You Can Hear Chopin from the Attic: In Food

A selection of my favourite dishes discovered while researching my latest novel, You Can Hear Chopin from the Attic…

First of all — hello, it’s been ages! It has been nothing short of eventful since the last time I posted on this website. Not least because the website itself has had something of a revamp. And then there was the attention I was giving my social media channels — particularly Instagram and Facebook. Not to mention the small matter of losing my job back in March…

And after a few weeks of trying to recover emotionally, mentally, psychologically, financially, and the rest, I have decided I can’t rest on my laurels forever. So it’s time to start firing from all cylinders content-wise again. Even more than we were before. Not just on this website and the socials, but I’ve decided to finally get onto YouTube properly. So expect to see some stuff coming up on there regularly moving forward. And then, once we’re in a position to do it properly, a brand-new podcast, themed around writing and storytelling, will also be produced.

Anyway, enough pre-amble. Here’s something related to the new book that you might enjoy.

Favourite Dishes from the New Book

You Can Hear Chopin from the Attic is in the early work-in-progress stages. That is to say I have drafted the first six chapters. Reason it took so long was the amount of in-depth research that went into it. The least of which was reading d’Almeida’s High Society in the Third Reich from cover to cover. An invaluable resource for this novel if ever there was one. For one thing, it gave me proper authentic insight into what food and drink was on the menus at the luxury hotels in Berlin in Nazi Germany.

The 60-odd page plan for the novel contains at least two pages dedicated purely to menu items that will feature at points during the story. And the foodie and former restaurant critic in me just couldn’t resist sharing a few of my favourites with you. As you will find in the gallery below:

…So I may have been a teensy bit dishonest with you there. Three of those nine are, in fact, deliberate odd ones out. I have another project on the go for uni, and so a handful of dishes from that made their way in here. It may be obvious which ones are which, but I’d still love to see if you can guess. And also tell me which of the nine you’d order in a restaurant.

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