Crystal King
Autore di Feast of Sorrow: A Novel of Ancient Rome
Sull'Autore
Fonte dell'immagine: Photo by Wayne Earl Chinnock
Opere di Crystal King
Etichette
Informazioni generali
- Sesso
- female
- Nazionalità
- USA
- Luogo di residenza
- Boston, Massachusetts, USA
- Breve biografia
- Crystal King grew up in the Pacific Northwest but now calls Boston home. As a marketing and social media professional, she has taught classes in writing, creativity, and social media at Harvard Extension School, Boston University, Mass College of Art, UMass Boston and GrubStreet writing center. Crystal's passion for ancient history and the world of food and wine has fueled both her writing and her love of the country of Italy. She has been learning the Italian language for the better part of the last decade. Feast of Sorrow is her debut novel.
Utenti
Recensioni
Set amongst the scandal, wealth, and upstairs-downstairs politics of a Roman family, Crystal King’s seminal debut features the man who inspired the world’s oldest cookbook and the ambition that led to his destruction.
On a blistering day in the twenty-sixth year of Augustus Caesar’s reign, a young chef, Thrasius, is acquired for the exorbitant price of twenty thousand denarii. His purchaser is the infamous gourmet Marcus Gavius Apicius, wealthy beyond measure, obsessed with a taste for fine meals from exotic places, and a singular ambition: to serve as culinary advisor to Caesar, an honor that will cement his legacy as Rome's leading epicure.
Apicius rightfully believes that Thrasius is the key to his culinary success, and with Thrasius’s help he soon becomes known for his lavish parties and fantastic meals. Thrasius finds a family in Apicius’s household, his daughter Apicata, his wife Aelia, and her handmaiden, Passia whom Thrasius quickly falls in love with. But as Apicius draws closer to his ultimate goal, his reckless disregard for any who might get in his way takes a dangerous turn that threatens his young family and places his entire household at the mercy of the most powerful forces in Rome.… (altro)
On a blistering day in the twenty-sixth year of Augustus Caesar’s reign, a young chef, Thrasius, is acquired for the exorbitant price of twenty thousand denarii. His purchaser is the infamous gourmet Marcus Gavius Apicius, wealthy beyond measure, obsessed with a taste for fine meals from exotic places, and a singular ambition: to serve as culinary advisor to Caesar, an honor that will cement his legacy as Rome's leading epicure.
Apicius rightfully believes that Thrasius is the key to his culinary success, and with Thrasius’s help he soon becomes known for his lavish parties and fantastic meals. Thrasius finds a family in Apicius’s household, his daughter Apicata, his wife Aelia, and her handmaiden, Passia whom Thrasius quickly falls in love with. But as Apicius draws closer to his ultimate goal, his reckless disregard for any who might get in his way takes a dangerous turn that threatens his young family and places his entire household at the mercy of the most powerful forces in Rome.… (altro)
Crystal King is a brilliant author and I loved her debut novel Feast of Sorrow. The Chef’s Secret is a fantastic follow-up in which King recreates the life and secrets of Bartolomeo Scappi, a real-life figure who authored one of the bestselling cookbooks and served as a private chef to the Vatican during the Renaissance. Despite his far-reaching influence on Italian culture and cuisine, much of Scappi’s personal life remains unknown. King takes some artistic license by imagining Scappi’s humble origins, his role in court intrigue, and his involvement in a forbidden romance.
King has a talent for engaging the five senses with her writing; what she does to taste is akin to what Patrick Süskind does to smell. Her delectable descriptions of the culinary arts are enough to make one’s mouth water. It’s clear when reading her works that King has done extensive research in order to capture the essence of 16th century Italian food, culture, and society and bring them to life.
I highly recommend The Chef’s Secret (as well as Feast of Sorrow) to any foodies or lovers of historical fiction. For those who enjoy cooking, King also wrote a companion cookbook filled with Renaissance Italian recipes, which can be downloaded from her website: https://www.crystalking.com/thechefssecret… (altro)
King has a talent for engaging the five senses with her writing; what she does to taste is akin to what Patrick Süskind does to smell. Her delectable descriptions of the culinary arts are enough to make one’s mouth water. It’s clear when reading her works that King has done extensive research in order to capture the essence of 16th century Italian food, culture, and society and bring them to life.
I highly recommend The Chef’s Secret (as well as Feast of Sorrow) to any foodies or lovers of historical fiction. For those who enjoy cooking, King also wrote a companion cookbook filled with Renaissance Italian recipes, which can be downloaded from her website: https://www.crystalking.com/thechefssecret… (altro)
Liste
Premi e riconoscimenti
Potrebbero anche piacerti
Statistiche
- Opere
- 3
- Utenti
- 210
- Popolarità
- #105,678
- Voto
- 3.8
- Recensioni
- 25
- ISBN
- 13
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 protégé, 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.… (altro)