10 Booker-nominated books that are perfect for foodies

Some authors can make us feel hungry with words alone, vividly describing dishes that will make your mouth water. Food in books often has a symbolic meaning, too, used to express love, gain favour, or to portray a sense of cultural identity or comfort. 

Whether it’s a classic roast turkey dinner, an eccentric dish of otter with lobster sauce, or a mundane meal of kipper fillets garnished with lemon juice, these 10 Booker-nominated novels describe a range of delicious, unusual and, on occasion, disastrous meals. We’ve even suggested recipes to complement each book, inspired by the dishes they describe  – some we recommend you try at your own risk. 

Cooking with Fernet Branca by James Hamilton-Paterson

A satire set in the hills of Tuscany, Cooking with Fernet Branca tells the story of snobbish Gerald Samper, a ghostwriter of celebrity memoirs, whose true goal is to become a gourmet chef. He invents an array of bizarre concoctions with questionable ingredients, from mussels cooked in chocolate and soy sauce to the book’s namesake, the bitter Italian liqueur Fernet Branca combined with garlic-flavoured ice cream. 

Gerald forces his culinary creations onto his eccentric neighbour, film composer Marta, who has her own unusual tastes. The two characters describe their experiences in alternating sections as they contend with outlandish events and strange interlopers, ranging from Salvic gangsters to boy-band frontmen.

The book was longlisted for the Booker Prize in 2004. Christopher Hirst from the Independent said that ‘Hamilton-Paterson pulls off some fine comic set-pieces… But it is the recipes that linger in the mind. The “single drop of household paraffin” added to Alien Pie is a truly ghastly touch.’

Goes well with: cantina band, mussels with guinness

The Sea, The Sea by Iris Murdoch

Retired theatre director Charles Arrowby is fed up with London life and seeks refuge in an isolated house called Shruff End on the British coast. He is intending to write his memoir, but his solitude is disrupted when his old childhood sweetheart, Mary Hartley Fitch, makes an unexpected appearance. Determined to win her back, Arrowby becomes obsessive and controlling as tragic events transpire, making him question everything.

Arrowby often tells us about his quirky meals for the day, things like anchovy paste on hot buttered toast, bananas and cream with white sugar, and Welsh rarebit with hot beetroot. He wonders if he should create a four-minute cookbook and believes that one of the secrets of a happy life is continuous small treats. 

According to Valerie Stivers in The Paris Review, the meals described in The Sea, The Sea were what Murdoch and her husband, John Bayley, actually ate. Murdoch’s biographer Peter J. Conradi explained that the couple had ‘aristocratic disdain for food, but they were avid hosts and enjoyers of life.’

The novel won the Booker Prize in 1978. Sophia Martelli in the Guardian said, ‘Murdoch’s subtly, blackly humorous digs at human vanity and self-delusion periodically build into waves of hilarity, and Arrowby is a brilliant creation: a deeply textured, intriguing yet unreliable narrator, and one of the finest character studies of the 20th century.’

Goes well with: summer rarebit

The Eighth Life by Nino Haratischvili, translated by Charlotte Collins and Ruth Martin

Centred around a secret elixir for making hot chocolate, The Eighth Life spans a turbulent and violent century in the then Soviet Union. Set in Georgia, this 900-page family saga details the lives of several generations of the Jashi family, with each chapter dedicated to a particular family member. Boyd Tonkin from the Financial Times described the novel as ‘a lavish banquet of family stories that can, for all their sorrows, be devoured with gluttonous delight.’ 

Originally written in German and longlisted for the International Booker Prize 2020, the story begins with a chocolatier, the great-great-grandfather of the narrator, Niza. He creates an addictive recipe that’s described as causing a ‘stupefying … sense of bliss,’ yet is also said to curse anyone who drinks it. Never shared outside the family and never written down, the secret recipe passes down through the generations with tragic results. As Niza tells the family’s history to her 12-year-old niece Brilka, she hopes the young girl will break the concoction’s curse. 

Goes well with: hot chocolate

Last Letters from Hav by Jan Morris

Last Letters from Hav is a travelogue about a fictional city imagined by Jan Morris, who creates a world that’s often mistaken for being real. In fact, the novel confused travel agents when it was first published, after they received requests from travellers wanting to visit the made-up city.

Shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1985, the novel is narrated by the author herself, as Morris pens a series of letters about the mysterious place. Her six-month visit sees her observing the unusual culture and history of Hav, creating a detailed description of its identity. 

While devoid of plot, the book serves as a study into a Mediterranean city-state that’s rumoured to be the site of Troy, while also entertaining visits from the likes of Tolstoy and Princess Diana. Providing rich details of the utopia, Morris describes examples of local delicacies, including snow raspberries, considered to be an expensive luxury, and a traditional goat stew that’s served to Morris by the indigenous Kretevs.

Celebrated science fiction author, Ursula K. Le Guin wrote an introduction to an updated version of the book, saying that it read as a ‘brilliant description of the crossroads of the west and east in two recent eras, viewed by a woman who has truly seen the world, and who lives in it with twice the intensity of most of us.’

Goes well with: caribbean goat curry, raspberry sorbet

Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico, translated by Sophie Hughes

Shortlisted for the International Booker Prize in 2025, Perfection follows the lives of millennial expat couple Anna and Tom. Living in Berlin as digital nomads, they find themselves falling prey to the comparison that social media brings, all while trying to live a life that feels truly satisfying. 

‘This book really infects you, but without any of the usual techniques of a novel. It eschews traditional storytelling techniques in place of an almost clinical or sociological deep-dive into the trappings of contemporary life,’ said the judges of the International Booker Prize 2025.

Translated from Italian and containing no dialogue, the book features vibrant descriptions of the couple’s aesthetically pleasing life, including their highly curated kitchen filled with trendy appliances and an endless supply of different herbs on their windowsill. The two are at the forefront of online trends in cooking techniques and ingredients, along with many of their contemporaries.

Johanna Thomas-Corr from the Times called it ‘a devastating critique of aspirational consumerism and personal branding, of a generation’s “identical struggle for a different life”, in a world where the principal means of expressing their agency is through food and fonts.’ 

Goes well with: roasted cauliflower