7 New Novels for People Who Love Eating

This breeze-right-through-it cozy mystery follows baker Lila Macapagal as she investigates the murder of her ex-boyfriend, the town’s too-mean food critic, after he dies over a meal in her aunt’s flailing Filipino restaurant. Dishes like almondigas, lumpia, ube crinkle cookies, and calamansi-ginger pie will tempt readers as they float through the novel to find out whether or not Lila and her friends and family can solve the crime and save the restaurant.

Chef Dante doesn’t put up with any picky eaters: He’s famous for a reason—his cooking—and he’s not interested in people coming to his restaurant if they’re not going to eat what he wants to cook. But then he meets Lizzie, who finds herself off the Italian coast to get some space (she hopes) away from her hardships. Picky is a good word for Lizzie, who prefers hamburgers and fries to Dante’s roasted turbot with persimmon coulis and lamb-tongue ravioli, and the two certainly don’t expect to fall for each other. But, of course, they do.

What happens when two teens whose parents own rival Vietnamese restaurants are forbidden from interacting with each other? In Loan Le’s debut novel, they have a chance encounter and the rest, of course, is history. In this sweet Romeo-and-Juliet-style young adult romance, Linh Mai and Bảo Nguyễn try to stay loyal to their families, their communities, and their parents’ versions of phở and banh xeo, while also finding their own passions outside of the restaurants.

Pen Prado doesn’t always understand her father, but she does know his restaurant—known just as much for her coconut cake as his taco menu—is where she belongs. And then she gets fired. Faced with her mistakes and working to find a new balance between independence and community, Pen is struggling when she meets Xander Amaro. The two find solace and hope in food and young love as they navigate their lives—the loan shark threatening local businesses, Pen’s mental health, Xander’s immigration status—and learn to trust each other, bolstered by Pen’s baking and the antics of the restaurant community around them.

As Rosalie Iron Wing, now a widow, leaves her husband’s farm to return home, this beautiful novel traces her story and her family’s history through the perspective of four women across generations, who have loved, lost, and fought to retain their Dakota culture and have, above all, always made sure to protect the seeds that sustain them. From Diane Wilson, the executive director for the Native American Food Sovereignty Alliance, this immersive book is as much a love letter to the earth and what it gives us as it is to Rosalie’s family.