ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the food book as a literary genre and how its variations engage the national readership of the Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan Book Club. It presents the way in which the food book interacts with the cultural context. The chapter considers the development of food books as a popular genre and the importance of the culinary text as part of a system of consumerist consumption. It discusses the way in which the idea of authentic culinary memory might be exploited and commodified. The chapter examines how the Richard & Judy Book Club acts as instrumental in the establishment of a national readership that values a sense of British tradition as embellished or fabricated as it might be as the most attractive element of culinary storytelling. Although inevitably connected to the physiological aspect of taste, food memories seem to involve a variety of historicized experiences that touch on elements such as nostalgia and cultural knowledge.
