Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #122138 in Books
• Published on: 2005-02-10
• Binding: Hardcover
• 276 pages

Synopsis
When Ugo DiFonte, a starving peasant, and his beautiful daughter Miranda are snatched from their farm by the despot Duke Federico, Ugo thinks life can't get any worse. He's wrong. The duke orders Ugo to be his new food taster, a hazardous job made even more so by the Duke's many enemies - including the cook - but it's not just the food that's dangerous. Miranda's beauty brings perils of its own as she attracts the attention of the Duke himself. Ugo realizes he must find a way to protect Miranda, the toast of Corsoli, from all those who desire her: his master, her lover, and perhaps most sinisterly his lascivious brother. Set in the perilous kitchens of a sixteenth-century Italian palace, The Food Taster is a witty and dark fairytale in the best tradition of the Brothers Grimm.

Customer Reviews

A Book for Entertainment
This book is not for those who purely want a deep historical novel that is believable on every front. This was a good read, historically accurate enough and it gave a good idea of the period's food and customs. It was a fun read which saw the main character on a journey through life and in many situations that he had to worm his way out of. It was written and should be read with humour, a book for entertainment, but worthy of your time.

Renaissance Romp
This faux memoir of a widowed Italian Renaissance foodtaster is a decidedly picaresque affair, documenting the rise of a sheep farmer's unloved second son to a position of influence in the service of a mercurial Duke. Through scheming and a great deal of luck, Ugo rises in favor over the years and manages to raise his little girl in relative luxury. Indeed, she becomes too accustomed to her new surroundings and becomes more and more spoiled, especially once the Duke's whore consort takes her under her wing. This leads to an all too predictable climactic difficulty when the young girl becomes a woman.

Broadly written, the book offers no depth of characterization, but does present a ground-level view of the era's social customs. It skims along a series of topics, from plague to court intrigues, to the Inquisition, to love between servants, treating each deftly but perhaps too swiftly. The bulk of the detail is reserved for descriptions of the outlandish dishes the foodtaster must sample in his role as poison detector. There's plenty of plotting and intrigue as well as humor as the foodtaster must squirm his way out of one bad situation after another. Ably written and fast-moving, this historical fiction won't knock your socks off, but it will probably keep you entertained.