The Hundred Foot Journey

Richard Morais

   Richard Morais, the author,  has traveled the world, in the company of millionaires. He was a correspondent for Forbes magazine, and is now the editor of Barron's Penta, a quarterly magazine, offering insights and advice to wealthy families. In addition to his unusual business stories, he has written a biography of Pierre Cardin.  Obviously he must have experienced a great deal of 'haute cuisine' in his travels because his first novel is filled with culinary delights.

   

   
Richard's great friend Ismail Merchant, was a film producer who intended to make the book into a film.  Unfortunately, Merchant died before the book was finished. However, the film was made, thanks to Oprah Winfrey and Stephen Spielberg.  But some of the reviews are not great.
  John Patterson, based in Los Angeles, writing in "The Guardian", has this to say about the movie: "Cute foodie movie leaves a sour taste.  Lasse Hallstrom's latest piece of food porn will only be popular among critics looking to ram more metaphors down our throats."



  
   Speaking of metaphors, Richard Morais is the 'master of metaphors'. and I love them!  This definitely is a 'foodie' book.  There are dozens of foods that I have never heard of.  I knew foie gras and haute cuisine but that is all.  The book has a strong theme of family- three generations of chefs.
   The characters are interesting, the setting is fascinating, the plot moves along nicely and the language is great!  I really enjoyed the novel.

   I knew that the movie would have a different focus and so I was not disappointed in the differences.  But the setting didn't seem real and the dialogue was difficult to follow at times- with the Indian accent mingled in with lots of French words.  It was an enjoyable movie- but, once again, I enjoyed the book more.