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Summary
Summary
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.
Author Notes
N. M. Kelby is the critically acclaimed author of White Truffles in Winter, In the Company of Angels, Whale Season, and the Florida Book Award-winning A Travel Guide for Reckless Hearts, among other works. She lives in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Delphine Daffis is dying, and she wants her husband, French chef August Escoffier (famous for his restaurants, the Savoy and the Ritz), to create a dish named after her, as he has done for his lover, Sara Bernhardt, and countless others, even Queen Victoria. He had always refused, saying "one should never attempt to define the sublime" but Delphine didn't believe him for a minute. Kelby (Whale Season) uses these historical figures to tell her story, set as WWII looms, and Escoffier has returned to his long estranged wife in Monte Carlo to write his memoir, The Complete Escoffier: A Memory in Meals. Delphine hires Sabine, a local beauty stricken with polio as kitchen help to persuade her husband to create a dish named for her. Without one, Delphine fears the world won't know that the great chef loved her. Escoffier shows Sabine his cooking techniques, but he cannot settle on a dish that does his wife justice. Instead he's consumed with regret over his life in Paris and London, which kept him far away from Delphine, his great love, who would not leave Monte Carlo. Kelby captures the sensory pleasures of food and the complex role it plays in the lives of her characters-seductive, repulsive, comforting. Careful research enhances but does not overtake the narrative. Readers in search of an evocative and sensual read will be well satisfied. (Nov.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
Murder at the Bad Girl's Bar and Grill, 2008, etc.), a fictional biography of the pioneering French chef Auguste Escoffier full of luscious details about his methods, both of cooking and seduction. In the mid-1930s, after 30 years of separation, the aged and ailing Escoffier has returned to his wife Delphine, a poet. Sixty years ago he wooed her through his cooking--the sensuality of his food-centered seductions beats even the famous scene from Tom Jones--and their early marriage was joyful. But when he moved to London as chef at the Savoy, she refused to uproot the family to follow him. Lonely, he rekindled his earlier friendship with Sarah Bernhardt and also dallied with the English chef and hotelier Rosa Lewis. But his alter ego Mr. Boots courted Delphine from afar, sending her delicacies like figs. Eventually he realized that his heart truly lay with Delphine. By then their youngest son had died as a World War I soldier, a grief heightened by the fact that Escoffier had cooked a meal for Kaiser Wilhelm months before war was declared. Now Escoffier begins a memoir that captures the true stories behind his recipes and is full of sex and early-20th-century celebrity sightings. Her own health failing, Delphine hires a young woman named Sabine to cook for the extended family that gathers at their Monte Carlo home. Delphine, a local girl, has no idea how to prepare Escoffier's sophisticated fare, but not coincidentally, she's a dead ringer for the young Sarah Bernhardt. Both Delphine and Escoffier give Sabine lessons, and her evolution as a cook and as a woman offset the story of the ailing Escoffiers. Delphine desperately wants Escoffier to create a dish in her name as he has for his other famous patrons, but he resists. The complexity of their relationship almost defies even his ability to combine ingredients. Kelby's prose fits her subject, lusciously rich as the truffles and foie gras that dominate Escoffier's recipes, but sensory overload eventually sets in.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Auguste Escoffier revolutionized French cooking and set new standards for restaurants at the outset of the twentieth century. His achievement continues to define classic French cooking. In this novel, Kelby re-creates Escoffier's world of haute cuisine and grand cru wines. Focusing on Escoffier's arranged marriage to poet Delphine Daffis, Kelby tells a story of the chef's long-term relationship with actress Sarah Bernhardt, for whom he created some of his best-known dishes. Hoping to reattract her husband's wandering eye (and palate), Delphine hires a young woman to cook in their Monte Carlo villa. Despite all her fears, Delphine discovers that despite both their dotages, Escoffier's genuine love and affection for her has survived all the stresses of his international career. Kelby succeeds in her descriptions of food and wine, and she splendidly evokes the visual delights of Escoffier's celebrated dinner done all in shades of pink.--Knoblauch, Mark Copyright 2010 Booklist
Library Journal Review
In this imagined life story, Kelby (Whale Season) delves into the fascinating career and personal relationships of Georges Auguste Escoffier, the French chef who revolutionized the world of culinary arts. Kelby's layers of detailed description allow the reader to experience the richness of Escoffier's world in terms of both food and love. His passion for great food is matched by the fervor of his relationships with the women in his life. The novel proceeds at a leisurely pace, shifting between Escoffier's final days and the lustrous excitement of his early career. Throughout, Escoffier mixes and mingles with the stars of politics, theater, and high society, a beloved figure whose passion, creativity, and intuitive understanding of food transform the culinary world. How does a former army cook become the most sought-after chef in Europe? The answer may lie in the words Kelby fashions for his character, "A chef without mystery is merely a cook." VERDICT Through rich description based on careful research, Kelby offers intriguing possibilities regarding the life of the great Escoffier and gives us a novel well worth reading. [See Prepub Alert 5/2/11.]-Catherine Tingelstad, Pitt Community Coll., Greenville, NC (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
