For most of us, a meal is a meal. There are delicious ones, and some that aren’t, but we think of meals in terms of food. For a chef, though, a meal is much more than just the food; it’s a work of art. So, chefs design each aspect of a meal to create the final product. Whether a chef is a world-famous celebrity or simply a person who loves creating with food, a meal is an experience. And of course, chefs add seasoning to crime fiction, too.

Agatha Christie fans know that Hercule Poirot is a gourmand. He admires what skilled chefs can do. In Death on the Nile for instance, Poirot visits Chez Ma Tante, a restaurant where he is well known. The owner of the restaurant seats Poirot, and then tells him:

‘Oh, well, Jules here will compose for you a little meal that will be a poem – positively a poem!’

The two then have a conversation about what, exactly, will comprise the meal – including the right wine.  For Poirot, a truly fine meal is as much to be admired as is the finest piece of art.

Rex Stout’s Fritz Brenner is a Swiss chef whose renown is well earned. His boss, Nero Wolfe, is thoroughly knowledgeable about food, and Fritz takes great pains to be sure that the meals he creates are of the best quality. Wolfe is well known as a gourmand, to the point where, in Too Many Cooks, he is invited to a convention of the fifteen top chefs in the world. The event will take place in a West Virginia resort, so, very much against his preference, Wolfe leaves the brownstone where he lives, and Archie Goodwin accompanies him. At the conference, there’s a lot of high-level discussion about different dishes, and some fabulous creations are presented. But everything changes when one of the chefs is murdered. Wolfe has no interest in investigating, but he’s drawn into the matter.

In Madhumita Bhattacharya’s The Masala Murder, we are introduced to Reema Ray.  She’s a Kolkata/Calcutta-based PI who makes ends meet by doing freelance writing for a lifestyle magazine called Face. In this role, she has the chance to eat at the area’s finest restaurants, and she meets top chefs. One of her interviewees is gourmet food importer Prakash Agarwal. Shortly after that interview, Reema learns that he has suddenly died. There’s nothing conclusive to prove it was a murder, but there are a few things about the death that suggest it was. Face doesn’t usually run investigative stories like this, but it’s a topic of real interest to readers, and Reema is curious anyway. So, she starts to ask questions. She soon finds that plenty of people had good reason to want this victim dead.

Anthony Bidulka’s Going to Beautiful is the story of celebrity chef Jake Hardy. He and his husband, Eddie Kravets, live a good life in Toronto, where both have found real success. Then, tragically, Eddie dies of a fall from the balcony of their luxury condominium. His death turns out to be murder, so the police first have to clear Jake’s name. Once they do, Jake feels the need to get away, especially since he’s being judged and found guilty in the court of social media. Taking a cue from Eddie’s list of final wishes, Jake travels to Eddie’s hometown of Beautiful, Saskatchewan. He wants to learn about that part of Eddie’s life. While he’s there, Jake learns a lot about Eddie (including who killed him and why), and about the people of Beautiful. And, without spoiling the story, I can say that he also shares his skills and his sense of truly good food.

Jill Edmondson’s Sasha Jackson, PI, is also based in Toronto. As the series begins, she’s just breaking into the business, and she’s always grateful for the help she gets from her best friend Lindsey, and from Lindsey’s boyfriend Shane, who happens to be Sasha’s brother. Shane is a chef at an upmarket restaurant, so Sasha benefits more than once from the new dishes he tries, and sometimes, from restaurant leftovers.

There’s also Julie Hyzy’s Olivia ‘Ollie’ Paras, assistant chef at the White House. In her role, she can move around without calling a lot of attention to herself, so as she gets drawn into mysteries, she can sometimes find out things that it would be harder for others to learn.

And then of course, there are people like Martin Walker’s Benoît ‘Bruno’ Courrèges, chief of police in the small French town of St. Denis. He enforces the law, but he has other interests. One of them is cooking. He’s quite skilled at using just a few ingredients to put together delicious meals. He also takes advantage of the fact that St. Denis has a weekly market where the local bring their fresh fruits and vegetables, handmade cheeses and breads, and meat. Bruno puts together some memorable meals, even though he’s not a chef.

And there are people like that: people who see a meal as so much more than a plate of food. Just ask Andrea Camilleri’s Salvo Montalbano. He’ll tell you how valuable a good chef is. And as a gourmand, Montalbano can also tell you the best trattorias in Sicily. That’s how important a chef can be. Buon appetito!

 NOTE: The title of this post is a line from Bob Marley’s Stir it Up.