The Hundred-Foot Journey

by Richard C Morais

I have had this book for about a year but didn't get around to reading it.  Now I seen a movie version will be coming out this summer so I thought I would read it.

This is the story of a young Indian man and his family and their lives as restauranteurs and how he came to be an acclaimed French chef and restauranteur.  The family doesn't really fit in, in India.  They are Muslims. The father, a high energy, bombastic person starts with a few food wagons and then expands to build a restaurant on the border of the slums and high wealth areas.  They are very successful but suddenly the neighbours attack their restaurant and set it alight.  The boy's mother, who was much loved by her family especially her husband, is killed in the fire.  One of the boy's favourite memories of his mother is of a time he and she had lunch at a fashionable French restaurant in India.  The unique flavours impressed him.

The father decides they no longer belong in India and relocates the entire extended family to a house in London, near other family.  Things seem to go well until the young man kisses his cousin.  A rift develops between the family and the father loads up all his family and they set off on a tour of Europe.  The boy enjoys the various foods they experience.  During their travels in France they are driving through the Alps into a little village called Lumiere.  Their car breaks down in front of a French restaurant, across from a large house that is for sale.

The father decides that they will settle here and he decides to buy the house and set up an India restaurant, with his son, who has little if any cooking experience, as the head Chef. The owner of the French restaurant is outraged at these foreign interlopers and tries everything she can to intimidate them and drive them out, even threatening produce sellers if they deal with him.  When she visits the restaurant to "check out the competition" she observes the young chef wipe some spilled food back into the cooking pot.  She is appalled and is sure they will be closed by health inspectors.  But when she tastes the food she is speechless.  She realizes the young chef is a genius.

A confrontation takes place between her and the boy's father and the woman pushes the father in exasperation.  He falls against his son, who falls against the stove.  His uniform ignites and he is badly burned.  The woman comes to apologize and is rebuked.  When the son recovers and returns home.  The woman returns and offers to take the son on as an apprentice and teach him french cooking.  The father is outraged but the boy wants to do it so eventually he walks the hundred feet to the other establishment and begins his apprenticeship.

He initially is only trusted with cleaning, cutting, setting the tables, but the woman teaches and tests him and gradually he is allowed to cook.  After a few years he is offered a job at a prestigious French restaurant and as they say.... the rest is history.  He goes on to open his own restaurant using his inheritance money and with his sister as a partner.

The young man suspects that his mentor has been a silent promoter for him in his career but she always denies it.

They are very successful. The young man is awarded his first, then second and then his third Michelin Star (his mentor only ever achieved 2 stars).

It was an interesting story.  The main character is passionate about food but not all that interesting but the supporting characters, his father, his aunt, his mentor add lots of life and colour to the story.  This was a book for those who like food and a happy ending from the ashes.