GOOD TASTE

A 1930s author sets out to discover her country, her history, and her future.

Each time Stella Douglas describes what she does for a living, she takes a moment to have a bite-sized existential crisis. Stella is a food writer who has most recently been tasked with writing a history of British food. This undertaking strikes her either as overwhelmingly large—the economic depression, surfeit of imported goods, nearby rise of fascism, poor reputation of British cuisine and boosting of national morale must all be taken into account—or embarrassingly frivolous. “‘I’m realizing that I need to adjust my expectations, to accept that vol-au-vents and fashions in table napkins is as stimulating as my career is going to get,” she laments. It has been a year since Stella lost her mother and returned to Yorkshire to care for her grieving father. Her newest book provides a welcome excuse to tour various British hamlets in search of traditional fare and colorful anecdotes. In Grasmere she attempts to reverse-engineer a famous gingerbread recipe, theorizing that the biscuit contains oats, candied ginger peel, and golden syrup, “doggedness and astringency.” In her excavation of culinary history, Stella is looking to uncover not only what makes a dish British but also what it means to be British. If the ginger was imported, she worries it might not belong in her book at all. Though Stella navigates loss, romance, and friendship, her most intricately depicted relationship is with her work. Stella’s first book sold few copies, and she begins to think her historical text might be a bestseller if she tweaks some of the history. As she researches and writes, she struggles with what kind of book this will be and what kind of writer, and person, she will become as a result. Stella’s recurrent concerns grow a bit thin with wear. Still, the sleepy plot has a gentle, provincial charm. Buttery passages are slathered with food imagery, and Scott conjures markets, pantries, and laden tables you won’t want to leave.

A sweet treat of a book.