Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel

Peppered with recipes, remedies and folky digressions, this novel is a treat. The heroine of this fantastical love story, Tita, the youngest of three Mexican daughters, is expected to devote her life to her widowed mother. When her lover, Pedro, asks her to marry him, her mother denies her permission and offers Rosaura, her sister, instead. Pedro accepts in hopes of living close to Tita, but she is unaware of his intentions. When her tears get baked into the cake, and everyone has a slice, they are moved--emotionally, erotically, and physically. ~review

About the Author

Originally published in 1990, Like Water for Chocolate, won Laura Esquivel international acclaim. The film based on the the book, with a screen play by Laura Esquivel, swept the Ariel Awards of the Mexican Academy of Motion Pictures, winning eleven in all, and then went on to

become the largest grossing foreign film ever released in the United States. In 1994, Like Water for Chocolate won the prestigious ABBY award, which is given annually by the American Booksellers Association to the book the members of the organization most enjoyed hand-selling. The book has been translated into thirty languages and there are over three million copies in print worldwide. Esquivel lives in Mexico City, Mexico. ~Salon Magazine Interview with Laura Esquivel

What does being "like water for chocolate" mean?

The book offers nothing further, but I feel something which has become my answer. I am like water for chocolate. I have been beaten, and boiled, and beaten again, and again - put through the crucible of the stove three times. Tita was heated to the point of boiling over, then beaten, then heated again, and beaten again. (Yes, in the story, every time she manages to take one good step forward in life something comes along and beats her back even further.) ~by Jesse Friedman

An Appetite for Passion Cookbook

Celebrities and restaurateurs, offer inventive recipes inspired by the film, Like Water for Chocolate, accompanied by a foreword by Laura Esquivel and quotes about food and love from famous writers. 25,000 first printing.