Food-Lit???

I noticed that I seem to have a new passion. I love books and I love to cook so I don't know why it surprises me that I love them together. No, I'm not talking about cook books, or even non-fiction books by chefs. Food has always played a central role in fiction, but this is something new. According to Answers.com, there is an emerging trend in American literature of 'Food and Social Healing.' I'm talking about books like those by Sarah Addison Allen, Nancy Spiller, Erica Bauermeister, etc. Books that take food to a whole new level. Not food playing a central role in the novel, but food as the novel. Food that transforms relationships and lives.

Did it all stem from Frances Mayes's Under the Tuscan Sun? Was that the inspiration for this sudden flood of delicious goodness? I don't know. (Although that wasn't quite fiction... well, the movie was but I'm digressing. )

I don't know whether there's a name for this genre or not, but I'm going to call it Food-Lit. ~And I'm loving it!

"Since people first put ink to parchment, food has proven an inspiration, a plot device, a method of revealing character in poetry and literature. "
~Marina Gordon

If anyone has any thoughts on this, be sure to chime in.