Perfect recipe for a good read
NICKY Pellegrino has authored a number of books set in Italy that have food as a main ingredient of their subject matter, that is along with love, life and everything else.
I was surprised I’d never discovered her books before receiving this review copy because what a delightful writer she is, coming up with the perfect recipe to make a good read.
Her latest book is set in one of my favourite cities, Venice. It’s the place that Kat decides to make her home after falling in love with a suave, handsome Venetian called Massimo, who as the title may just suggest, is the owner of the Hotel Gondola.
Both being of a mature age (late 40s, 50), the couple decide Kat will stay for a year and then they’ll decide where to go from there.
But and there’s always a but in a story like this. Kat has spent her life travelling the world as a journalist; eating exotic food and visiting farflung places, which has made her into a restless kind of person.
Will she make it? She decides she’ll write up the first year of her adventure: the food she eats, the people she meets and the places she goes to.
It all starts swimmingly well as she begins to discover the beautiful city. The descriptions of Venice are enough to make anyone get on the first plane to get out there: the beautiful canals, the old buildings seeped in history, overhung with pots of geraniums, the ancient staircases, the magical colours as dawn breaks over the magnificent endearing older Venetian who owns a clothes shop. Coco is even more vocal in her opinions, it appears, than Kat and there are many wonderfully descriptive moments when the two spend time together over an espresso and sweet treats at one of Venice’s many pasticcerias; as they go out on meals; and sit in Coco’s cool and welcoming courtyard. Coco seems to know more about Kat than Kat likes to believe as do her friends.
Ruth is a long-term guest at the hotel and describes people in colours; Rosetta is also a single woman who teaches yoga and Dante is Massimo’s foil, a creative chef to whom Kat can confide. And of course there has to be an ex-wife and she’s Zita who still is involved in Massimo’s life.
It’s an absorbing read, light and frothy and moreish as we’re taken on the ups and downs of Kat’s stay in Venice.
The other thing I loved beside the descriptions of Venice were those of the food, from Kat’s wanderings at the Rialto food market to buying fresh produce and cooking it up simply but deliciously to Dante’s unusual interpretations of traditional Venetian cooking to the food she savours, eyes closed, in the dozens of restaurant she eats at – from small osterias to little bars to grand affairs like Harry’s Bar.
The book takes the format of chapters for her book in which she writes in the first person and the descriptive chapters of what is happening in her life. I won’t spoil the story by giving away how it all turns out – it’s a wonderful journey of self-discovery and a superb culinary adventure.