If you have ever worked in a restaurant or are enough of a foodie to recognize the name Escoffier, I would recommend you pick up White Truffles in Winter by N. M. Kelby. This fictionalized account of the life of chef extraordinaire, Auguste Escoffier is a sensual and even lusty recounting of Escoffier in the kitchen as well as his relationships with his wife, poet Delphine Daffis, and his mistress, Sarah Bernhardt.

Most of us are familiar with the white chef hats (toques) worn by classically trained chefs. But did you know the number of pleats in a toque is historically determined by the number of ways the chef could prepare an egg? Escoffier did not like to wear a toque because the highest number of pleats available at the time was 100 and he knew over 500 ways to prepare an egg. It is these details which I found so enticing and Kelby obviously did her research into her subject’s life as well as French cooking of that time.

But it truly is Escoffier’s complicated relationships with women that is the focus of this novel. When he moved to London to work at the Savoy, his wife chose to remain in France. Lonely, Escoffier began a tumultuous affair with Bernhardt but maintained a long-distance affair with Delphine by creating Mr. Boots who wooed Delphine from afar.

I have read so many great books this fall and with each I am tempted to say this is my favorite book of 2011; however, even I know they can’t all be at the top of the list but White Truffles in Winter, if not #1, is very near the top. ~Patti