View source for Delicious! by Ruth Reichl

{{infobox1
|title=Delicious!
|author=Ruth Reichl
|reviewer=Zoe Morris
|genre=General Fiction
|rating=4
|buy=Yes
|borrow=Yes
|isbn=978-0091958169
|pages=384
|publisher=Ebury Press
|date=September 2014
|summary=A tasty read, this combines modern day food with tales of war time rations.
|cover=0091958164
|aznuk=0091958164
|aznus=0091958164
}}
Billie is interning at a foodie magazine with a long history. It’s been based in the same building for many decades, so you can imagine the secrets hidden within the walls. Every recipe they've ever published, for example, is archived, so if you want the special brioche bread and butter pudding you first tasted in winter 1991, you can contact them and ask for the details. That’s part of Billie’s job, and she quite enjoys it, but then something even better comes out of the archives. A series of letters written during the war that send Billie on a mad mystery tour throughout the building and beyond. With a dash of ingenuity, a pinch of spunk and a big ol’ dollop of enthusiasm, will she be able to get to the bottom of the story?

Food, glorious food. A lot of good books cover the topic, and they can be like travelogues, except instead of transporting you to a place, they bring an experience to you, and that’s just the case here. From the magazine recipes to Billie’s errands around the streets of the city, flavours jump out from every page, making the book live up to its title. 

There are several things I expected to be true about this book that weren't, the largest of which was that I had in my head it was set in London, when in fact it’s New York. I think it was the name Billie that did it, but I quickly figured out which side of the pond I was on. I also expected there to be perhaps less of an introduction to the finding of the letters – they’re part of the story but not the whole thing – and yet I really enjoyed the preamble phase. I wasn't entirely sure about the Genie angle but it tied in, near enough, in the end.

I read this book and then another in quick succession, and both featured references to being a young teenager during the second world war, this one in the form of letters and the other in the form of a diary. I suppose it’s just the time we’re at now, where people who were young then are old now, but possibly still alive, and while I don’t tend to enjoy historical fiction, I liked having these one after another as the settings were similar and the girls could easily have been friends if they’d not lived a few hours apart.

This book was an enjoyable read with a satisfying ending. It had good staging, just like an excellent meal, and the food descriptions in particular really added a special something. Recommended. 

Thanks go to the publishers for supplying this book.

Those who know [[The Food of Love by Anthony Capella]] will enjoy this one, I'm sure.

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