The Gilmore Guide to Books

Connecting Books and Readers One Review at a Time

  • Home
  • About Me
  • Reviews
    • Reviews by Author
    • Reviews by Title
    • Reviews by Genre
  • More Books
  • Policies
    • Review Policy
    • Privacy Policy

The Chef’s Secret by Crystal King

February 22, 2019

chef's secretThe Chef's Secret by Crystal King
Published by Atria Books
Publication date: February 12, 2019
three-stars
Your Local Book Store, Amazon

Giovanni’s uncle, Bartolomeo Scappi, was a celebrity in Rome. He was the private chef to three popes and the author of a wildly popular cookbook. Now he is dead and Giovanni’s life is about to turn upside down. He had been his uncle’s apprentice for 11 years and had known the man as a father figure for all of his life. When Scappi’s will is read, everything is left to Giovanni, including his much-sought-after recipes. Recipes that soon become just one mystery of the many Giovanni is left to unravel in Crystal King’s new novel, The Chef’s Secret.

King piles a lot on Gio’s plate. Not only is he responsible for his uncle’s property, including a secret trove of never-before-seen recipes, but he discovers a cache of coded journals detailing his uncle’s life from the time he began cooking. Deciphering them becomes an obsession, especially as he learns not only about his uncle’s life, but also about his own. At the same time, due to his training, he has been named the new head chef for Pope Gregory.

Through the journals, King segues to Bartolomeo as narrator in alternating chapters with Gio. While it brings to light much that was unknown, it also creates an even greater mystery—that of a woman he has loved since he was a young man. An aristocrat, far above his station, but who secretly reciprocates his feelings. Given that it was the 1500s and so little is known of Scappi in real life, it’s here that King takes the most creative license in The Chef’s Secret, making it more an action-packed novel than a study of a man and the times he lived in.

King’s research is felt throughout The Chef’s Secret. There is intimate recreation of all things related to the Vatican, from the diets of various popes to the feast celebrating the anniversary of coronation of Pius V, where over 1,000 platters of food were served, including items ranging from six butter statues, 361 bowls of candied fruits, and 12 4’ pastry castles containing live birds. These are the details that keep me reading, but they are not the main course in the novel. Instead, it is the battle for Scappi’s recipes and the mystery of his long-lost love that bridges the past with the present.  Which is fine, as King writes a good mystery, but I craved less drama about illicit love and more about the cooking and kitchens of the times.

 

three-stars

Related Posts

  • Related Posts
  • 3 Star Books
  • By Crystal King
euphoria
Euphoria by Lily King
gimmicks
The Gimmicks: A Novel
swans
The Swans of Fifth Avenue
mischling
Mischling
Shorecliff
Shorecliff: A Novel
Girl at War: A Novel
some luck
Some Luck: A Novel
Rutherford Park
Rutherford Park
fake
Fake Plastic Love
guests on earth
Guests on Earth
feast
Feast of Sorrow: A Novel of Ancient Rome

Leave a Comment
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: 16th century, Atria Books, historical fiction, Italy

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

  • Bloglovin
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Google+
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

Save time and subscribe via email

No time to keep checking for new reviews? Enter your email address to subscribe and receive notifications of new posts by email. No spam!

Currently Reading

Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle
Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle
by Emily Nagoski
The Dutch House
The Dutch House
by Ann Patchett
Wild Game: My Mother, Her Lover, and Me
Wild Game: My Mother, Her Lover, and Me
by Adrienne Brodeur

goodreads.com

Affiliate Disclosure

I’m an affiliate for Indiebound and Amazon. If you click on a link that takes you to any of these sites and make a purchase I’ll earn a small fee, which goes towards the costs of maintaining this site. Your support is appreciated. Thank you!

Archives

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States License.

Theme Design By Studio Mommy · Copyright © 2021

Copyright © 2021 · Beyond Madison Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in