Reviewed on Richard and Judy on 15th June 2005 and voted the second most enjoyable book by viewers The perfect summer read, a fresh highly engaging romance with the added ingredients of food. Set in Rome and starring a young American exchange student and two Italian men, one chef, one waiter, it is the most enormous fun. Full of produce, dishes and traditional Italian recipes, lust, duplicity and unrequited love, it's utterly charming, beautifully written and I do highly recommend it, certainly if you are going to Italy. Richard and Judy have just chosen it as one of their chosen six summer reads.
Laura Patterson is an American exchange student in Rome who, fed up with being inexpertly groped by her young Italian beaus, decides there’s only one sure-fire way to find a sensual man: date a chef. Then she meets Tomasso, who's handsome, young -- and cooks in the exclusive Templi restaurant. Perfect. Except, unbeknownst to Laura, Tomasso is in fact only a waiter at Templi -- it’s his shy friend Bruno who is the chef.
But Tomasso is the one who knows how to get the girls, and when Laura comes to dinner he persuades Bruno to help him with the charade. It works: the meal is a sensual feast, Laura is utterly seduced and Tomasso falls in lust. But it is Bruno, the real chef who has secretly prepared every dish Laura has eaten, who falls deeply and unrequitedly in love.
A delicious tale of Cyrano de Bergerac-style culinary seduction, but with sensual recipes instead of love poems.
‘A culinary comedy of errors whipped up from classic ingredients’ MAIL ON SUNDAY
‘A hymn to la dolce vita and the joy of food by someone who knows his stuff and his stuffing, a text that breathes authentic backstreet Rome from every page. I loved it’ Fiona Hook, THE TIMES
‘Enjoyable . . . related with warmth and wit’ DAILY TELEGRAPH
‘A rollicking comedy of errors with tug-at-the-heart-strings romance along the way. In short, it's comfort food without the calories’ HEAT
Author
About Anthony Capella
Anthony Capella spends part of each year travelling in Italy.
