fuonlyknew

Why this fiction author wrote a cookbook

When my characters tell me what to do, I listen.

During the writing of my Château de Verzat series, my characters ganged up on me and informed me that if I didn’t publish a cookbook collection of their recipes, they would stop speaking to me. I still had another book to write, so it was a risk I wasn’t willing to take.

When writing “Her Own Legacy,” my research told me that soups were very important to French culture and the recipes varied depending on the economic level of the cook.

I confess, I am a soup maven. I am the proud owner of ten slow cookers, and I throw annual soup parties at which I serve eight different soups. In writing my historical novels, I created soups that helped reveal the characters’ qualities and their economic condition. For example, Sister Magali is a kind nun who cares for eighteen orphans. When they arrive at the Verzat estate which offers them shelter, Sister Magali discovers pears growing near the vineyard. She roasts them and adds them to her Roasted Butternut Squash Soup, to “add a little sweetness to the children’s lives.”

Louis de LaGarde is a former nobleman who turns his château into an orphanage sheltering children and their single mothers, who happen to be ex-prostitutes. Throughout the series, Louis changes from an arrogant rogue to a generous man of great integrity and honor. In his telling of how he created “Oncle Louis’s Lentil Soup,” he reveals his kind and loving nature, growls like a bear, and entertains the children, shocking the protagonist who has seen only his selfish, demanding side.

Aurélia, a former enslaved American, appears in “Her Own Revolution” and “Her Own War.” She is mute, due to the horrors she endured on the ship that transported her from Africa to America. But she communicates her love through her soups, made with ingredients that were also used in her homeland.

So, when these characters asked me to compile a cookbook, I was only too glad to comply.

(Readers can received a free e-cookbook by signing up for my newsletter at: https://debraborchert.com/bonus/)