Fritz Brenner Cooks... so does Nero Wolfe

<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7tRfrZVkGySYvcSp70faaEm-aU_m9KGGA6UqoXM25ueXW5XOSXSNpnbIuXpOsneOEWuKcbSneDBZRc6nTUzHcv9baqEnJz1hUZ3M7oSU_CMNvy-rimejo4IoE3sqrn4ZyfVD9PsVAao0C/s1600/nerowolfecookbook.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5708079906731998434" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7tRfrZVkGySYvcSp70faaEm-aU_m9KGGA6UqoXM25ueXW5XOSXSNpnbIuXpOsneOEWuKcbSneDBZRc6nTUzHcv9baqEnJz1hUZ3M7oSU_CMNvy-rimejo4IoE3sqrn4ZyfVD9PsVAao0C/s400/nerowolfecookbook.jpg" style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 236px; height: 300px;" /></a>What's fun about my new Nero Wolfe cookbook? I find it fun that throughout the entire book, it keeps up the fiction that Nero Wolfe is a New York detective who almost never leaves his home -- he solves crimes by thinking and interviewing people who come to him, and by sending out Archie Goodwin, his trusty sidekick. The recipes are attributed to his cook, Fritz Brenner, or to the other characters in the stories where the recipes are mentioned or described, including the chefs of "famous restaurants" or hotels, and even a few suspects.<div><br /></div><div>The recipes sound marvelous! Will I ever try them? Well, some are ruled out by my lack of access to wild ducks, foie gras, chickens fed only with blueberries, hogs fed only with peanuts, and other exotica like caviar. Or by my reluctance to try really challenging techniques. But maybe I'll try something from this amusing book. I've been wanting a copy for a long time. </div>

Fritz Brenner Cooks... so does Nero Wolfe

What's fun about my new Nero Wolfe cookbook? I find it fun that throughout the entire book, it keeps up the fiction that Nero Wolfe is a New York detective who almost never leaves his home -- he solves crimes by thinking and interviewing people who come to him, and by sending out Archie Goodwin, his…

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It's Just about the Food

The Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery is a venerable event: I suspect it's the Gold Standard for food articles. Lazy me -- I haven't systematically read through the collected proceedings of these annual meetings where the best articles from each year since 1981 have been published. On a recent visit to the library, however, I checked out the 1998 volume, <span style="font-style:italic;">Food in the Arts</span>. I was especially interested to read "Food in the Detective Novel" by Joan P. Alcock, and to learn how a professional food historian approaches the <a href="http://regional-food.blogspot.com/search/label/Food%20in%20Detective%20Fiction">subject that I often return to</a>.<div><br /></div><div>"Food in the Detective Novel" begins with a quote from W.H.Auden's famous article on detective fiction, though in fact he says little about food. Alcock acknowledges that the most basic role of food in crime is "in relation to killing the victim," and the second place goes to "the contents of the stomach" for clues to the time of death. She continues:</div><div><blockquote>"In recent years attention has been paid to the food eaten by the investigator, either as part of the story or to add background verisimilitude. This is evident in the historical whodunits, but it may also be a facet of the investigator. The number of cook/chef investigators is increasing." (p. 13)</blockquote></div>After this introduction, the article continues with a survey in chronological order by the setting of the detective stories. Inspector Marcus Didius Falco in ancient Rome is her first example: readers hear of the value of peppercorns, the economics of the oil trade, and the lost herb silphium. She continues by tabulating the food references in detective stories set in the middle ages, such as Brother Cadfael "who is more concerned with growing herbs ... than with his stomach, for his herbs have healing powers." (p. 14) She continues with Renaissance-era detective fiction, such as the protocol and place settings for a feast in the work of Kate Sedley. Alcock points out:<div><blockquote>"The feast is described in some detail but phrases such as 'I cannot remember at this distance of time more than a tithe of what was consumed that evening,' seem an attempt to avoid accurate description." (p. 15)</blockquote></div><div>The article proceeds with a study of several series of detective novels set in the Mediterranean, including those of Donna Leon's Commissario Guido Brunetti of the Venice Questura: </div><div><blockquote>"Chilled wine is sipped slowly while savouring views over Venice.... Prosecco or Fragolino are aperitifs; Soave is served with chicken and artichokes; Dolcetto with <i>pasta fagioli</i> and <i>cotoletta</i>; brandy or grappa with coffee." (p. 17) </blockquote></div><div>A summary of French detectives' food follows -- "If Madame Maigret has a vice, it is drinking her cup of Balthazar coffee, which she takes every morning." Then the classic English detective novel, "mainly by women writers... Food was of little account in their stories." She finds a few meals of interest in the stories of Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers, and the less-famous Gladys Mitchell. </div><div><br /></div><div>Alcock invents another category for the novels of Conan Doyle, Michael Innes, and Rex Stout: "The Abstemious and the Aesthete." I was surprised that she made no mention of Stout's Nero Wolfe novel <span style="font-style:italic;">Too Many Cooks</span>, published 1938, where the subject is a meeting of 15 international master cooks. In it, Nero Wolfe gives a paper on American food; he consents to attend the meeting only because he wants to obtain a secret recipe.<br /><br />And Alcock goes on to discuss women detectives, such as the work of Amanda Cross and others (somehow, Miss Marple isn't in this category, but in the Classic English category). She lists the foods eaten by each detective, without being distracted by other features of the tales. Only in her conclusion does she apply what I would think of as literary analysis: </div><div><blockquote>"Other books than detective stories incorporate food, but it is obvious that the frisson between murder and food, between intellectual puzzle-solving and creating of dishes is eminently satisfying. ... The dinner party provides opportunities for endless twists in a murder plot, the murderer awaiting an opportunity, the victim calmly eating, unsuspecting of the final fate." (p. 29)</blockquote></div><div>I wish she had been more explicit about how each author made use of the food details that she catalogued.</div><div><br /></div>

It's Just about the Food

The Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery is a venerable event: I suspect it's the Gold Standard for food articles. Lazy me -- I haven't systematically read through the collected proceedings of these annual meetings where the best articles from each year since 1981 have been published. On a recent vi…

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What did Inspector French eat?

Freeman Wills Crofts is the creator of Scotland Yard Inspector French, who appears in a number of novels. I heard of his novels in an <a href="http://harpers.org/archive/1948/05/0033206">article by W.H.Auden</a>, published in Harpers in 1948: "The guilty vicarage: <span style="font-style:italic;">Notes on the detective story, by an addict</span>" It's a wonderful study of detective fiction, which presents Auden's ideas on the appeal of murder mysteries as well as analysis of their principal "five elements–-the milieu, the victim, the murderer, the suspects, the detectives." <br /> <br />Auden says "Completely satisfactory detectives are extremely rare. Indeed, I only know of three: Sherlock Holmes (Conan Doyle), Inspector French (Freeman Wills Crofts), and Father Brown (Chesterton)." I have read all of Sherlock Holmes, and sampled Father Brown. However, Crofts' Inspector French novels, published between 1920 and 1957, were entirely new to me. I was delighted at the possibility of discovering a new detective author, and quickly purchased <span style="font-style:italic;">Inspector French and the Starvel Tragedy</span> for my Kindle. <div> <br /></div><div>French is an extremely intense detective, and there are virtually no passages in the novel that don't directly advance the plot and help him solve the diabolical crime, which is initially so clever that it appears to be an accident. I completely agree with Auden that this is an author worth reading, though there are aspects of the work that are somewhat dated. <br /> <br />Of course as I read I was looking for the theme I always check in detective fiction: how does the author use food in his narrative? Unlike some of my favorites, Crofts offers no description of what Inspector French eats of of who cooks it for him. This is consistent with the intensity of the narrative. <span style="font-style:italic;">Inspector French and the Starvel Tragedy</span> has nothing more detailed than "after breakfast he stood in the hotel coffee room" (p. 72), or "starting out with a stick in his hand and a packet of sandwiches in his pocket" (p. 99), or "at the hotel he dined, and ... asked for a packet of sandwiches" (p. 157) True to the detective writers' commitment that no detail can be left without follow-up, when French takes sandwiches with him you usually hear about when he ate them: "In the small hours he ate his sandwiches, and then he had to fight an overwhelming desire for sleep." (p. 158) <br /> <br />I find it interesting that despite the seeming lack of interest in the details of what French ate, the author uses these meals and snacks just the way that other authors do: to punctuate the days of detecting and contribute to the reader's sense of time passing. Perhaps there is more expansive food description in later books, but that would represent a change in this intensity. <br /> <br />I found Auden's description of Inspector French especially interesting. Auden says: <br /><blockquote>"His class and culture are the natural ones for a Scotland Yard inspector. (The old Oxonian Inspector is insufferable.) His motive is love of duty. Holmes detects for his own sake and shows the maximum indifference to all feelings except a negative fear of his own. French detects for the sake of the innocent members of society, and is indifferent only to his own feelings and those of the murderer. ... He is exceptional only in his exceptional love of duty which makes him take exceptional pains; he does only what all could do as well if they had the same patient industry (his checking of alibis for tiny flaws which careless hurry had missed). He outwits the murderer, partly because the latter is not quite so painstaking as he, and partly because the murderer must act alone, while he has the help of all the innocent people in the world who are doing their duty (e.g., the post- men, railway clerks, milkmen, etc., who become, accidentally, witnesses to the truth)."</blockquote>Note: to see all my posts on the topic, click on the label "Food in Detective Fiction" at the bottom of this post.

What did Inspector French eat?

Freeman Wills Crofts is the creator of Scotland Yard Inspector French, who appears in a number of novels. I heard of his novels in an article by W.H.Auden, published in Harpers in 1948: "The guilty vicarage: Notes on the detective story, by an addict" It's a wonderful study of detective fiction, whi…

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"The Ethical Assassin"

<span style="font-style: italic;">The Ethical Assassin</span> by David Liss is a suspense novel in which a naive character, 17-year-old Lemul Altick suddenly finds himself threatened by bizarre criminals and corrupt policemen in the heat and misery of 1980s Florida. Lem -- whose name is coincidentally the same as Swift's Lemuel Gulliver -- grows up and learns a great deal in his strange voyage of saving himself from a variety of dangers. He learns to deal with strange circumstances, with dishonest employers in his job selling encyclopedias door-to-door, with bullying from his age peers and others, and with ambiguity about which people he can believe or trust. It's not quite as excellent as some novels in this style (like by Graham Greene) but it's good.<br /><br />The "ethical assassin" of the title is a stealthy, weird-looking, and mysterious character named Melford who offers long discourses on veganism and saving animals from human cruelty. Melford insists on the ethical imperative of his views; his persuasiveness pulls in Lem and at least one other character. Despite all the discussion of the wrongs of eating meat, food in the sense that I usually write about it hardly plays a role in this book.<br /><br />Lem, attempting to skip meat thanks to Melford's discourses, dislikes the dairy-free bowl of oatmeal that's his only choice at an IHOP; he eats fruit when his hunger tempts him otherwise, and he also resists temptation from a girl who tries to lure him to eat a hamburger -- but this book is truly not about food in the style of many works of detective fiction. Melford's obsession with the ethics of eating meat plays a large role in the unfolding suspense -- making the discussions relevant without (in my opinion) turning this into a philosophic novel. It would in fact be perverse to read this as a tract about "meat is murder" though some of the amazon.com reviewers did read it this way. It's about a bizarre character whose quirk is animal rights.<br /><br />Lem Altick, like the central characters in Liss's other novels, is a Jew. For Lem, being Jewish has no stated religious or ethical content, it's just one of many taunts from the bullies of his school days and his experiences in the narrative. The extent to which Jewishness has no meaning for Lem is a bit extreme. In Liss's other books, which are set in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the key Jewish characters (the ones who have to get themselves out of dangerous and strange situations) are not practicing their religion; they nevertheless are very conscious of its meaning and customs and how it affects the lives of their Jewish relatives. For Lem, it's nothing but another reason to pick on him, like being overweight (which he had been a few years before).<br /><br />Since the publication of <span style="font-style: italic;">The Ethical Assassin</span>, Liss has returned to publishing historical fiction, and also seems to be collaborating on some graphic novels. I've read the rest of his novels to date, and liked them. I would judge this the weakest though it's a good read. The historical content of the others gives them a greater depth than this one; the variety of really oddball characters in this one doesn't make up for this lack of depth. I'm looking forward to Liss's new historical novel, scheduled to appear in August.

"The Ethical Assassin"

The Ethical Assassin by David Liss is a suspense novel in which a naive character, 17-year-old Lemul Altick suddenly finds himself threatened by bizarre criminals and corrupt policemen in the heat and misery of 1980s Florida. Lem -- whose name is coincidentally the same as Swift's Lemuel Gulliver --…

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Food in Detective Stories

In a conversation today, I mentioned that I had written several posts about food in detective stories, but that the posts were buried among many others. So here's a partial list:<br /><ul><li><a href="http://regional-food.blogspot.com/2011/02/empty-tureen.html">The Empty Tureen</a></li><li><a name="7899325406294648336"></a><a href="http://regional-food.blogspot.com/2011/01/aurelio-zen-eats-hamburger.html">Aurelio Zen eats a hamburger</a></li><li><a href="http://regional-food.blogspot.com/2010/12/commissario-brunetti-eats-lunch.html">Commissario Brunetti Eats Lunch</a></li><li><a name="625818553267015832"></a><a href="http://regional-food.blogspot.com/2010/09/what-did-colombo-eat.html">What did Colombo eat?</a></li><li><a href="http://regional-food.blogspot.com/2010/01/real-nero-wolfe.html">Real Nero Wolfe,</a> <a href="http://regional-food.blogspot.com/2010/08/black-orchids-and-corned-beef-hash.html">Black Orchids and Corned-Beef Hash</a> and <a href="http://regional-food.blogspot.com/2010/01/secret-recipes.html">Secret Recipes </a>(about Nero Wolfe)</li><li><a href="http://regional-food.blogspot.com/2010/02/janissary-tree.html">"The Janissary Tree"</a></li><li> <a href="http://regional-food.blogspot.com/2009/12/murder-with-recipes.html">Murder -- with recipes?</a> about <span style="font-style: italic;">The Body in the Ivy</span> by Katherine Hall Page</li><li><a href="http://regional-food.blogspot.com/2009/12/inspectors-dinner-party.html">The Inspector's Dinner Party</a> about Martin Beck books by Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo</li><li><a href="http://regional-food.blogspot.com/2009/10/inspector-montalbano-identifies-himself.html">Inspector Montalbano Identifies Himself</a> and <a href="http://regional-food.blogspot.com/2009/06/snack-thief.html">"The Snack Thief"</a> about the works of Andrea Camilleri</li><li><a href="http://regional-food.blogspot.com/2009/12/p-d-james.html">P. D. James</a></li><li><a href="http://regional-food.blogspot.com/2009/11/bitter-feast.html">"A Bitter Feast"</a> and <a href="http://regional-food.blogspot.com/2010/02/reflecting-sky.html">"Reflecting the Sky"</a> (about S. J. Rozan)</li><li><a href="http://regional-food.blogspot.com/2009/03/fabulous-book.html">Fabulous Book</a> about <span style="font-style: italic;">The Last Chinese Chef</span></li><li><a href="http://regional-food.blogspot.com/2009/03/instance-of-fingerpost.html">"An Instance of the Fingerpost"</a></li><li><a href="http://regional-food.blogspot.com/2008/12/what-do-members-of-yiddish-policemens.html">What do members of the Yiddish Policemen's Union Eat?</a> about Chabon's book and some of the borscht-belt food that he invokes.<br /></li><li><a href="http://regional-food.blogspot.com/2008/06/tuna-noodle-casserole-literary-version.html">Tuna-Noodle Casserole, Literary Version</a> about Robert Parker's detective stories and one particular example of his pretensions about food.</li><li><a href="http://regional-food.blogspot.com/2008/09/elmore-leonards-kitchen.html">Elmore Leonard's Kitchen</a> about one mystery where several key scenes take place in the kitchen, and where food is quite central to the characters' development.<br /></li><li><a href="http://regional-food.blogspot.com/2008/04/dining-with-exotic-policemen.html">Dining with Exotic Policemen</a> and <a href="http://regional-food.blogspot.com/2009/10/weird-food-and-not-for-halloween.html">Weird Food and not for Halloween</a> about Chinese author Qiu Xiaolong’s mystery novel <span style="font-style: italic;">Death of a Red Heroine</span> and the exotic foods eaten by the detective, including snake.<br /></li><li><a href="http://maetravels.blogspot.com/2008/10/tony-hillerman.html">Tony Hillerman</a> (link to his obituary)</li><li style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">and <a href="http://blog.thejurorinvestigates.com/categories/Jury%20Duty%20Food.aspx">my guest posts</a> at the blog "The Hanged Juror" about Hillerman, Agatha Christie, and others.</li></ul>Note: to see all the posts, click on the label "Food in Detective Fiction" at the bottom of this post.

Food in Detective Stories

In a conversation today, I mentioned that I had written several posts about food in detective stories, but that the posts were buried among many others. So here's a partial list:The Empty TureenAurelio Zen eats a hamburgerCommissario Brunetti Eats LunchWhat did Colombo eat?Real Nero Wolfe, Black O…

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The Empty Tureen

"Murder by Death" is a fantastic spoof of detective fiction, especially the detective movie and the country house genre. We watched it last night through the brand-new amazon.com streaming video offering. (See "<a href="http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2011/02/amazon-adds-streaming-video-to-prime-subscriptions-in-a-bid-to-rival-netflix-hulu-.html">Amazon adds streaming video to Prime subscriptions in a bid to rival Netflix, Hulu</a>" for details on the new service.)<br /><br />In "Murder by Death" Peter Sellers sends up Charlie Chan (made me laugh out loud over and over). Elsa Lanchester parodies Miss Marple. Peter Falk plays an amalgam of Humphry Bogart roles, especially Sam Spade, making you realize where Colombo got some of his mannerisms. David Niven and Maggie Smith play the Charlstons, Dick and Dora, who have a dog just like Asta in "The Thin Man." Truman Capote is the madman who invites them all to his strange mansion, reached via a bridge that's falling down, etc. I loved every minute.<br /><br />Now what do you do to parody the constant use of food in murder mysteries? Well, the blind butler, played by Alec Guinness, hires a new maid, who is deaf and dumb. No communication. No dinner. She sits idly in the kitchen while he gives her instructions that she doesn't hear. He brings in an empty tureen and pantomimes serving soup. Perfect!<br /><br />Great movie. Great idea from amazon.com.

The Empty Tureen

"Murder by Death" is a fantastic spoof of detective fiction, especially the detective movie and the country house genre. We watched it last night through the brand-new amazon.com streaming video offering. (See "Amazon adds streaming video to Prime subscriptions in a bid to rival Netflix, Hulu" for d…

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Aurelio Zen eats a hamburger

<span style="font-style: italic;">Ratking</span> is the first in a series of police procedurals starring detective Aurelio Zen. The author, Michael Dibdin, continued with around a dozen other Zen novels.<br /><br />Aurelio Zen is an honest and dedicated crime fighter in the rottenly corrupt atmosphere of Italian politics and policing. In <span style="font-style: italic;">Ratking</span>, he solves a kidnapping, implicating members of the victim's family; however, all the perps get off. Dibdin follows many precedents in crime fiction, including the use of meals to punctuate the pace of the investigation and to illuminate Zen's character and his relationship to the people he interviews. Earlier detectives like Maigret, Hercule Poirot, and even Sherlock Holmes had quirky food preferences; the convention continues in works by Donna Leon (Commissario Guido Brunetti) and Andrea Camilleri (inspector Salvo Montalbano) and many others.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Ratking</span> has one slightly offbeat food theme: during the course of the novel, Aurelio Zen's relationship with his American girlfriend Ellen is hitting a low point. She comes to see him in Perugia, the site of the kidnapping where he is temporarily posted. They go on a picnic, but the weather is bad and they are forced to eat in the car:<br /><blockquote style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);">"Ellen started to unwrap the food: a mound of ricotta, slices of cooked ham, olives in oil, half a loaf of bread. On a warm sunny day in the open air it might have been idyllic. Eaten off sheets of wrapping paper balanced precariously on their shivering knees, the cheese looked a disgusting white excrescence, the ham pale and sickly, and the olives slimy. Even the wine, a heavy red, was a failure." (p. 182-183)</blockquote>At the very end, Zen returns to his home base in Rome and Ellen invites him for a simple dinner, where he tells her how he solved the crime. Although she said the food would be simple, he's a bit shocked to see "<span style="font-style: italic;">Findus 100% Beef American-style Hamburgers</span>" on the label of a "shiny packet." She broils the meat and warms some buns. Then:<br /><blockquote style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);">"She served the hamburgers wrapped in paper napkins, and brought a liter bottle of Peroni beer from the fridge. The hamburgers were an unhappy hybrid of American and European elements. The meat, processed cheese, and ketchup tried to be as cheerfully undemanding as a good hamburger should, but were shouted down by the Dijon mustard, the pungent onions, and the chewy rolls.<br /><br />"Zen began dismantling his hamburger, eating the more appetizing bits with the fork and discarding the rest." (p. 257-260)</blockquote>Of course she then tells him her plans for the rest of her life -- which don't include him.<br /><br />I enjoyed this tightly-plotted and suspenseful novel. I also read <span style="font-style: italic;">Cosi Fan Tutti</span>, a later Dibden-Zen work, but found it a little too contrived, especially the effort to reproduce in modern Naples the plot of the Mozart opera of that title.<br /><br />My friend Sheila recommended this author, and told me that the Zen novels are currently being made into a BBC TV series in the UK. They will also air on PBS. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1618371/">IMDB</a> lists 3 episodes so far, all this year -- I eagerly hope to watch them<span style="font-style: italic;"></span>.

Aurelio Zen eats a hamburger

Ratking is the first in a series of police procedurals starring detective Aurelio Zen. The author, Michael Dibdin, continued with around a dozen other Zen novels.Aurelio Zen is an honest and dedicated crime fighter in the rottenly corrupt atmosphere of Italian politics and policing. In Ratking, he s…

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Commissario Brunetti Eats Lunch

<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjroz0-eplZSr4-x3pke7rrc8ZWZwqaJuIhO76ij5PRhaIta6hZzmgXzeXM39tAMEa9dHwSZgA2iffPeiFLMAnRNxbIJEnKHgAyP40dLLHnYP42btsT9BHwN4WOhCYQFz3OUv6guAwDUhU5/s1600/venice4984.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5556843749948775170" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjroz0-eplZSr4-x3pke7rrc8ZWZwqaJuIhO76ij5PRhaIta6hZzmgXzeXM39tAMEa9dHwSZgA2iffPeiFLMAnRNxbIJEnKHgAyP40dLLHnYP42btsT9BHwN4WOhCYQFz3OUv6guAwDUhU5/s400/venice4984.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" /></a>Delightful meals eaten during a crime investigation are among my favorite features of detective novels. For Christmas, I received a cookbook based on the novels of Donna Leon and her detective Guido Brunetti of the Venice police. I could make the delicious meals that Brunetti's wife cooks, such as veal liver with polenta (p. 210) -- which sounded so good in <span style="font-style: italic;">Death in a Strange Country</span>. Or see if I could do better than Paola and Guido's daughter Chiara, who struggled to make mushroom-filled ravioli (p. 85) in <span style="font-style: italic;">A Noble Radiance</span>.<br /><br />I wasn't familiar with this series, so I purchased and read several of Leon's novels on my Kindle. Learning about the detective's favorite food before I read about the detective is really a total reversal! I'm so grateful to my friend Sheila who thought of this gift. Now I have both a Venetian cookbook and a new detective series to love.<br /><br />Brunetti's wife Paola makes food to rival the French home cooking of Madame Maigret, Simenon's detective. I think her cooking sounds better than the food made by Nero Wolfe and his chef. Brunetti's lunches and snacks in typical little Venetian lunch-counters and bars are different -- but make me recall the local color in Whataburger, where Jim Chee and Joe Leaphorn eat in the novels of Tony Hillerman. Leon's novels are a bit mannered but nowhere near the exaggerated style of Robert Parker, whose detectives' food habits come close to parody.<br /><br />Food in detective fiction -- a glorious tradition!

Commissario Brunetti Eats Lunch

Delightful meals eaten during a crime investigation are among my favorite features of detective novels. For Christmas, I received a cookbook based on the novels of Donna Leon and her detective Guido Brunetti of the Venice police. I could make the delicious meals that Brunetti's wife cooks, such as v…

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What did Colombo eat?

<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEip-P3twMN_nsIPq5daESAU_3_o8XMIOMsCN5NmC4PVcehkKeI2okQGPr4UUEoVcydYhYH_i37vUc9DpVy2iIOgaNpngYhzlVjlA6LpE5sscJ26k_-CPruMZwdaPAdgv3N9UzwF2C9F7sMA/s1600/colombo1.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5519396705661203122" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEip-P3twMN_nsIPq5daESAU_3_o8XMIOMsCN5NmC4PVcehkKeI2okQGPr4UUEoVcydYhYH_i37vUc9DpVy2iIOgaNpngYhzlVjlA6LpE5sscJ26k_-CPruMZwdaPAdgv3N9UzwF2C9F7sMA/s400/colombo1.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 312px;" /></a>Colombo, the 1970s TV detective played by Peter Falk, always seemed to be a bumbling and ineffective investigator -- but then, "Oh, just one more thing." With those words he'd ask the question that proved the guilt of his suspect or put key information in perspective. Now the series is a classic of TV detective fiction.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0JfUN-2_jHR3rQhF_9owJfBSAVKCbT9RPpzBndEcgkUZoSj1I8Gi3k9c62ciMt2v2fmuisB0pyuN2lNzwyX9Za3FgtAAEnergGurnTmOWrNYk5ERvk94rAKbeBWETDqz9UI114hNkZCS9/s1600/colombo2.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5519396697173944946" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0JfUN-2_jHR3rQhF_9owJfBSAVKCbT9RPpzBndEcgkUZoSj1I8Gi3k9c62ciMt2v2fmuisB0pyuN2lNzwyX9Za3FgtAAEnergGurnTmOWrNYk5ERvk94rAKbeBWETDqz9UI114hNkZCS9/s400/colombo2.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 384px;" /></a>The episode "Murder Under Glass" begins with a look at a preposterously arrogant film critic and TV food star named Paul Girard. Besides posturing about his extensive food knowledge, Girard is obviously engaged in some type of dubious finances, and within minutes of the beginning of the episode, he prepares a vial of toxin from the notorious blowfish -- the Japanese fugu.<br /><br />When a restaurant owner dies of poison, we -- and Colombo -- know that Girard did it. But HOW? The poison was in a bottle of wine that had not yet been opened when Girard left the victim. Why was the restaurant owner furiously angry with Girard just before his death? What was the motive? Colombo's job is to discover all.<br /><br />Colombo's investigation involves interviews with a number of other restaurant owners, learning how they too were being victimized by the critic's extortion racket. At each step of the investigation, Colombo is offered delicious and showy delicacies. Galantine of duck with pistachios. A Chinese tea lunch (then unusual, now completely recognizable as Dim Sum.) A Japanese Kaiseki dinner complete with accompanying Geishas -- and then unusual sushi, including fugu. Mushrooms stuffed with crab and bechamel sauce. Eggs in aspic. A beautiful coffee cake. You get the picture: the most over-the-top restaurant dishes of the 1970s were recreated for this purpose. And Colombo appreciates every bite.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjXr6Zz6mhfv5wyzwZ0Fiba0FNfxcPoTkeK-DcWsU8KK3lr5W9j53MjH-73E0KwI8slAGXeU4-dr75UzyLOFSfkwYLuHrTygvFJSWG9_lYzV6wEKGoPKG7DEIXXIvz4AsPh87vm8FsSwov/s1600/colombo3.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5519396693576586722" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjXr6Zz6mhfv5wyzwZ0Fiba0FNfxcPoTkeK-DcWsU8KK3lr5W9j53MjH-73E0KwI8slAGXeU4-dr75UzyLOFSfkwYLuHrTygvFJSWG9_lYzV6wEKGoPKG7DEIXXIvz4AsPh87vm8FsSwov/s400/colombo3.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 384px;" /></a>After all these interviews, the restaurateurs, Colombo (in a tux instead of his usual ratty raincoat), and Girard all attend a formal banquet for restaurant owners and food writers. A whole series of such dishes are paraded out of the kitchen: a suckling pig, a large platter of lobsters, whole small birds, fish in jellied sauce and many more. Pictures from this scene appear at left.<br /><br />The final confrontation between Colombo and Girard takes place as Colombo himself prepares an elaborate veal scallopini, explaining each step as he tightens his case and Girard squirms suavely. Girard opens another bottle of wine and tries to repeat his murder scheme. Of course that scheme fails. Colombo switches the glasses and explains to him (and to us, the audience) exactly how the original murder was done.<br /><br />It's a wonderful visual journey through high level restaurant culture of the 1970s. Before the Food Network. Before New Cuisine of all sorts. Before sushi was available in every small town in America. And before Anton Ego the critic as arrogant as Girard encountered Remy the Rat in <span style="font-style: italic;">Ratatouille</span>. What fun!

What did Colombo eat?

Colombo, the 1970s TV detective played by Peter Falk, always seemed to be a bumbling and ineffective investigator -- but then, "Oh, just one more thing." With those words he'd ask the question that proved the guilt of his suspect or put key information in perspective. Now the series is a classic of …

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Black Orchids and Corned-Beef Hash

<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPhdrmZIG0XY4OOuatpNaQP7GEaaosi8nJIBpNXHsAGkNwVJRZtXqh31XMRpZM9nLCwA4FMIeW0rjz5Bp2mefuRRSYJhsvzwzCnnXC5NrmChXWlw4mJt85SaygCpOkbsDqe19nF7knQZrx/s1600/orchid.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5505784121708620226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPhdrmZIG0XY4OOuatpNaQP7GEaaosi8nJIBpNXHsAGkNwVJRZtXqh31XMRpZM9nLCwA4FMIeW0rjz5Bp2mefuRRSYJhsvzwzCnnXC5NrmChXWlw4mJt85SaygCpOkbsDqe19nF7knQZrx/s400/orchid.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 366px;" /></a>Nero Wolfe had unusual taste. He grew orchids and experimented with recipes that by modern standards (and probably also those of his own time) were plebeian. In <span style="font-style: italic;">Black Orchids</span>, exotic black orchids serve as a backdrop to murder, and excite a weak point in the sort-of infallible detective.<br /><br />I don't even know if there's such a thing as a black orchid: the few plants that Nero Wolfe obtained were unique in the whole world so I guess Rex Stout didn't really think there were any. I think orchids look more like the ones in the Botanical Gardens near Hilo that I photographed a few years ago. Nero Wolfe loved the rarity, and for that was willing to do detective work that he might otherwise scorn. He spent a good part of each day in his orchid greenhouses, which play a role in every Nero Wolfe mystery I've read thus far.<br /><br />Wolfe was willing to go the extra bit for a recipe (in some books, more than a bit). I find it odd that the recipes in the books I've read are not in the least what I would call an exotic. In the book <span style="font-style: italic;">Black Orchids</span>, the great and large detective is seeking<span style="font-style: italic;"></span> a recipe for a perfect corned-beef hash. Lowly corned-beef hash. If it wasn't lowly, why would a cheap restaurant be called a hash house? Well, that's my opinion, not the master's.<br /><br />Nero Wolfe was delighted when a southern belle named Maryella revealed the secret ingredient for corned beef hash to Wolfe and his cook Fritz. She came into the kitchen (she was involved with some quite dubious characters, but pure, and coming in because she was a witness to something in a case). She leaned over. She peered into the bowl where Wolfe's hands were about to go into a corned-beef mixture and --<br /><blockquote style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0);"><span style="font-size:100%;">"Excuse me," she said... "but corned beef hash is one of my specialties. Nothing in there but meat, is there?"<br /><br />"As you see," Wolfe grunted.<br /><br />Wolfe scowled at her. I [that's Archie, Wolfe's sidekick and the narrator] could see he was torn with conflicting emotions. A female in his kitchen was an outrage. A woman criticizing his or Fritz's cooking was an insult. But corned beef hash was one of life's toughest problems, never yet solved by anyone. To tone down the corned flavor and yet preserve its unique quality, to remove the curse of its dryness without making it greasy -- the theories and experiments had gone on for years. He scowled at her, but he didn't order her out. ...<br /><br />"Now you just calm down." Maryella's hand was on his arm. "It's not ruined, only it's better if it's coarser. That's far too much potatoes for that meat. But if you don't have chitlins you cant ---"<br /><br />"Chitlins," Wolfe bellowed.<br /><br />Maryella nodded. "Fresh pig chitlins. That's the secret of it. Fried shallow in olive oil with onion juice."</span></blockquote>So the secret ingredient in the plebeian corned-beef hash is the even more plebeian chitlins. Corned-beef hash one of life's toughest problems? Chitlins a cosmic solution? Is Rex Stout playing a joke on all his readers? The book was written before I was born, so I think the cultural and food environment has changed so much that I might never know.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzQ78hZMP6BhJJctBV6k7kLQfuJCRievmqyTXXvHgi550IOmlugFPWDq2Q8rXGGeDq3RXVRRT5x5acIyRnfcnxdApqQaICP-GpajTyxRLebAbKZPuGjmkaJ6VHsGa7vuiwFAxDTTt8OQOZ/s1600/wolfe-toon.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5505784130106503634" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzQ78hZMP6BhJJctBV6k7kLQfuJCRievmqyTXXvHgi550IOmlugFPWDq2Q8rXGGeDq3RXVRRT5x5acIyRnfcnxdApqQaICP-GpajTyxRLebAbKZPuGjmkaJ6VHsGa7vuiwFAxDTTt8OQOZ/s400/wolfe-toon.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 380px;" /></a>At least one other blogger has commented on Nero Wolfe and his recipes, mentioning a cookbook dedicated to the detective's culinary creations. This blogger even found the delightful cartoon. See: <a href="http://somecamerunning.typepad.com/some_came_running/2009/10/saturday-brunch-and-my-latest-get-rich-quick-scheme.html">Some Came Running...</a><br /><br />As the blog author wrote: "I can still envision the comic possibilities inherent in the spectacle of my cleaning several pounds of pig chitlins for homemade corned-beef hash."

Black Orchids and Corned-Beef Hash

Nero Wolfe had unusual taste. He grew orchids and experimented with recipes that by modern standards (and probably also those of his own time) were plebeian. In Black Orchids, exotic black orchids serve as a backdrop to murder, and excite a weak point in the sort-of infallible detective.I don't even…

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French Cookbooks from Caliban Book Store, Pittsburgh

The Caliban Bookstore in Pittsburgh offered a delightful and tempting selection of cookbooks and food books, and I bought several. I have been reading and enjoying them.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 204, 0);font-size:130%;" >Who was Madame Maigret?</span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhd6IdgAk2mI308XXgRJXKXJ7tP727KS04lp8oYghuM-QxzdSTf237wqtrQOy7xxACeHcJUL8yQ3KClC63hYRHwXP_SSR49LaZ7AvTPpmQ40a1RofjLf7ZHLCsBXYXrYUeP5kdlw-L6w54/s1600/ckbks_0002.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5495660929640071314" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhd6IdgAk2mI308XXgRJXKXJ7tP727KS04lp8oYghuM-QxzdSTf237wqtrQOy7xxACeHcJUL8yQ3KClC63hYRHwXP_SSR49LaZ7AvTPpmQ40a1RofjLf7ZHLCsBXYXrYUeP5kdlw-L6w54/s400/ckbks_0002.jpg" style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 276px; height: 400px;" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;">Madame Maigret's Recipes</span> by Robert Courtine reviews many of the memorable meals that Georges Simenon's fictional character Inspector Maigret enjoyed (in some detail) while investigating murders and other crimes. Maigret often stopped to eat in small neighborhood restaurants or, when appropriate, in somewhat grander restaurants. When he could, he went home for a midday meal of Madame's excellent home cooking.<br /><br />Courtine provides recipes for all of these types of food as they would have existed in Maigret's lifetime -- or that of Simenon. Many of the Inspector Maigret books date from the 30s to the 60s, though Simenon, born in 1903, lived until 1989. The cookbook was published in translation in 1975.<br /><br />I've always loved following Maigret's adventures in both food and detection. Once while wandering around in Paris, I stopped for lunch at a brasserie quite near the police headquarters where Maigret worked, and pretended that I was eating in the same place as he had eaten. In fact, the Paris where Maigret lived and worked was already vanishing when I spent time there, and by now it's probably unrecognizable.<br /><br />The book itself is enjoyable. Courtine's recipes are accompanied by nice line drawings of food or ingredients. The instructions appear quite detailed and useful.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdtIntAdBcRARuifl6ML-BwVfdKb0yEx4jQBm6RUCIh5yXH7O65eempxeEndSXkXsgukMvqOafjixGAMrzND_h2IqNbBYRShBlSji_eG0jJ_pkN9gtfyZ1DrF7mlyXBdT5vinrORKOiz4/s1600/ckbks_0003.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5495660413423592578" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdtIntAdBcRARuifl6ML-BwVfdKb0yEx4jQBm6RUCIh5yXH7O65eempxeEndSXkXsgukMvqOafjixGAMrzND_h2IqNbBYRShBlSji_eG0jJ_pkN9gtfyZ1DrF7mlyXBdT5vinrORKOiz4/s400/ckbks_0003.jpg" style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 296px;" /></a>However, many of the products he used would be very difficult to find today -- I was especially intrigued by the above illustration of songbirds ready to grill on a skewer (as well as the recipe on how to do it). Virtually no American would choose to eat such a thing now, and hunting songbirds is illegal in France. However, I imagine a few are still clandestinely snared and secretly consumed in those mysterious French farmhouses and summer vacation houses you can see on side roads in Provence and Roussillon. I admit that at a restaurant in a remote village I once tried some lark pate, but that was very long ago.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-weight: bold;">Who was Christian Guy?</span></span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieBFyk4ZRxlea7CWdYpLYNwpmhbT7XckBiXxdkUsmYEyyHMUv4inacW1WcGSVL3_S1A_fy-IT-d65sJ8y0mXnXXQr6BpMWlV3DOy-0tVt79mgwpFRRmnUBZpOfDX-YOgsL-5uq9GfBWUc/s1600/ckbks.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5495660405522335842" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieBFyk4ZRxlea7CWdYpLYNwpmhbT7XckBiXxdkUsmYEyyHMUv4inacW1WcGSVL3_S1A_fy-IT-d65sJ8y0mXnXXQr6BpMWlV3DOy-0tVt79mgwpFRRmnUBZpOfDX-YOgsL-5uq9GfBWUc/s400/ckbks.jpg" style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 370px; height: 400px;" /></a>Christian Guy sure sounds like a pseudonym, but I've been unable to google up any information about this author or his book, <span style="font-style: italic;">An Illustrated History of French Cuisine</span>, which I also bought at Caliban. Dated 1962, this book represents a very obsolete style of writing. For one thing, there are no references whatsoever: even the illustrations are credited to the photographer who reproduced them, without information about the artist, source, or date.<br /><br />As I read, I felt as if everything that was said was rather suspect -- my bullsh!t detector kept going off. (Do they scan these blogs for bad words? I'm not taking any chances.) I don't think there was much differentiation between myths and reality. Sample illustration:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0eHxrFHwlTuIOd71FQqgKlXUNIPQJXaoHAA3o1cE657l1OrtUPMo65AKl_2IToSxBDYDMcTfu3g0Si2Qyr4OnWVR_caQ-7Icum7aNRd0xKSUbp6CHnFCvy4MIC_pS0V2hOTqlQJ_dX-w/s1600/ckbks_0001.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5495660396115929762" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0eHxrFHwlTuIOd71FQqgKlXUNIPQJXaoHAA3o1cE657l1OrtUPMo65AKl_2IToSxBDYDMcTfu3g0Si2Qyr4OnWVR_caQ-7Icum7aNRd0xKSUbp6CHnFCvy4MIC_pS0V2hOTqlQJ_dX-w/s400/ckbks_0001.jpg" style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 315px;" /></a>Notice that there is a caption on this picture, but no information about its origin. All in all, it's a most frustrating work, with little to say for its grandiose claims about French cuisine and its minor anecdotes about gourmets, historic food events, and chefs.<br /><br />The most suspect part of the book was was some great praise for the author of <span style="font-style: italic;">Les Amanachs gourmands de L'Action Française</span> -- Marthe Allard, wife of a journalist who promoted the politics of <span style="font-style: italic;">L'Action Française</span>. As you may know, this was an extreme right and antisemitic organization, founded during the Dreyfus affair to work against him, evolving with post-World-War I fascism, and continuing as a pro-Nazi force through the end of World War II. So I really wonder: who was Christian Guy? What was he promoting when he wrote this odd work.<br /><br />Once more I'm taken by the idea of French food as I remember it from years in the past. I'm planning a little not-too-ambitious French appetizer to take to a dinner party tonight. If I remember to take a photo, it will appear here later on.

French Cookbooks from Caliban Book Store, Pittsburgh

The Caliban Bookstore in Pittsburgh offered a delightful and tempting selection of cookbooks and food books, and I bought several. I have been reading and enjoying them.Who was Madame Maigret?Madame Maigret's Recipes by Robert Courtine reviews many of the memorable meals that Georges Simenon's ficti…

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