Aphrodite

‘Isabel Allende’s wonderfully sexy new book, is a marvellous concoction. Enjoy it.’ Carolyn Hart, Marie Claire

This book of recipes, sensuous stories, aphrodisiacs and lovers’ spells is an irresistible fusion of Allende’s favourite things. Lavishly illustrated, this fascinating, personal guide to all things erotic encompasses a multicultural history of seduction through food; ancient and modern stories and poems about sex and eating; titillating recipes and advice. Chapter titles include: Cooking in the Nude; The Spell of Smell; Death by Perfume; Table Manners; With the Tip of the Tongue; The Orgy; Sins of the Flesh; Love Potions, and Sauces and Other Essential Fluids.

‘Just as the pleasures of eating can replace the pleasures of sex, so reading about food can provoke as much satisfaction as flicking through some soft porn. Isabel Allende’s charming new book aims to reconcile the two appetites, offering sensual recipes to tempt jaded palates. I don’t think her collection of tips and stories is meant to be swallowed too seriously; these are titbits for grazers; amuse-gueules in the French tradition. Not a pot-boiler; rather, a spicy word-salad... Telling stories, playing verbal games and flirting with words like shuttlecocks, these are the real turn-on for Allende. In between offering up light, well-flavoured reminiscences sauced with humour she imparts a certain amount of kitchen lore and suggests new ways to make roast chicken romantic; one technique is to call the bird Valentino.... a delightful book, juicy with affectionately prepared vignettes that turn out well every time like an expert chef’s soufflés.’
Michèle Roberts, The Times

“A paean to living”
ROS DAVIDSON, 'Scotland on Sunday'

“Just as the pleasures of eating can replace the pleasures of sex, so reading about food can provoke as much satifaction as flicking through some soft porn. Isabel Allende’s charming new book aims to reconcilethe two appetites, offering sensual recipes to tempt jaded palates. Not a pot-boiler; rather, a spicy word-salad ... a delightful book, juicy with affectionately prepared vignettes that turn out well every time like an expert chef’s souffles.”
MICHELE ROBERTS, 'The Times'

“Both splendid and disconcerting ... In her succulent study of erotology and foodstuffs, whether the spirited Chilean novelist Isabel Allende is breakfasting on sea snake or describing a vibrator that plays Viennese waltzes, her focus is upon pleasure rather than fertility. 'Aphrodite' is a spellbinding work, and is insistently practical: many of the recipes have been tested on volunteers ... Quoting writers from Catullus to Neruda, the text is partly anthological, with much detail of musk, cinnamon and sea urchin ... tempered with humour. There are digressions on shellfish, the language of flowers and sultanic seraglios. The recipes themselves include an Easter Island stew cooked deep within the beach (lepers are served first), a Reconciliation Soup (the author’s own brew, for when things go wrong), plus Adam’s Nuts, Beef Stock, Widower’s Figs, a mousse called Artichoke Whisper and – to round it off – the precise way to make Catherine the Great’s breakfast omelette (“Spoon on the caviar, and beside this triumph place the sour cream and warm toast”). Pardon me while my teeth grab another leg from the kitchen table.”
DAVID PROFUMO, 'Daily Telegraph'

“The angels who inhabit Allende’s previous books here turn into alluring aromas, mystifying the air. The spirits she worships are never actual spectral presences; but metaphors, and the metaphor’s magical purpose is to entrap in words a feeling which remains invisible, averse to dull articulation. The most lubricious oral pleasure in 'Aphrodite' is that afforded by language, goading our saliva glands to squirt at her description of entirely notional meals, she transports us to an altogether more agreeable place ; a paradise of language.”
PETER CONRAD, 'Observer'

“A book to treasure and saviour.”
DIONA GREGORY, 'Independent on Sunday'