LIVES OF NOTORIOUS COOKS + (Signed and Numbered Bookplate)

Lives of Notorious Cooks is a set of 51 fictional biographies of great chefs, dating from pre-history to the final days of World War I. These biographies, fantastical in character, often decadent, range from an ancient Greek whose specialty is lentils to a French king who liked nothing better than to prepare ortolans. Taoist sages brush shoulders with excessive Italians, and the skills of the magnificent cooks of Baghdad are displayed alongside those of an ex-slave from Tennessee.

Connell conjures up several dozen cooks’ “biographies,” bringing into play equal measures of humor and erudition. These short pieces represent virtually all cultures and eras. A Spartan chef dedicates his life to lentil cookery. A Japanese swordsman, perhaps too preoccupied with fast food, has an encounter with a demon whom he turns into chopsticks. A clearly unhinged French chef cooks on the front lines at the Battle of the Somme. Connell fashions a wonderfully realized version of the invention of mapo doufu, one of China’s most celebrated dishes. A Baghdad pastry chef bakes sweets that animate even the dead. An ex-slave becomes a renowned railroad dining-car chef. Anyone who’s ever studied Renaissance menus will laugh out loud at Connell’s sumptuously outlandish list of dishes served at a papal lunch. Avid foodies may exploit Connell’s fantasies as entertainment to regale fellow diners following an especially boozy repast. --Mark Knoblauch