Billie Breslin has traveled far from her California home to take a job at Delicious, the most iconic food magazine in New York. But when the publication is suddenly shut down, the colorful staff, who have become an extended family for Billie, must pick up their lives and move on. Not Billie, though. She is offered a new job: staying behind in the magazine's deserted downtown mansion offices to uphold the "Delicious Guarantee"—a public relations hotline for complaints and recipe inquiries—until further notice. What she doesn't know is that this boring, lonely job will be the portal to a life-changing discovery.
Delicious! carries the reader to the colorful world of downtown New York restaurateurs and artisanal purveyors, and from the lively food shop in Little Italy where Billie works on weekends to a hidden room in the magazine's library where she discovers the letters of Lulu Swan, a plucky twelve-year-old who wrote to the legendary chef James Beard during World War II. Lulu's letters lead Billie to a deeper understanding of history and the history of food. But most importantly, Lulu's courage in the face of loss inspires Billie to come to terms with her own issues—the panic attacks that occur every time she even thinks about cooking, the truth about the big sister she adored, and her ability to open her heart to love.
In her bestselling memoirs, Ruth Reichl has long illuminated the theme of how food defines us. This theme once more comes to light in her dazzling fiction debut about sisters, family ties, and a young woman who must finally let go of guilt and grief to embrace her own true gifts.
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“Audiobook listeners enamored with
former New York Times restaurant
critic and food editor Ruth Reichl’s nonfiction works are in for a treat. Her
fiction debut features delectable descriptions of foods and spices, embedded in
the story of Billie Breslin’s discerning palate. Narrator Julia Whelan gamely
matches Billie’s culinary adventures with a hearty range of voices and a myriad
of accents to match the diversity of New York City, where Billie lands a job
with an iconic food magazine. Her culinary explorations delve into
ethnic-ingredient sourcing, ancestral recipes, chef and restaurateur encounters,
artisanal purveyors of amazing tastes, and a cache of old letters linked to a
legendary chef.”
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AudioFile