Friend of the Devil
by Mark Spivak
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GENRE: Thriller (Culinary)
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BLURB:
In 1990 some critics believe that
America’s most celebrated chef, Joseph Soderini di Avenzano, cut a deal with
the Devil to achieve fame and fortune. Whether he is actually Bocuse or
Beelzebub, Avenzano is approaching the 25th anniversary of his glittering Palm
Beach restaurant, Chateau de la Mer, patterned after the Michelin-starred
palaces of Europe.
Journalist David Fox arrives in Palm Beach to interview the chef for a story on the restaurant’s silver jubilee. He quickly becomes involved with Chateau de la Mer’s hostess, unwittingly transforming himself into a romantic rival of Avenzano. The chef invites Fox to winter in Florida and write his authorized biography. David gradually becomes sucked into the restaurant’s vortex: shipments of cocaine coming up from the Caribbean; the Mafia connections and unexplained murder of the chef’s original partner; the chef’s ravenous ex-wives, swirling in the background like a hidden coven. As his lover plots the demise of the chef, Fox tries to sort out hallucination and reality while Avenzano treats him like a feline’s catnip-stuffed toy.
Journalist David Fox arrives in Palm Beach to interview the chef for a story on the restaurant’s silver jubilee. He quickly becomes involved with Chateau de la Mer’s hostess, unwittingly transforming himself into a romantic rival of Avenzano. The chef invites Fox to winter in Florida and write his authorized biography. David gradually becomes sucked into the restaurant’s vortex: shipments of cocaine coming up from the Caribbean; the Mafia connections and unexplained murder of the chef’s original partner; the chef’s ravenous ex-wives, swirling in the background like a hidden coven. As his lover plots the demise of the chef, Fox tries to sort out hallucination and reality while Avenzano treats him like a feline’s catnip-stuffed toy.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
EXCERPT:
Several
years after the opening of Chateau de la Mer, the triumvirate of Avenzano,
Walsh and Ross appeared to be one big happy family, although there were rumors
of strains in the relationship. One night, at the height of the Festival of
Champagne, there was an incident. Ross, a notorious womanizer, was sipping
Cristal with a redhead at the restaurant’s corner table. His wife slipped
through the front door of the mansion, unannounced. Walking slowly through the
dining room, past the Medieval memorabilia and dramatic cast-iron griffins, she
strolled up to Ross’s table, took a revolver from her evening bag, and calmly
shot him through the heart.
The
ensuing chaos did more to establish Joseph Soderini di Avenzano in the American
imagination than his designer pasta, his Bedouin-stuffed poussin, his recipes
transposed from Etruscan or Old Genoese, or his library of 10,000 cookbooks.
This was more than a good meal, after all. This was sex and death in Palm
Beach. Even more intriguing was the Chef’s refusal to comment on Ross after his
death, except for informal and effusive eulogies in his famous baritone.
“Watch
that Cristal,” David’s friend Bill Grimaldi told him before he left Manhattan
to do an assigned story on the 25th anniversary of Chateau de la Mer. “It’s a
killer.”
AUTHOR Bio and Links:
Mark Spivak is an
award-winning writer specializing in wine, spirits, food, restaurants and
culinary travel. He was the wine writer for the Palm Beach Post from 1994-1999,
and was honored by the Academy of Wine Communications for excellence in wine
coverage “in a graceful and approachable style.” Since 2001 has been the Wine
and Spirits Editor for the Palm Beach Media Group; his running commentary on
the world of food, wine and spirits is available at the Global Gourmet blog on
www.palmbeachillustrated.com. He is the holder of the Certificate and Advanced
diplomas from the Court of Master Sommeliers.
Mark’s work has appeared in
National Geographic Traveler, Robb Report, Men’s Journal, Art & Antiques,
the Continental and Ritz-Carlton magazines, Arizona Highways and Newsmax. He is
the author of Iconic Spirits: An Intoxicating History (Lyons Press, 2012) and
Moonshine Nation: The Art of Creating Cornbread in a Bottle (Lyons Press,
2014). His first novel, Friend of the Devil, is published by Black Opal Books.
Website:
http://www.markspivakbooks.com
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4659831.Mark_Spivak?from_search=true&search_version=service
https://www.facebook.com/mark.spivak.3
Amazon author page URL
Barnes and Noble Author URL
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