What's that saying about never meeting your idols?
Chloe Bridgers is an Australian who is living and working in Paris. She is working in an underpaid job in a hotel but she is just starting to get some traction as a food blogger! One of the reasons she was inspired to move to France was because of famous celebrity chef Carla Duris. Chloe loves living in France, although she is feeling the pressure from her family to head home permanently.
One day Chloe returns to her flat to find an invitation that has been pushed under her door. It is very simple. It has a time and a restaurant name, with the initials CD on it. Chloe is intrigued and finds herself at dinner with an eclectic group of food writers and no one has any idea of why they are there!
One of the other food writers is Henri de la Fontaine, food editor at the respected magazine Le Cercle. Henri has taken over the role from his uncle who still wants to have a say in the way the magazine is run. Chloe has met Henri once before and thought he was quite dismissive, whereas Henri was more intrigued and can't really understand why she doesn't seem to like him.
At the dinner, it is announced that Carla Duris has decided to write her memoirs and each of the writers is being invited to compete for the opportunity to work with her. This could be the opportunity of a lifetime for any of the writers. Everyone who wants the chance is instructed to pack for a weekend in the South of France at Carla's luxury mansion.
Over the weekend there is a series of challenges that honestly seem to have not much to do with writing and only sometimes to do with food, but which Carla is using to test their mettle, to see if they have what it takes to work with her. As soon as someone does something she doesn't like, they are out, and told to pack their bags and head back to Paris. As the weekend goes on the challenges get stranger and stranger, with some of the contestants willing to do anything to get their chance.
The story is told in alternating chapters between Chloe and Henri, with the occasional chapter from the other writers as they are kicked out of the contest. Both Chloe and Henri have their own reasons for wanting to win, and their own self doubts. Henri is very clearly smitten with Chloe but she has her moments of misinterpreting his actions.
The big question is who will win this opportunity of a lifetime?
Victoria Brownlee is herself a food writer and has spent a few years living in France and China but is now based back in Australia. You can really see this history in the writing. The food passages are delightful, and made me want to go and eat delicious French food immediately. There were so many passages that I loved.I thought I would share just one.
In my mind I am always planning my next trip to France, and have a list of things I want to do in Paris. One of them is to dine at Le Train Bleu. Here Henri is having dinner before he gets on the train to go to the South of France for the weekend.
Stepping inside Le Train Bleu felt like stepping back in time (that was, if you managed to block out the groups of wealthy foreigners talking incessantly about how everything is better at 'The Blue Train'...).
My order was always the same: a seafood or seasonal vegetable started, followed by the roast lamb (served a table from their carving trolley), and to finish, the rum baba with vanilla whipped cream. A simple set of dishes, yes, but with perfect execution. What more could you ask for? It was perhaps a little heavy for a pre-train dinner, but dining there was so infused in my memories that to stray from tradition might ruin my trip, which I wasn't prepared to risk. Not this weekend. There was too much at stake.
Plus, I couldn't miss watching the waitstaff carve the lamb with unrivalled finesse, using a theatrically sword-like knife. Fragrant roasted garlic cloves were then sprinkled on the meat before a jus was ladled over with a flourish It was spectacular in all senses of the word.
I need to remember what Henri's recommendation is if I ever get to eat there!
I wasn't really expecting to love this book! Don't get me wrong. I expected to enjoy it, but not to be as immersed in it as I was. I enjoyed the competition, the locations, the food, and yes, that there was a little bit of craziness mixed in there! This is my first book by Victoria Brownlee. I am already looking for her previous books.
I did take a minute or two to decide on a rating for this book!I was hovering between 4.5 and 5 out of 5, mainly because it did feel as though the romance was not as developed as it could be! In the end though, I gave it a 5/5 simply for the joy it gave me. Even now, as I write this post, I am smiling at the thought of the book!
I am sharing this review with the New Release Challenge hosted at The Chocolate Lady's Book Reviews, with Weekend Cooking which I host, with Foodie Reads hosted at Based on a True Story and with Paris In July hosted by Words and Peace.
Rating 5/5
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