The House of the Spirits, Allende's debut novel published in 1982, became a bestseller and won much critical acclaim. Written partly in the magic realist tradition of the so-called Latin Boom, partly as a social and political representation of the Chilean post-revolution reality, the novel is a semi-autobiographical view of four generations of women.

Paula (1997) is the story Allende intends to tell her daughter if she ever wakes up from a coma. She tells Paula about the kooky relatives she has, about the demise of Salvador Allende, and about growing up in Lebanon and Chile. Amidst the sadness, Allende also tells about her personal love affairs as well as her tale of becoming a writer.

Laura Esquivel’s first novel of 1990, Like Water for Chocolate: A Novel in Monthly Installments, With Recipes, Romances and Home Remedies, was a run-away bestseller in Mexico. The novel, set in Mexico around 1900, tells of Tita De La Garza who, as the eldest daughter, must remain single to care for her mother. Therefore, she is reared by the cook, Nacha, and knows all the recipes of the family. But romance cannot be kept from her or her cooking.

Salman Rushdie's 1980 Booker Prize-winning Midnight's Children is an epic novel about the partition of India by the British in 1947. At the stroke of midnight, two children are born into this new divided world. Their life stories in India revolve around the daily happenings of their separate households and the way those households revolve around food.

The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover (1990) is a lush, colorful, and often gruesome film by Peter Greenaway about love, lust, cruelty and cannibalism. The film stars Helen Mirren and features magnificent costumes by designer Jean-Paul Gaultier.

Elizabeth Nash delves into the archive in Plaisirs D'Amour: An Erotic Guide to the Senses to reveal the secrets of historical sex icons. Amidst the detailed discussions of the varying qualities of aphrodisiacs and biographical notes on Limt, Courbet, and Rembrandt, the guide includes reprints of selections from Anais Nin and Sappho.