From inns and cottages to estates and townhouses, from catering services to high profile restaurant kitchens, the food of romance novels has provided more than just fictional nutrition.The dishes served, the presentation, the venue and the cook contribute to the setting, illuminate the context and provide commentary on the scene, the characters and the events taking place.This presentation will briefly examine modern romances, in which the preparation and/or service of food and the recipes chosen represent aspects of courtship and seduction as well as providing the framework within which the romance narrative is performed.In addition, it will consider romances written or set in earlier times, with reference to the intersection of character and cuisine and the inferences that can be drawn from the menus, the manners and the mores on display.
About the presenterNola Thacker
Nola Thacker, programming librarian at Westhampton Free Library in New York, has been a panelist (and cosplayer) at NYCC, presented at Flame Con and NYLA and is a co-founder of the Long Island Library Pride Association. She has written books for middle grade and young adult readers under her name as well the pseudonyms Tom B. Stone and D.E. Athkins, and as a ghostwriter for the Babysitters Club.