Cooking for Picasso: A Novel

Cooking for Picasso: A Novel

For readers of Paula McLain, Nancy Horan, and Melanie Benjamin, this captivating novel is inspired by a little-known interlude in the artistâ€™s life.

â€œA tasty blend of romance, mystery, and French cooking.â€â€”Margaret Atwood, via Twitter

The French Riviera, spring 1936: Itâ€™s off-season in the lovely seaside village of Juan-les-Pins, where seventeen-year-old Ondine cooks with her mother in the kitchen of their family-owned CafÃ© Paradis. A mysterious new patron whoâ€™s slipped out of Paris and is traveling under a different name has made an unusual requestâ€”to have his lunch served to him at the nearby villa heâ€™s secretly rented, where he wishes to remain incognito.

Pablo Picasso is at a momentous crossroads in his personal and professional lifeâ€”and for him, art and women are always entwined. The spirited Ondine, chafing under her familyâ€™s authority and nursing a broken heart, is just beginning to discover her own talents and appetites. Her encounter with Picasso will continue to affect her life for many decades onward, as the great artist and the talented young chef each pursue their own passions and destiny.

New York, present day: CÃ©line, a Hollywood makeup artist whoâ€™s come home for the holidays, learns from her mother, Julie, that Grandmother Ondine once cooked for Picasso. Prompted by her motherâ€™s enigmatic stories and the hint of more family secrets yet to be uncovered, CÃ©line carries out Julieâ€™s wishes and embarks on a voyage to the very town where Ondine and Picasso first met. In the lush, heady atmosphere of the CÃ´te dâ€™Azur, and with the help of several eccentric fellow guests attending a rigorous cooking class at her hotel, CÃ©line discovers truths about art, culture, cuisine, and love that enable her to embrace her own future.

Featuring an array of both fictional characters and the French Rivieraâ€™s most famous historical residents, set against the breathtaking scenery of the South of France, Cooking for Picasso is a touching, delectable, and wise story, illuminating the powers of trust, money, art, and creativity in the choices that men and women make as they seek a path toward love, success, and joie de vivre.

Praise for Cooking for Picasso

â€œIntrigue, art, food, and deception are woven together in a tale of love and betrayal around the life and legacy of Picasso. Touching and true, this well-written narrative made me long for my motherâ€™s coq au vin and for the sun of Juan-les-Pins.â€â€”Jacques PÃ©pin, chef, TV personality, author
Country USA
Manufacturer Ballantine Books
Binding Kindle Edition
ReleaseDate 2016-08-09
Format Kindle eBook

Country	USA
Manufacturer	Ballantine Books
Binding	Kindle Edition
ReleaseDate	2016-08-09
Format	Kindle eBook

Cooking for Picasso: A Novel

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