The Food of Love: A Novel [Mass Market Paperback]

Anthony Capella (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 28, 2005

In Anthony Capella’s delicious debut novel, Laura, a twentysomething American, is on her first trip to Italy. She;s completely enamored of the art, beauty, and, of course, food that Rome has to offer. Soon she’s enamored of the handsome and charming Tommaso, who tells her he’s a chef at the famed Templi restaurant and begins to woo her with his gastronomic creations.

But Tommaso hasen’t been entirely truthful—he’s really just a waiter.

The master chef behind the tantalizing meals is Tommaso’s talented but shy friend Bruno, who loves laura from afar. Thus begins a classic comedy of errors full of the culinary magic and the sensual stmosphere of Italy. The result is a romantic comedy in the tradition of Cyrano de Bergerac and Roxanne that tempts readers to devour it in one sitting.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

"She had never eaten food like this before. No: she had never eaten before." And that's just the first of 22-year-old Laura Patterson's gustatory epiphanies in Rome, where she has come to study art history. Handsome Tomasso seduces her with succulent baby artichokes and frothy zabagliones, but what the reader knows and Laura doesn't is that Tomasso is a waiter. The creator of the rapturous meals is his best friend, Bruno, who has a big nose, a poet's soul and a mad passion for Laura. Capella's spin on Cyrano is his debut novel, but his sentences are as expert as Bruno's sauces, and he serves up a brilliant meal of soothing predictabilities punctuated by surprises. Secondary characters are fully realized, especially earthy Benedetta, Bruno's truffle country consolation until she urges him to follow his heart back to Laura. The cooking lesson e-mails at the end of the book are like a second glass of grappa, too much of a good thing, but Capella is deservedly the subject of buzz in the food world. This is a foodie treat.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Part food guide to Rome and part love story, Capella's novel spares no delicious detail in the kitchen or in the bedroom. A young American student sipping coffee at a Trastevere bar catches the eye of a sensuous young waiter. The waiter woos the eager young miss with food, and her appetite for Italian cooking instantly becomes an appetite for the young waiter himself. What the girl doesn't realize is that the elegant food the waiter serves her comes not from his own hand but from that of his best friend, who harbors his own secret passion for the American student. Foodies will revel in Capella's lengthy passages describing quasi-military life in the tyrannically run kitchen and snooty dining room of a Michelin-starred eatery run by a ruthless chef. The book's food scenes give way to sex scenes, which yield in turn to simultaneous sex and food couplings. Coarse, bawdy Italian vulgarisms earn literal English translations in footnotes. Gourmets and romantics both will encounter much entertainment in Capella's lighthearted first novel. Mark Knoblauch
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Plume (June 28, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0452286557
• ISBN-13: 978-0452286559
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (36 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,260,004 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If music be the food of love, play on...., September 1, 2005

By 

Linda Pagliuco "katknit" (CT, United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Food of Love (Hardcover)

This first novel by Anthony Capella is a fresh and sassy romp of a love story. Very Italian, very gourmet, very funny, very sexy, it's a perfectly delightful summer read, a mini holiday in Italia. Witty, satirical in places, sad in other places, but ultimately satisfying, Capella has captured personalities with style and precision. It reminded me of nothing so much as a Shakespearean comedy, not so much in terms of literary value, but with respect to its bawdiness, its charm and its humor. Delicioso and molto buffo! Bravo to the author - can't wait to read his next offering.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Delicious!, August 16, 2004

By 

L. Redding "sassymama" (Maryland) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Food of Love (Hardcover)

Bruno is not just an Italian cook, who can prepare dishes from typical recipes, he is a chef who gathers ingredients and creates his own masterpieces of flavors. However, he is not confident in other areas of his life, such as love. When his roommate and friend, Tommaso, asks for his help to seduce an American tourist by secretely preparing wonderful meals for her, Bruno doesn't see the harm in agreeing to let Tommaso take the credit. Little does he know that the American woman, Laura, is the same one he has been watching in the local markets. Bruno creates foods that show his feelings, but Laura believes that Tommaso is the chef. What is she really falling for? The food that Bruno passionately prepares or Tommaso?

It is a joy for any reader who loves food to read about the dishes that Bruno creates. This was a yummy book because of the delicacies and because of the love story. The author, Anthony Capella, really knows his Italian food! I highly recommend it! It is a great new addition to the food and fiction category.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A lip smacking, delicious story all the way!, March 8, 2005

By 

Fafa Demasio (New York City) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Food of Love (Hardcover)

She put down the spoon, amazed. It was all gone. She had eaten it without being aware of eating, her mind in a reverie.

"Did you like it?"

She looked up. Somehow she wasn't surprised. "What was it?" she asked.

"It doesn't have a name," Bruno said. "It's just... it's just the food of love." [Page 255]

This romantic comedy, mainly set in Rome, is an enjoyable tale of two Italian men who romance an American student with food. Although a very different story, a part of the theme is reminiscent of "Cyrano de Bergerac."

Reading THE FOOD OF LOVE will leave you dreaming about a visit to Italy, a fine Italian meal, perhaps preparing a meal of your own, and the sentiments of romance.

I enjoyed every single page of the story. From the moment I picked up the book, if I wasn't chuckling, I had a smile on my face.

The vivid description of characters, neighborhood, and locales reminded me of my time in Italy as study-abroad student. Each character was engaging and authentic - from the protagonists to the secondary characters.

I loved the restaurant/kitchen scenes; the descriptions of Bruno shopping and cooking; and the scenes of the small Italian town where he found some solace.

I got a kick out of the Italian sayings and their translations: Parla comme t'ha fatto mammeta. Translation: Speak as your mother showed you - i.e., Cut the [bull]. [Page 36]. Applied in appropriate segments, they were funny and added to the make up of the characters that used them. I could envision Tomasso and Bruno talking like that.

Along with a happy ending, the story finishes with a few simple recipes. Normally, I don't cook, but I was inspired to try making some of the dishes. I'm happy to write that my cooking endeavors were a success.

Cleverly written, THE FOOD OF LOVE is a recommended read.

Fafa Demasio