Delicious! is not a book filled with recipes. It has one recipe for a gingerbread cake with orange zest and cinnamon and such. It is at the very end of the book with numerous references along the way.

This is the first outing for Ruth Reichl as a novelist and it wasn’t a very impressive one. Delicious! tells the story of a 21-year old frumpy and lost Billie, who has great palate.

“Lemon peel,” I said, “Parmesan, saffron, spinach.” She held out another spoonful, and this time, at the very end, I tasted just a touch of …something lemony but neither lemon nor verbena. It has a faint cinnamon tinge. “Curry leaf!”

She has a past – one that gives her panic attacks when she cooks. She to peace with her past, find happiness and learn to accept the best of her.

Billie Breskin drops out of college and works for Delicious! magazine in Manhattan. This part of the book is a beautiful foodie dream read. Billie cruises along the vibrant food scene of New York. When Delicious! is unexpectedly shutdown, Billie is left to wrap up the editorial duties and she stumbles upon a secret chamber where she discovers letters (filed by a crazy librarian) from Lulu to James Beard, the legendary chef written during World War II. Billie jumps on a mission to find Lulu and deal with her past (which involves a dead mother, a brilliant sister, semi-strangled father in Santa Barbara, a wedding cake business called Cake Sisters).

The characters in the book are almost caricatures. They seem to be suspended in a world very different from the reality of New York. Billie walks around dressed frumpily because she believes she isn’t beautiful. She is almost a poor orphan lost who sends sad emails to her brilliant sister. She gets a haircut and expensive new clothes. She becomes a knockout. The other characters are equally colourful and incomprehensible. Reichl’s  narrative are filled with adjectives and forced down your throat.

He looked like an old-time professor, the generous face and oversize features framed by sparse sandy hair and punctuated by horn-rimmed glasses.

There seemed to be a disconnect – almost like there were two books forced into one. Billie’s tale without Lulu and the letters would have made a nice romantic story. Lulu and Beard letters would make a good YA read.

That said, I admit the book would make a good light-hearted read while traveling or on vacation.