Ellen Feldman’s Paris Never Leaves You French Omelette Food plays a unique role in my novel, Paris Never Leaves You, not only for its intrinsic appeal but as an expression of Vivi’s search for her identity and the conflict between Charlotte’s past in Paris and their current life in New York. At one point, Vivi […] Read More

Gail Tsukiyama’s The Color of Air Macanese-Style Portuguese Chicken The Color of Air takes place in Hilo on the Big Island of Hawai’i in 1935, brimming with the influx of workers who had immigrated to the islands from China, Japan, the Philippines, and Portugal to work on the sugar and pineapple plantations.  In my Japanese […] Read More

Natalie Jenner’s  The Jane Austen Society Classic Victoria Sandwich This is a very classic British cake recipe from the BBC Good Food Magazine (May, 2005) which is super easy and quick to make. If you prefer, you can skip the icing filling and just spread strawberry jam between the two sponge layers. In The Jane […] Read More

  Kelly McWilliams’s Homemade Mac and Cheese and Cauliflower Mac and Cheese Agnes at the End of the World is a story about the power of hope and faith to help us surmount impossible odds. Agnes begins her journey as the victim of a fundamentalist cult based in northern Arizona, where medicine and contact with […]

Ruta Sepetys’s A Taste of Spain: Traditional Red Sangria and Tortilla de Patatas  Spain is a feast of sights, sounds, and smells. As you read The Fountains of Silence, I hope you can feel Madrid in 1957. The sunshine. The passion. The fear. The silence. Spain is also a culinary capital of the world. While working […] Read More

Mary Kay Andrews’s Hello, Summer Lemon Bars Hello, Summer is set in a small, sleepy Florida town. When people think of Florida, they think of bright, sunny skies, and delicious citrus and these lemon bars are the perfect way to celebrate that! As a native Floridian, my lust for lemons—indeed any citrus, is, excuse the pun, deep-rooted. […] Read More

In this scene from THE HENNA ARTIST, Lakshmi, a woman who paints henna on the bodies of Jaipur’s wealthy women, is asked to meet with the Dowager Maharani for the first time. Malik, Lakshmi’s eight-year-old helper, has been told to wait outside the Maharani’s drawing room, but can’t resist sticking his head inside when the […] Read More