Delicious - Nicky Pellegrino

Sixteen year old Maria Domenica Carrozza manages to persuade her father to let her work in Caffe Angeli, a bar in the little village of San Giulio near Naples. It’s the 1960s and although London might have been swinging, backwater Italy was definitely not. Eager to follow her own dreams, Maria runs away to Rome but is back a year later – heavily pregnant and not saying who the father of her unborn child is. As quickly as possible, Maria Domenica ...
...younger sister had hoped to snare for herself. At first things aren’t too bad; Maria is allowed to go back to work at Caffe Angeli but the arrival of a mural painter to do some work in the bar sets tongues wagging and Maria flees San Giulio a second time, this time with her daughter, Chiara.

Decades later, Chiara, a best-selling cookery writer desperately looking for inspiration for her second book, decides that a trip to Italy might ... more

Sixteen year old Maria Domenica Carrozza manages to persuade her father to let her work in Caffe Angeli, a bar in the little village of San Giulio near Naples. It’s the 1960s and although London might have been swinging, backwater Italy was definitely not. Eager to follow her own dreams, Maria runs away to Rome but is back a year later – heavily pregnant and not saying who the father of her unborn child is. As quickly as possible, Maria Domenica is married off to a local lad, one Maria Domenica’s younger sister had hoped to snare for herself. At first things aren’t too bad; Maria is allowed to go back to work at Caffe Angeli but the arrival of a mural painter to do some work in the bar sets tongues wagging and Maria flees San Giulio a second time, this time with her daughter, Chiara.

Decades later, Chiara, a best-selling cookery writer desperately looking for inspiration for her second book, decides that a trip to Italy might be just what she needs to wind down a bit but when she meets the family her mother would never tell her about, she discovers a complicated history, a very handsome cousin and an excellent idea for a book.

Nicky Pellegrino’s “Delicious” has holiday read stamped all over it; it’s not especially challenging, features a picturesque location, some handsome young men and follows a popular, if predictable, formula. It’s disappointing that Nicky Pellegrino shows such a lack of imagination because she does write rather well. The dialogue is credible, the characters are believable and the descriptions of the food produced in the simple kitchen in the Carrozza house are simply mouth-watering. Unfortunately the plotline – young woman travels to somewhere utterly charming to learn something surprising about her ancestors – has been done to death, think Victoria Hislop’s novels “The Island” and “The Return”; if you like this kind of thing then “Delicious” is right up your street. Unfortunately, this doesn’t add anything new to the genre, even taking into account the semi-interesting bits about traditional Italian cooking. If the culinary aspect had been developed a bit more – perhaps Chiara’s grandmother could have told her about the history of the food and the reasons certain dishes are prepared in a particular way – it might have added a bit more weight to the book. This was certainly a missed opportunity and as a result the novel remained firmly within the chick lit genre when it could have garnered wider appeal.

The settings were captured well; idyllic and insular rural Italy on the one hand, impersonal, dreary Merseyside on the other. Although the Italy is meant to be the more romantic and interesting setting, I thought that the descriptions of Merseyside were very evocative, and they reminded me of 1960s “kitchen sink dramas” full of gritty realism; I could really visualise Maria Domenica bringing up her daughter in this grotty northern bedsit far away from sunny Italy. I thought the author did an impressive job of creating the ambience of an English seaside resort in winter, so good that I felt transported back to my own childhood memories of winter walks along the pier when everything was boarded up until the summer. I would have liked the picture of the Italian village to be more developed; I liked the atmospheric depiction of Caffe Angeli but not much else in the village was referred to.

Although the characters are perfectly believable I did think they were very stereotypical – the vain Italian youth, the jovial English seaside café owner, the over-bearing Italian parents. However, this wasn’t such a big problem because the plot didn’t really have enough depth for this to matter. The characterisation reflected the setting; the English characters were somewhat grey and one-dimensional, while the Italians were larger than life and much more animated. I have no idea why so much was made of the relationship between Chiara and her best friend, who she shares a flat with; at first I thought that there hints that this was more than just an enduring friendship but this turned out not to be the case and as a result I was left wondering why the author would expend so much effort setting up this ménage when it had no bearing on the overall outcome.

At times the story became silly and occasionally thoroughly incredible but these were just brief interludes and I certainly didn’t throw down the book in despair. The characters were portrayed with warmth and sensitivity and were easy to care about which made “Delicious” compelling reading. There may not have been any surprises but I did want to know whether my ideas about would happen were right. It’s light-hearted, easy reading and is quite entertaining which is likely to appeal to a range of readers such as chick lit lovers and those who enjoy family sagas. Don’t expect anything as stimulating as Victoria Hislop, this is much frothier stuff but certainly worth borrowing if you spot it in the library.

400 pages 

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