White Truffles in Winter (Platinum Readers Circle (Center Point))

by N. M. Kelby

White Truffles in Winter imagines the world of the remarkable French chef Auguste Escoffier (1846-1935), who changed how we eat through his legendary restaurants at the Savoy and the Ritz. A man of contradictions-kind yet imperious, food-obsessed yet rarely hungry-Escoffier was also torn between two women: the famous, beautiful, and reckless actress Sarah Bernhardt and his wife, the independent and sublime poet Delphine Daffis, who refused ever to leave Monte Carlo. In the last year of Escoffier's life, in the middle of writing his memoirs, he has returned to Delphine, who requests a dish in her name as he has honored Bernhardt, Queen Victoria, and many others. How does one define the complexity of love on a single plate? N. M. Kelby brings us the sensuality of food and love amid a world on the verge of war in this work that shimmers with beauty and longing.

• ISBN10: 1611732433
• ISBN13: 9781611732436
• Publish Date: 1 December 2011 (first published 7 November 2011)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Center Point
• Edition: Large type / large print edition
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 446
• Language: English

Reviews

[Artemis]

The Artemis Reader

White Truffles in Winter delights the senses in this tale of fiction and fact, about the life and loves of famed chef Auguste Escoffier. Based on the simplest of facts: where he lived, worked, his wife and children, his mistress, and contributions to the culinary world, author N.M. Kelby fills in the blanks in this imaginative story about an unusual man.

The book flips between “present” day Escoffier, an elderly man who has returned home to live out his days with his ailing wife, poet Delphine Daffis, and children, alongside his difficult young housekeeper, and Escoffier at significant points in his career. Cameos by actress Sarah Berndhart (also his mistress), Queen Victoria and countless others pepper each story about Escoffier’s life. This book was a clever mix of culinary and historical fiction, and although we will never know the true extent to which Escoffier lived out his life, this book was a beautiful portrait of who he might have been. Kelby is a wonderful writer and I look forward to more of her books.