The Hundred-Foot Journey

by Richard C. Morais

Soon to be a major motion picture starring Helen Mirren and Om Puri, directed by Lasse Hallstrom, and produced by Oprah Winfrey, Steven Spielberg, Juliet Blake, DreamWorks Studios, and Participant Media.

"That skinny Indian teenager has that mysterious something that comes along once a generation. He is one of those rare chefs who is simply born. He is an artist."

And so begins the rise of Hassan Haji, the unlikely gourmand who recounts his life's journey in Richard Morais's charming novel, The Hundred-Foot Journey. Lively and brimming with the colors, flavors, and scents of the kitchen, The Hundred-Foot Journey is a succulent treat about family, nationality, and the mysteries of good taste.

Born above his grandfather's modest restaurant in Mumbai, Hassan first experienced life through intoxicating whiffs of spicy fish curry, trips to the local markets, and gourmet outings with his mother. But when tragedy pushes the family out of India, they console themselves by eating their way around the world, eventually settling in Lumi re, a small village in the French Alps.

The boisterous Haji family takes Lumi re by storm. They open an inexpensive Indian restaurant opposite an esteemed French relais--that of the famous chef Madame Mallory--and infuse the sleepy town with the spices of India, transforming the lives of its eccentric villagers and infuriating their celebrated neighbor. Only after Madame Mallory wages culinary war with the immigrant family, does she finally agree to mentor young Hassan, leading him to Paris, the launch of his own restaurant, and a slew of new adventures.

The Hundred-Foot Journey is about how the hundred-foot distance between a new Indian kitchen and a traditional French one can represent the gulf between different cultures and desires. A testament to the inevitability of destiny, this is a fable for the ages--charming, endearing, and compulsively readable.

• ISBN10: 1439165645
• ISBN13: 9781439165645
• Publish Date: 6 July 2010 (first published 30 September 2008)
• Publish Status: Out of Stock
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Ltd
• Imprint: Scribner
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 256
• Language: English

Reviews

[jnkay01]

The movie made me hungry, and the book also made me hungry with its detailed descriptions of food as it's being prepared. The book is so much sadder, though, and I think I would have liked to see Helen Mirren play the book's version of Madame Mallory instead. I'm still curious as to what the reviews of this book and the movie were in France. The book alludes to the poor reception of immigrants and foreign cuisine in France, but it doesn't dwell on those facets. My French host family had been appalled that I was reading a book about Algerian immigrants in France because that wasn't "real French culture," and I wonder what they would have made of this story about Indian immigrants succeeding in France's restaurant world.