Food and literature

Duck59

Duck59

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A chance to combine two things that I love, food and literature. Food, in all sorts of forms, appears in many classic works. A few examples:

1) Alice in Wonderland - food is everywhere, from the Mad Hatter's permanent tea party to the jam tarts that may or may not have been stolen.

2) Oliver Twist - the most famous request for seconds ever made.

3) Jane Eyre - the pragmatic governess is pressed into service in the kitchen to assist Mrs Fairfax.

4) Robinson Crusoe - 100 ways to use goats.

5) Wind in the Willows - Toad and Ratty go on a picnic.

Shakespeare brings food into many of his works, from figs being brought to Cleopatra to the original Mr Creosote, Falstaff. Dickens' relationship with food is usually from the point of view of the hungry and dispossessed. Food, and the type of food you eat, becomes a metaphor for social status.

Does anyone have any favourite food scenes?
 
Oooh, great topic!

Maybe slightly deviating from literature to film, but one of my favorite recent movies was The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (with Ben Stiller). I loved the clementine cake that meant so much to Walter - so much so that I tried to find a recipe online to recreate it!

As for books though - Anne of Green Gables and raspberry cordial springs to mind, but that's a drink rather than food!
 
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Duck59 said:
A chance to combine two things that I love, food and literature. Food, in all sorts of forms, appears in many classic works. A few examples:

1) Alice in Wonderland - food is everywhere, from the Mad Hatter's permanent tea party to the jam tarts that may or may not have been stolen.

2) Oliver Twist - the most famous request for seconds ever made.

3) Jane Eyre - the pragmatic governess is pressed into service in the kitchen to assist Mrs Fairfax.

4) Robinson Crusoe - 100 ways to use goats.

5) Wind in the Willows - Toad and Ratty go on a picnic.

Shakespeare brings food into many of his works, from figs being brought to Cleopatra to the original Mr Creosote, Falstaff. Dickens' relationship with food is usually from the point of view of the hungry and dispossessed. Food, and the type of food you eat, becomes a metaphor for social status.

Does anyone have any favourite food scenes?
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Oh in Chocolat when they are in the chocolate shop diving the aroma from the chocolates and trying them is quite impressive. You could almost imagine the smell and taste of the confection. This is one of the notable scences I can think of in movies. There are quite a few films where food is featured though, you are right.
 
Here is an interesting one by a great author. But oh, the cover is, well... lets say it is reminiscent of those cadbury Flake ads. Or is it just me? :eek:

the novel conveys a powerful atmosphere of life in the great market halls and of working class suffering. There are a number of vivid descriptive passages, the most famous of which, his description of the olfactory sensations experienced upon entering a cheeseshop, has become known as the "Cheese Symphony" due to its ingenious orchestral metaphors
Click to expand...
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bellyofparis.jpg
 
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Following on from the french themed post above,
Ratatouille: Rats cooking the meals
 
Cannot think of any good literature with good foodie scenes which is bizarre because there must be hundreds.
Maybe 'Tom Jones' by Henry Fielding.

But the best foodie film I remember is, without doubt, 'Babette's Feast', an arty danish film. (Have just looked it up and it was based on a short story by Isak Dinesen [Karen Blixen]).
 
Madame Bovary features a fair amount of food, notably at the wedding of Charles and Emma. The meal features "four sirloins, six chicken fricassees, stewed veal, three legs of mutton, and in the middle a fine roast suckling pig, flanked by four chitterlings with sorrel" and there is a cake of quite gigantic proportions.
 
Sgrooge:
Ghosts of Christmas Past & Christmas Present!
Also the "meal" he had before headed home. The Christmas dinner the Cratchitts were having, then suplemented by the goose.
 
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