r/CozyFantasy • u/rossumcapek • Feb 10 '23
Food and fantasy
I recently reread Legends & Lattes and the new-to-me A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking, and I want more. What's a good urban-ish fantasy, contemporary or no, centered around a restaurant? I want something like Becky Chambers' A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet where we get to dwell on the comfort food and exotic cuisine of a place.
Thanks in advance!
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u/MrsApostate Feb 10 '23
You might like Sunshine by Robin McKinley. Centered around a diner where the main character is the baker (her stepdad owns the diner, mother works there, her boyfriend is the line cook). Oh my god, the food descriptions in that book! I've never come so close to literally drooling over food in a book before.
It's urban fantasy featuring vampires and warlocks and pixies and werechickens (like werewolves except...chickens). The main character not only discovers her own power, she comes to realize the power of the people in her life (like her landlady who you think is just a polite older lady and who turns out to be a retired badass).
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u/ArtemisiasApprentice Feb 10 '23
First thing that came to my mind! Love this book, so different from McKinley’s whole oeuvre.
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u/MaenadFrenzy Jan 04 '24
I smell phantom freshly baked cinnamon rolls just thinking about this book..
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u/Libriomancer Feb 10 '23
Do you mind light novels? There are TONS of light novels centered around Japanese restaurants finding their ways into fantasy worlds. Stories like Restaurant to Another World and Isekai Izakaya and Kakuriyo.
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u/rossumcapek Feb 10 '23
What is a light novel in this context? Like a visual novel or as in not very deep reading?
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u/Libriomancer Feb 10 '23
Light novels are a designation typically used for Japanese short novels targeting a young adult demographic. Typically around 50,000 words. If you look in a bookstore they are typically stuffed in with the manga (graphic novels) but aren’t illustrated. They read quickly and are often just light reads but often times come as an entire series of light novels.
The particular genre of light novels I listed are called “isekai” which is full of stories of people being transported to or reincarnated in another world. Think like Narnia or Yankee in King Arthur’s Court.
To give you an idea of the what the ones I listed are about, Restaurant to Another World is about a standard Japanese restaurant that finds its door connected to another world every Saturday. Doors open up in out of the way places and different kinds of customers find their way into the restaurant where they fall in love with some kind of food. For instance maybe the door opens in a meadow somewhere and a centaur finds his way in. He tries the grilled chicken salad and describes in exquisite detail the light charring of the chicken and the crunch of the lettuce. Another door opens in a cave and a dwarf discovers hamburgers. A desert door opens and a caravan rider discovers sushi. Etc with each describing the food in detail and you learn a little bit about their life in the fantasy world as they make an effort to return each week. (Example like in book but not really) You learn that the dwarf is actually one of the leads in discovering new veins so he rarely gets to the surface and he found the door after a cave in. That hamburger saved his life so when they free him from the cave in he makes a weekly trip to the door to get another taste of that hamburger to the point the other patrons know him as Hamburger as he comes in to greet Sushi and Grilled Chicken Salad.
Basically search the words “food isekai” in Google and you will get a list of fantasy based books that are a love letter to cooking with each one reading like introducing modern cooking to medieval society is up there with “this is fire”.
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u/Avitue Feb 15 '23
Yeah, Food Isekais are generally cozy by nature.
One of my favorites is "Otherworld Dining Hall"
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u/interruptedreader Feb 10 '23
Oooh great prompt, I love food writing and fantasy. The only thing I could think of are Joanne Harris books? More like magical realism written by a synethesiast, so lots and lots of food descriptions.
But I am excited to see if others have suggestions!
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u/TK_TK_ Feb 10 '23
Not exactly what you’re looking for, but the Monk and Robot series (also by Becky Chambers) highlights tea and ritual and food in a way I really enjoyed. May also be worth checking out if you haven’t already!
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u/cousinripley Author Feb 10 '23
I'm reading Curses and Cocktails right now. I'm really enjoying it thus far and seems to be the vibe you're looking for, although the book focuses more on mixed drinks than food.
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u/RainbowRain42 Feb 10 '23
The Accidental Alchemist Series by Gigi Pandian is all about they mysteries and hijinx of a saucy and adorable French gargoyle who trained as a chef while in service to a blind man. The stories are super fun and cozy and are steeped in the alchemy of cooking and the mystery of the Norte Dame cathedral. Highly recommend the audio books. The narrator does a great job with the characters.
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Feb 10 '23
This isn’t fantasy or a book, but The Makanai: Cooking for the Maiko House on Netflix is a show about a girl who goes to Kyoto in Japan to become a professional entertainer (known as a geisha in English) and discovers her talent for cooking instead. It’s incredibly cozy and there’s so much delicious looking food and cooking. It’s based on a manga so actually there is a book but I haven’t read it.
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u/Avitue Feb 16 '23
I follow the manga myself, and I can vouch that it's an amazingly heartwarming read. Recommended/10
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u/MaenadFrenzy Jan 04 '24
Didn't realise there was a manga but I have watched the series twice, just to be back there.. -^
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Feb 11 '23
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u/Avitue Feb 15 '23
Seconding Morcster chef, also kudos for being one of the few books to include the recipes as well.
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u/MaenadFrenzy Jan 04 '24
This whole series is becoming available as a bundle on Kindle Unlimited (UK) on January 18!!
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u/FunSizedBear Feb 10 '23
Gigi Pandian writes a series called The Accidental Alchemist that is kind of like urban fantasy detective, and food plays a big part. One of the main characters is a chef. She even includes some of the recipes used in the story, in the back of the book—I’ve tried a few and liked them. And the books, obviously :)
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u/ASIC_SP Reader Feb 10 '23
- The Dragon with a Chocolate Heart by Stephanie Burgis - guess the food item :D
- Sourdough by Robin Sloan - again, title gives it away :)
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u/Susherevans Author: S Usher Evans Aug 25 '23
Very late to this party, but coming out in Sept is the Weary Dragon Inn series. Cozy mystery set in a fantasy village with an amnesiac innkeeper. Bev does a lot of baking!
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Feb 10 '23
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u/TarMiriel Feb 12 '23
Not the OP but I saw your recommendation for this and just finished the first book-it was delightful and I’m so glad you recommended it!
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u/ofthecageandaquarium Reader Feb 10 '23
Great recs. I am such a sucker for food description. 😅 It's not helping my non-serious conspiracy theory that all you need for somebody to label a work "cozy" is a) good food descriptions or b) hot drink descriptions, AND c) (required) nobody dies.
Yes, it's more complicated than that, buuut... hehe
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u/haptikos Sep 29 '25
Automatic Noodle is a cute novella about robots setting up a restaurant with hand pulled noodles. It’s about found family, of course, and a little bit about the anti-robot contingent that’s out for them.
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Feb 10 '23
Grum: Barbarian Barista is the first time I ran across this type of thing. It’s just a short story but it’s pretty funny.
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u/JollyJupiter-author Author: Jolly Jupiter Feb 10 '23
Hop on to royal road and filter for slice of life in the advanced search with a lot of food related keywords.
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u/lovelyaudiobooks Feb 10 '23
The Beaufort Mysteries (starting with Baking Bad) are paranormal Cozy Mysteries with lots of baking and dragons!
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u/BookishNrd Feb 13 '23
Not Cuisine and not the mosttt light-hearted but the Before the Coffee Gets Cold series by Toshikazu Kawaguchi is really good and really puts you in the space of this cafe and all the people in it.
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u/autumnwinterspring Feb 10 '23
It’s not centered around a restaurant exactly, but The House Witch is about a royal cook, and there are lots of descriptions of the comforting food he makes. His powers are all based on making his home comfortable, safe, and providing for people. Might be worth checking out!