"Reckless Appetites: A Culinary Romance, the fiction debut of Jacqueline Deval, tells the story of a beautiful young woman named Pomme, a passionate cook with a restless hunger who looks to the lives of great writers to shape her own romantic and creative life. Drawing on period cookbooks, literary biography, letters, and memoirs, Deval weaves Pomme's tale in an unusual blend of fiction, and literary and culinary anecdote." "Through food, Pomme explores love and romance, anger, greed, ambition, solitude, and art. Her ardent inquiry, which deliciously uncovers nearly 100 recipes associated with writers, includes polenta (Lord Byron sailed down the Grand Canal in Venice with his lover while nibbling polenta that she warmed between her breasts), Charles Dickens' own recipe for champagne punch as well as Evelyn Waugh's peppered champagne, biscuits Tortoni (the ice cream mousse favored by Alexandre Dumas and Victor Hugo at Tortoni's Cafe in Paris), Emily Dickinson's gingerbread, Virginia Woolf's cottage loaves, and more." "Reckless Appetites is made with the perfect ingredients for all who love romance, literature, and food."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved