In this, the fourth and last article on the topic of Food in Fiction, I thought I’d let you into a badly kept secret.
Having been married since forever and having brought up a family of five, I can cook – but I wouldn’t say I was good at it. Perhaps that’s why none of the main characters in my novels have been great cooks. I’ve had my share of disasters too, though not ever on the scale of Hugh’s in my WIP, For What it’s Worth.
By the time she turned into the communal stair of the flats, Sandra had built up a fair head of steam in her boiler, fuelled by the indignity she suffered at work set against the memory of Hugh lying warm and sleepy in their bed when she left him this morning and sitting with his feet on the coffee table all day watching day-time trash on the unlicensed box, as she imagined he had most of her long, torturous day. ‘Sauce for the goose…’ Colleen’s remark flared in her memory. ‘Equal opportunity…’ She was ready to blow.
A blanket of fresh, enticing, foodie smells doused her anger as she opened the door.
“Don’t…em, don’t come in the kitchen!” Hugh yelled. “Surprise! It’s… it’s a surprise.”
Sandra still had her key in the lock, the door still standing open, the sudden cooling of her anger leaving her frozen in disbelief.
“You’re cooking!”
“Guessed it must be about my turn,” Hugh planted a kiss on her cheek as he busied past her with candles for the table.
“But you never cook. You hate cooking.”
“I didn’t say that, or not exactly. It’s just that…” he ran his hands through his floppy hair, pushing his swimming goggles onto his forehead. “It’s just that you do it so much better. Onions,” he added in answer to her unspoken enquiry about the goggles.
“Yes, I see. But the candles, wine?” She closed the door and followed him through to the living room.
“A sudden pang of conscience. You out there every day working for us. Me in here watching tele.”
A weary snort of recognition escaped from Sandra.
“One of these interminable talk shows. ‘Is your man a loser?’ Suddenly saw that, yes, your man, me, was… am… a bit of a loser Wouldn’t be watching that dreadful program otherwise. Decided to do something about it.”
“A job would be nice.”
“Yes. Yes, I suppose that would be nice. The ideal really, I imagine.” Hugh stood with his hands on his hips, his hips girded with a tea towel, nodding his agreement. “Meat on the table, yes, see what you mean.” He sniffed the air, “Sorry, back in a mo. The meat. Need to do some stirring.” And disappeared into the kitchen.
“Don’t come in,” he yelled as she started to push open the kitchen door.
“Oh good grief, what on earth is all this for?”
“I told you not to come through.”
“How many are you expecting for dinner?”
“Just…eh… just us.”
“But there’s so much. All these peppers.”
“I thought it seemed a lot,” he frowned. “But that’s what the recipe said.”
“Which recipe? Let me see.”
He lifted the book to show her.
“Feeds six,” she read out.
“Oops!”
“Oops, indeed. But, even for six, it’s an awful lot.”
He took the recipe back and pointed to the ingredients list. “Look, six chicken breasts, fourteen oz of potatoes. Oz, I knew that was ounces,” he informed her with some pride. “And I knew sixteen ounces equals one pound, so I weighed out nearly a pound, then half as much of peppers, same of mushrooms.”
“But I don’t have ounces on my scales.”
“Yes, you do. ‘Course you do.” He drew them over. “See?”
“Grams and Kilos,” she showed him. “It measures in grams and kilos. You’ve cooked a kilo of potatoes, four chicken breasts and there are several kilos of vegetables chopped up here.” The sweep of her hand indicated the heaps of vegetables covering every available work surface in their little kitchen. “For two of us.”
He scratched his head. “I wondered how it was all going to fit in the wok.”
“Well, it’s not, is it?” she said, weariness giving an edge to her voice.
“No, I suppose it’s not. Sorry.” He shrugged his apology like a child caught in some minor misdemeanour. “What… er… what do you… er… should I…”
Sandra sighed. “Let me get my coat off. Oh Hugh,” she said, drawing him into her arms. “What are we going to do?”
“I thought, perhaps, eating might be a good idea?”
In Flying Free, my third novel, the main character, Jayne, is a young working woman, still living at home with her mother, who does most of the cooking. When her mother isn’t home, Jayne cooks simple food, often served with salad and crusty bread. She enjoys dining out, especially with friends, but has neither the time nor the inclination to cook anything very ambitious. From time to time, if her mother is working late, Jayne might cook for her coming home, a casserole or her version of Quick’n’Easy Chilli Con Carne perhaps.
In Here At The Gate, Mhairi, the main protagonist, has been married for a long time, brought up two children and cooked many meals. Like me, she is an everyday sort of cook: plain cooking, no frills, just good wholesome food adequately cooked. A good roast on a Sunday, with plenty of vegetables and roasted potatoes, rounded off with something like apple pie or crumble. Comfort food.
Just as there are many novels that feature food, either playing a leading role, a subsidiary part or setting the scene, there are many more where food is never mentioned. And perhaps it is not mentioned in your own writing, but that doesn’t mean as part of the process of getting to know them, you shouldn’t decide what your characters like to eat and where they like to eat it. They’ll be the more engaging for it.
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Reblogged this on The Owl Lady.
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Thanks Viv ❤️
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Thank you, Viv 😀
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Reblogged this on cicampbellblog and commented:
It has been a joy writing as guest on The Story Reading Ape’s blog. Thank you, Chris, for the opportunity.
To round up the mini series of Food in Fiction, I’ve given you a peek into one of my WIP, For What it’s Worth, with an excerpt that I hope helps you get to know the two main characters in a scene where food is the star of the show.
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This gave instant insight into both characters with no boring “telling” about them, but “showing!” Great job!
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Thank you, rijanjks. Glad you enjoyed it.
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This is a delightful read. I love this excerpt because it’s down to earth. Real people not rich and snobish. Love it. Your books have fantastic covers.
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Thank you, for your comment, Tess. I’m so pleased you liked both the excerpt and my bookcovers. 😀
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You do not need to be a star-crowned cook or have an award to be a good cook. A good cook gets meals on the table in time, does not need a recipe for most of her or his everyday cooking and can handle a budget as well as a knife. That is what you did and what a lot of women do and did who feed a family by cooking from scratch. Restaurant dinners are not an everyday affair. And most restaurants aren’t star-crowned either. There are a lot of rather bland, boring restaurant meals I have eaten, and I had some culinary revelations in the tiniest of kitchens at friends.
Trust me, a good cook does not need to be able to handle a 5-course-meal – a good cook must produce meals that are edible, can be cooked without ruining the budget and unless you were abyssmal your cooking will be comfort food for your children – as it is also connected with Mom, and home and family time and being taken care of.
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Thank you so much for that very encouraging comment. Yes, for almost fifty years I have managed to put a decent meal on the table every day. It is plain, honest fare most of the time, but it feeds my family and that’s the main thing.
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Well, it kept your family well fed and healthy, it did not ruin your budget and I am sure you have no reason to say aren’t a good cook! Unless you only microwaved the pre-cooked food – which is unlikely if you have been cooking for fifty years 😉
You aren’t a professional cook. But then you aren’t a professional at many things (like for example gardening or children rearing) – and I am sure your backyard (that is, if you had one) and your children turned out well.
I am thinking of my grandmother, who had no love for cooking – (she was your mother’s generation, I suppose, she was born 1923) – still she kept us well-fed on a budget (as my grandfather built two houses and money was always there for the house he was building, all the rest had to fit around that). I never knew my grandmother did not love cooking – up to the moment when she, in her eighties, told me so. That is how good she was. Only everyday-food, a goose for Christmas, as a Turkey would have been way too much for the family, Sunday roast, casseroles, stews, baking for occasions (not that “looks is all” stuff they do today, but tasty, creamy cakes, Sunday afternoon coffee time cakes, cookies for Christmas – and different kinds, too – not just one sort of cookies) – you wouldn’t have guessed that that woman had no love for cooking. That is why I know you must be a good cook, too, if you fed your family from scratch. You get better with experience and a few household favourites anyway.
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Thank you so much again, Fran. You can have no idea how encouraging your comments are. Yes, I did cook from scratch – and still do much of the time, though I get tired now and cheat sometimes with a ready made sauce or even a ready meal now and then. And my homemade bread and cakes certainly disappeared fast enough when the kids came home from school – often, they were gone before they cooled – especially the warm bread.
I think i don’t consider myself a good cook because my mother and my sister were both excellent cooks and everything they cooked looked perfect on the plate, where my meals could look a little untidy sometimes 🙂 I was always a bit of a hit and a miss cook, where they produced top quality every time. Perhaps I lacked the patience.
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Just because they were excellent does not make you “not good” – you were good, but not excelling, so what? Nobody in your family complained, did they?
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I have to confess, Fran, that sometimes my kids did complain 😂😂😂
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Oh, sometimes is ok – I bet you complained about your perfect mom’s food sometimes, too – because that is just what kids do.
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Reblogged this on TINA FRISCO and commented:
Christine Campbell brings us Part 4 of Food in Fiction as a guest on The Story Reading Ape. Christine’s novels tend to feature food. Yet even if our novels don’t, she suggests at least deciding what and where our characters like to eat, in order to enhance their reader appeal. Good advice! Hop over to Chris’ blog for the full story …
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Thanks Tina 😀 XXX
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Thanks so much for hosting me here on your blog, Chris. It’s been fun here in the jungle with you xxx
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My pleasure Christine 👍😃
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Welcome, Chris 😀 XXX
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Thanks, Tina. I don’t always say a lot about food in my novels, but I try to bring my characters ‘to life’ for my readers – and that means at least knowing what they like to eat and whether they like to cook, even when nothing is said about it in the book.
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Welcome, Christine 🙂
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