Lives of
Notorious Cooks
Brendan Connell. Chomu Press, $12
paperback (180p) ISBN: 978-1-907681-20-2
Abstinence and indulgence, pleasure and
pain. Each meal holds a microcosm of the world of desires. Brendan Connell has
compiled a group of the most exquisite, the most transcendent, the most
tortured masters of the culinary world for our reading pleasure. Lives of Notorious Cooks brings together
51 of the world’s greatest masters of cookery and in doing so also provides us
a unique view of the antique world through its skillets, cleavers and stomachs.
He prefaces the book with a mysterious caveat: This book may be fiction or may be fact. It is probably best not to
cite this work in any essays intended as part of an academic history
qualification. Enough said.
The eras of the cooks range from one
hundred years to four thousand or more years ago and they come from ancient
Roman, Egyptian, Chinese, Japanese and English cultures among others. The
portraits vary in length from one page tapas to full multi course eleven page
feasts. The cooks themselves may come as grandiose divas who live theatrical
lives and consume just as much as they cook, mountain dwelling ascetics who
hesitate to cut vegetables too vigorously in honor of the plant’s Buddha nature,
and some who are only mentioned briefly in their own stories. Regardless,
Connell captures the tone of the times and places perfectly.
Connell is a master of emulating the
style of antiquated manuscripts perfectly with their particular language,
oblique references and cultural idiosyncrasies. Each portrait is produced from
what appear to be varying amounts of fact, speculation and extrapolation. If
the (admittedly limited) fact checking I performed is any indication then
Connell has done a noteworthy amount of research and has filled in the gaps
with his warped and powerful imagination. His humor is bone dry, slipped in
almost like an afterthought—though without losing any potency. Some jokes are
reminiscent of the famous Spam sketch from Monthy Python’s Flying Circus and I
found myself laughing out loud at more than a few of the stories. He wields
repetition to great effect and often whips around and drops novelty right as
you are settling into a common groove. The paranormal plays a role in many of
the stories, with demons and goddesses popping up to little fanfare to help or
hinder the cooks and in at least one case to become enchanted cookware. This
combination of brevity and the supernatural had me at times feeling traces of
Borges though the writing here is totally unique.
One of the great pillars of the work is
the dishes and recipes Connell describes. Playing with obscure delicacies and
very probable (but probably impossible) dishes he serves us eight pound swallow
tongue pies by the truckload, wormwood cakes and the moon (or so it seems…).
The lists of ornate, luxurious and sometimes revolting dishes goes on and on
and provides just as much entertainment as the stories themselves. Not only the
foods but how much and how the dishes are prepared provide ample entertainment:
feasts of absurd size and acts of grotesque overindulgence abound, living foods
and dishes of mimicry are common.
The stories did sometimes seem
repetitive and Connell uses similar tricks from time to time. I initially took
this as a fault in the work but came to feel after reading further that this is
usually just a small humorous act on Connell’s part. The writing throughout is
fantastic and as mentioned above Connell is an excellent mimic of the styles of
the time. Of course if these styles do not resonate with you than appreciation the Lives
of Notorious Cooks may be slightly limited.
Connell has compiled an excellent and
entertaining resource for those interested in the seamy side of the culinary
world. Thoroughly enjoyable and often bizarre, it is a rousing and lively look
into history and the people who cooked for it. (December 2012)
Purchase Lives of Notorious Cooks HERE.
Reviewer bio: Sam Moss lives in the Pacific
Northwest. He is currently working on a novel called Basic Analysis. He writes
for the zine NADA at nadadadamagazine.blogspot.com and his blog can be found at perfidiousscript.blogspot.com
.
