The Food of Love

By: Anthony Capella

Narrated by: Rocco Sisto

Length: 10 hrs and 27 mins

Publisher's summary

Laura Patterson is an American exchange student in Rome who, fed up with being inexpertly groped by her young Italian beaus, decides there's only one sure-fire way to find a sensual man: date a chef. Then she meets Tomasso, who's handsome, young, and cooks in the exclusive Templi restaurant. Perfect. Except, unbeknownst to Laura, Tomasso is in fact only a waiter at Templi; it's his shy friend Bruno who is the chef. But Tomasso is the one who knows how to get the girls, and when Laura comes to dinner he persuades Bruno to help him with the charade. It works: the meal is a sensual feast, Laura is utterly seduced, and Tomasso falls in...lust. But it is Bruno, the real chef, who has secretly prepared every dish Laura has eaten, and who falls deeply and unrequitedly in love.

©2004 Anthony Capella

Critic reviews

"Infused by the spirit of Italy, sunshine, and the food of love - what more could anyone want?" (Evening Herald, Ireland)
"What an incredible first novel....Very sexy, laugh-out-loud funny....I couldn't recommend it more highly." (Nigel Havers, Richard and Judy's Summer Read, Channel 4)

Cuisine & Passion

I like the growth and development in main character Bruno. His great talent with food & how he uses to express himself captured my interest greatly. All the physical romantic encounters made me a bit uncomfortable though.

Makes me want more

I loved this book. I could not stop laughing throughout the whole book.

A wandering, lackluster effort at best

I am sure that there will be many who disagree with me but I found this book rather disappointing. Though the Cyrano de Bergerac type plot line has been played out before I had thought the idea behind this book had the potential to be quite funny with just enough romance. However, the characters were cartoonish exaggerations of real people. The Italian playboy, the hopeless romantic, the clueless American tourist…there was no depth in these characters and I often found myself asking “Am I supposed to care?” There are several unnecessary side plots which could be completely eliminated as they add nothing to the book. Also, there was no humor whatsoever! This could have been so funny and endearing but came off a little like euro-trash. The only parts of this book which were vividly written and inciting were the passages about the food. And how much can you listen to someone describing what they are cooking and/or eating? Finally, I am no prude to cursing but it was a bit much as were the sex scenes. They were overdone. I would not recommend.

Great Fun!

Fun, frothy and funny! A romantic comedy with such delicious descriptions of Italian specialities you'll want to be on the next plane to Roma!

A wandering, lackluster effort at best

I am sure that there will be many who disagree with me but I found this book rather disappointing. Though the Cyrano de Bergerac type plot line has been played out before I had thought the idea behind this book had the potential to be quite funny with just enough romance. However, the characters were cartoonish exaggerations of real people. The Italian playboy, the hopeless romantic, the clueless American tourist…there was no depth in these characters and I often found myself asking “Am I supposed to care?” There are several unnecessary side plots which could be completely eliminated as they add nothing to the book. Also, there was no humor whatsoever! This could have been so funny and endearing but came off a little like euro-trash. The only parts of this book which were vividly written and inciting were the passages about the food. And how much can you listen to someone describing what they are cooking and/or eating? Finally, I am no prude to cursing but it was a bit much as were the sex scenes. They were overdone. I would not recommend.

LOVED IT!!!

Great, breezy story. easy to listen to. Loved the Italian and the cooking terms too :)

Nice light read.

A nixe light read, good narration and an interesting concept on the gods of old.

Food of Love

As a work of entertainment, this story wasn't terribly interesting. The characters were self-absorbed enough to make the reader disbelieve a relationship of any degree of depth could develop between them. The endless descriptions of recipes were very distracting--particularly since they did not include enough instruction to actually redeem the book as a cookbook. Then there was the narrator. He frequently had to pause to take drags on his cigarette. This wouldn't be so bad if he wasn't such a noisy smoker!

worst narrator ever

I think this book is entertaining, however the narrator horrendous narration has distracted me throughout the whole book. I can't believe nobody else has written about it....I could be a better narrator! Rocco Sisto needs to find a different occupation....

Disappointing to say the least...

After reading the summary I was expecting a engaging, fun, love story. However, this book was anything but. While the idea was great, the story itself was horrendous. The characters were hardly thought through and the pointless and bland dialogue was a complete let down. The sex scenes were strange and out of place. I kept waiting for it to get good, only to find that it didn't...

To be fair, I did find the food descriptions somewhat interesting, but I'm not the type of person who enjoys listening about food for hours. Also, some points were humorous, but they were few and very far between. Overall, it was definately not worth the time or money.