Author: crystalking

“Well-written and perfectly paced” (Booklist): After Bartolomeo Scappi dies in Renaissance Italy, his nephew, Giovanni, inherits the legendary chef’s coded writings — and uncovers a tale of deception, forbidden love, and murder. “This rich tale should satisfy the appetites of fans of historicals” (Publishers Weekly).

Set amongst the scandal, wealth, and upstairs-downstairs politics of a Roman family, Crystal King’s seminal debut features the man who inspired the world’s oldest cookbook and the ambition that led to his destruction. On a blistering day in the twenty-sixth year of Augustus Caesar’s reign, a young chef, Thrasius, is acquired for the exorbitant price of twenty thousand denarii. His purchaser is … purchaser is the infamous gourmet Marcus Gavius Apicius, wealthy beyond measure, obsessed with a taste for fine meals from exotic places, and a singular ambition: to serve as culinary advisor to Caesar, an honor that will cement…