Iconic Literary Food Moments

Didion on congee and food for the grieving soul

2019-02-09T22:28:11+11:00Categories: Literary Food Moments|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , |

Iconic literary food moments
In honour of our fashion episode for Charlotte Smith's One Enchanted Evening, we have chosen a quote from style-icon Joan Didion because few people have managed to marry fashion, food and literature so well. Didion was an author of both literature and cookbooks, and kick-started her writing career on the pages of Vogue. She experienced great sadness in her life, losing both her husband and her daughter, the latter dying at just 39 year’s of age, but she never lost her connection with fashion and words. The quote we have chosen comes from her novel The Year of Thinking Magically, when Didion muses on the power of food to comfort and console.

Byron on the marriage of women and lobsters

2019-02-03T08:53:27+11:00Categories: News|Tags: , , , , , , |

Iconic literary food moments
Our recipe for this episode was a simply divine lobster and salmon mousse. A little bit of research on the subject revealed that lobsters have long held a rather peculiar and persistent fascination to the literary community. One only has to think of Lewis Carroll's Lobster Quadrille, Annie Hall, or the dark comedy Lobster. But the most iconic literary food moment would have to be awarded to Lord Byron, and we added a lobster reference from Elizabeth Gilbert for good measure.

D.H. Lawrence’s Figs poem very juicy in its day

2018-09-23T15:38:07+10:00Categories: News|Tags: , , , , , , |

Iconic literary food moments
Poets have immortalised food, particularly fruit, over the centuries, tantalising the senses at every turn. One thinks of Pablo Neruda's Tomatoes, or Thomas Campion's Cherry Ripe. For Holly Ringland's edition, we have chosen D.H. Lawrence's Figs, given it is a warmer climate tree, and because it reminds us that, at the heart of all existence, lies desire and passion.

Oliver’s gruel with a 21st century twist

2018-09-02T15:03:26+10:00Categories: News|Tags: , , , , , |

Iconic Literary Food Moments
In honour of our coverage of Writing NSW's Kids & Young Adult Festival, this episode’s Iconic Literary Food Moment is devoted to the children’s classic Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens. Millions remember the moment when Parish orphan Oliver Twist returns with his bowl of gruel to Mr Bumble and says “Please Sir, I want some more?” In this scene, Dickens plays our emotions like a fiddle.

Anthony Bourdain’s memorable mafia veal chops

2018-08-16T08:51:45+10:00Categories: News|Tags: , , , , , |

Iconic Literary Food Moments
Celebrity chef and author Anthony Bourdain passed away this year, so it seemed timely to dedicate an Iconic Literary Moment to him. It is not surprising that he incorporated a litany of great food moments into his works. The quote we choose for this episode hails from his first novel, set in the mafia’s kitchen in Little Italy New York, Bone in the Throat, which was later adapted as a movie. The mind boggles at the scenarios a mafia kitchen could offer a writer – if only the chopping board could talk.

Joanne Harris’s Chocolat

2018-07-03T17:10:42+10:00Categories: News|Tags: , , , , , |

Iconic literary food moments
This week, we’re barreling forward in time to contemporary literature and the year 1999 to recognise the book that to many proved the definitive and final word on the relationship between food and literature. Chocolat is so laden with food quotes it is difficult to pick just one, so we narrowed it down to three. Joanne Harris’s Chocolat not only contains a slather of iconic literary food moments, it is the iconic literary food moment.

Charles Dickens’ sage-and-onion roast goose

2018-06-25T16:43:54+10:00Categories: News|Tags: , , , , , , |

Iconic literary food moments
A Christmas Carol is one of Charles Dickens' most-loved and best-known novels. Tens of millions, if not hundreds of millions of people have either read the book or watched the film and cartoon adaptations that are broadcast globally each Christmas. Written in 1843 and originally titled A Christmas Carol in Prose, Being A Ghost Story of Christmas, it features a Christmas feast, the centrepiece of which was a goose stuffed with sage and onion.

Fannie Flagg’s fried green tomatoes

2018-06-04T16:56:52+10:00Categories: News|Tags: , , , |

Iconic literary food moments
Fannie Flagg's Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe contains some of the most jaw-dropping moments in literary food history. The most iconic of these is when the 'good guys' serve up the ribs of Ruth Jamison’s abusive husband Frank Bennett to the detective investigating his disappearance - definitely the piece de resistance.