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The Hundred-Foot Journey
By Richard C. Morais

"My first sensation of life was the smell of machli ka salan, a spicy fish curry, rising through the floorboards," recalls Hassan Haji, in Richard C. Morais' The Hundred-Foot Journey, a mouthwatering debut novel of colliding cultures and cuisines. Cooking has always sent Hassan into a "magic trance," but when his family's grand Bombay restaurant burns to the ground, they go eating across Europe: A "platto di Mussolini" is a plate of mussels, not the dictator on a dish, Hassan has to explain to a waiter in Tuscany. The family finally opens Maison Mumbai in a small French mountain town and incurs the wrath of the imperious chef across the street, in this hilarious romp through life, love, and the workings of a French kitchen. — Louisa Ermelino

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