The taster

Food and sex, passion and carnality. Love, taste, creativity. The novel “The taster” by the Sicilian Giuseppina Torregrossa plays with these sensual combinations (this is it!). The title says it all. Food and Eros sound a perfect match and is nothing new, there’s a cooking sensual history behind that and you can play with some particular aphrodisiac food. The book goes beyond this original limit thanks to its brilliant fresh and ironic style, it conveys enjoyable feelings (please, don’t be malicious) through a captivating reading. It’s the story of a couple in trouble and a husband who suddenly disappears. So Anciluzza, a typical Sicilian name,

is forced to move ahead and start a new life to survive. What’s better than making and selling food? That’s how her adventures start between food and sensuality. A sort of libertine new life is starting and the clients are really happy. From all points of view. Anciulla’s putìa dominates the pages. What’s the putìa? It’s the shop, the place where the protagonist spreads….. her love. So the taste of good food and sex are melted as a perfect osmosis. But without any vulgarity, we must underline this. But all in all it’s a sober book: we could say it’s Baroque according to the best Sicilian culture since it underlines the quality of what is eaten, the origin of food and its authenticity. When you leaf through the pages you’ll feel like strolling around the streets of the wonderful Sicily if it’s true that you can always sense the most dynamic expression of the local “genius” in the food, the value of a territory and its products. Passion is the heart of these pages and it’s conveyed with all the senses, needless to say.