Best Scandinavian Cookbooks Novels & Stories

KLEMPNER – TWENTY-SIX YEARS AGO On the way to breakfast, it occurs to me to wonder if Mitch knows what the Scandinavians like to eat. She stares at the buffet table. "It's raw," she says, recoiling. "That's the local menu for you. A hundred variations on the theme of pickled herring..." Her normally perfect complexion has a green tinge. "... but there's porridge, muesli, cheese, rye bread, ham, eggs. Pick something that doesn't offend your stomach."

She pulled out a massive, beautifully bound hardcover book. It was Isabelle Voss's seminal cookbook. It was considered the most significant culinary text published in the last decade. Aurora slowly opened the heavy front cover. The thick paper smelled faintly of fresh ink and expensive binding glue. A short, handwritten message was scrawled across the title page in elegant black ink. "He chose the right one. Take care of him. He is terrible at being taken care of. — I.V." Aurora stood perfectly still at the center island. Her heart hammered against her ribs. She read the generous, devastating words twice. She closed the heavy book gently. She walked over to the wooden shelves and placed it s

And then she saw the books. She gasped, her eyes widening and her hand covering her mouth. Leather-bound volumes with gold-embossed titles: Escoffier's Le Guide Culinaire, a culinary Bible. She knew the name. Every chef did. More treasures followed: Essentials of Italian Cooking, and tomes of French, Japanese, African, Latin American cuisine. The collective knowledge of culinary masters from around the world. A lifetime of learning, pressed into the spines right before her eyes. She felt her throat tighten so much that she was breathless for a moment.