chef to multiple popes, and his protegé/nephew Giovanni. Scappi was a famous chef and wrote on of the best-selling cookbooks of all times. King parses out much of the story by having Giovanni and his fiancée read his uncle’s diaries. They must first solve the riddle of the coded sections then piece together his uncle’s life and the name of Scappi’s one true love.
The book seemed well-researched, the Italian accurate as are the descriptions of Rome and Venice. If you’ve seen the TV programs about the Medici, the Sforzas, and the Borgias in the 16th century, apparently poisonings, swordplay, treachery, and infidelity were rampant. This book—part romance, part mystery, part intrigue—combines all that and delightful, sensual descriptions of food and a chef’s knife with an ebony handle and a fine Damascene blade. The Chef’s Secret is a quick, fun read.
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