A Taste for Love Read online

  About the Book

  Alice loves to cook. She believes the secret of good food is to cook with passion.

  Her love affair with cookery has taken her from her parents’ seaside hotel, to Paris and then one of Dublin’s finest restaurants. Then she marries Liam, and is happy to hang up her chef’s hat and cook for her family and friends instead.

  But now she’s cooking for one!

  Her marriage to Liam over, it’s high time she learned to stand on her own two feet and begin again… Urged on by her friends Alice decides to open a cookery school.

  The Martello School of Cookery opens its doors and Alice begins to teach a group of total strangers to create food that is delicious. And in the comfort of the kitchen these strangers find that there is much to learn, not just about baking and sautéing – but about recipes for life…

  By the number one bestselling author of Mother of the Bride.

  Contents

  Cover

  About the Book

  Title page

  Dedication

  Acknowledgements

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Chapter Forty

  Chapter Forty-One

  Chapter Forty-Two

  Chapter Forty-Three

  Chapter Forty-Four

  Chapter Forty-Five

  Chapter Forty-Six

  Chapter Forty-Seven

  Chapter Forty-Eight

  Chapter Forty-Nine

  Chapter Fifty

  Chapter Fifty-One

  Chapter Fifty-Two

  Chapter Fifty-Three

  Chapter Fifty-Four

  Chapter Fifty-Five

  About the Author

  Also by Marita Conlon-McKenna

  Copyright

  A Taste for Love

  Marita Conlon-McKenna

  For my best friend, Ann Frances Doorly, who loved life and lived it to the full!

  Acknowledgements

  Thank you to my lovely editor, Linda Evans, for her wonderful support, encouragement and work on my books.

  To all the team at Transworld UK for their dedication and work on this and all my books, and for making it seem so easy, especially Joanne Williamson, Vivien Garrett and Kate Tolley, and my copy-editor, Lucy Pinney. And to Eoin McHugh and Brian Langan in the Transworld Ireland office.

  To my agent, Caroline Sheldon, for her constant support and belief.

  To Rosemary Buckman for helping to bring my books to far-flung shores.

  Thanks to the ever-supportive crew at Gill Hess, Dublin, for all their work and efforts, especially Gill and Simon Hess, Declan Heaney and Helen Gleed O’Connor, Sophie Hess, Fergus Gannon, Eamonn Phelan, Nigel Carre and Ian Davidson.

  To all the Irish booksellers for giving such wonderful support to both me and my books over many years.

  To my ever-patient husband, James. You are my ‘rock’.

  To my wonderful family who make sitting round a table telling stories fun: Mandy, Laura, Fiona and James and Michael Hearty and Michael Fahy.

  To my gorgeous grandchildren, Holly and Sam Hearty.

  To Ann Frances Doorly, who was so much more than a friend. I’m going to miss you so much.

  To my lovely friends. I know I drive you crazy talking about ideas and characters, but I’d be lost without you all.

  Thanks to all my writer friends, especially Sarah Webb, Martina Devlin and Larry O’Loughlin.

  To Maeve Binchy for all her wonderful stories and her constant encouragement of her fellow writers.

  To Sharon Slowey, a bookworm after my own heart! Thanks for sharing so many good books with me.

  To my friends in Irish PEN - a great club to be in!

  And finally, to all my wonderful readers - a sincere ‘thank you’ from this very grateful author.

  Chapter One

  Alice Kinsella checked the oven. The rich aroma of spices and apricots from the slowly cooking lamb tagine was filling the kitchen. The table was set, the white wine was chilling in the fridge and the red wine was on the counter. Everything looked perfect, and she hurried upstairs as she had only half an hour to get ready and change into something a bit more stylish before her guests arrived.

  It was a Saturday night in November, and it seemed strange hosting a dinner party on her own, but she just had to get used to it. She was fed up of Saturday after Saturday sitting in watching DVDs and game shows on TV, and just longed for a bit of decent adult company, everyone sitting around her table with nice food and a few decent bottles of wine. She had always enjoyed having friends around at the weekend or eating out at one of Dublin’s many restaurants, and it was one of the things she missed most now that Liam was gone.

  It was almost a year and a half since their marriage break-up, and she was still trying to get used to the loneliness of it, and adjust to life without Liam. At first friends and family had been great – remembering to include her, and asking her to lots of things and nights out – but she had noticed over the past few months that the number of dinner and party invitations had dwindled. It was bad enough losing her husband, her marriage, and her financial security, but losing people she had considered friends was probably the thing that hurt the most.

  As she pulled her pale-grey shift dress on over her black tights, and slipped into black suede shoes, she tried to push all negative thoughts of her ex-husband from her mind and concentrate on the night ahead. She was going to enjoy herself and have a bit of fun, with or without Liam!

  ‘Hey, Mum, is there anything you want me to do?’ offered her twenty-two-year-old daughter, Jenny, who was home for a few days from Galway, where she was at university.

  ‘Will you check I put fresh towels in the downstairs bathroom, please?’

  Alice glanced at her make-up, understated yet enough to make an impact. Her eyes looked different with a hint of eyeliner, the smoky grey and beige shadow that Jenny had suggested she try, and the new mascara she had treated herself to. Her light brown hair, longer and recently lightly highlighted, feathered around her face. She added a warm peach-coloured lipstick and topped it off with a little gloss before dabbing on some of her favourite perfume.

  She was looking a lot better than she had done this time last year, when it had felt like her world had fallen apart, and she had been literally on the floor with anger and rage at the injustice and unfairness of it all. Liam moving out of their Monkstown home and in with Elaine Power, the thirty-eight-year-old marriage-wrecker he now called his new partner. He and Elaine had scarcely known each other, and yet her husband of ne
arly thirty years had walked away from his marriage to Alice with barely a backward glance. Their eldest son, Conor, still wasn’t speaking to him, and Sean, their twenty-year-old, tried to avoid his father. Poor Jenny, their only daughter, did her best to remain neutral.

  ‘I’ve put one of those fancy American towels downstairs.’ Jenny smiled as she came back into the room and sat down on the bed. ‘Wow! Mum, you look great! That dress is so good on you! You’ve lost weight.’

  ‘Do you think so?’ Alice ran her hands over her firmer hips and flatter tummy. ‘Would you notice?’

  Alice had to admit that the only good thing to come out of the most stressful time in her life was that she had, for the first time in years, without going on the Atkins or Weight Watchers diets, dropped ten kilos in weight. She felt the better for it. She was taking far more exercise, and was eating less as she was no longer cooking the kind of meals that Liam enjoyed. A fridge full of red meat and pork and sausages had been replaced by one containing healthy chicken and fish and vegetables!

  ‘Everyone will notice,’ teased her daughter.

  It was so good to have Jenny in the house, even if it was only for a few days. She would be heading off on the train back to college on Wednesday evening, and Alice would really miss her.

  Sean was a good kid, but he was rarely around, and seemed always to be busy in college doing something or other. Alice suspected he was still in denial about their situation, and was trying to avoid it and home as much as possible.

  Alice jumped as the doorbell went.

  ‘Will I let them in?’ offered Jenny.

  ‘Thanks, love. I’ll be down in a minute. I think it’s probably Joy.’

  Alice looked at her neck, deciding to remove the classic pearls that Liam had given her ten years ago and put them away in their box. Instead she took out the silver John Rocha piece that Conor and his girlfriend Lisa had given her last Christmas, and put it on.

  ‘Better,’ she said. ‘Much better.’

  Joy greeted her with a huge hug. Her old school friend was always the first at everything and had already made herself at home in the kitchen. She was clutching a glass of red wine while interrogating her god-daughter Jenny about her love life in Galway.

  ‘Mum, make her stop,’ begged Jenny, mortified.

  ‘You’re living away from home with no mamma or dadda around,’ teased Joy. ‘I can only imagine what Alice and I would have got up to in our day. There’s bound to be some lovely Galway man around.’

  ‘Well, if there is … and I’m not saying there is … you and Mum are the last two I’d tell!’

  Alice noticed Joy was wearing her regulation black – this time a skirt with a bolero-type wrap-over top – and had made huge efforts with her unruly blonde hair. She was wearing it pinned up neatly.

  Ten minutes later Sally and Hugh Ryan had appeared, Hugh carrying three bottles of expensive French wine into the kitchen and putting them on the kitchen island. ‘Some very good wine to go with some very good food, judging by the aroma tempting my taste buds.’

  ‘Thanks, Hugh!’

  They were her dearest friends, and he and Sally had rallied around when Liam had gone off with ‘the witch’ Elaine, leaving Alice virtually penniless. Sally had been a rock over the past year, even listening to her midnight tirades about Liam and ‘his hussy’. While Hugh, practical as ever, had managed to get her a temporary job in the accountancy firm where he was one of the partners.

  In the twenty-five years that Hugh had been coming to their house he had never arrived without bringing a highly recommended wine that added to the occasion. He was a real wine buff, and Liam and he used to spend ages talking about various vintages. She was glad that tonight, despite Liam’s absence, he had kept up the tradition.

  ‘And I’ve got some photos of little Ava, our ten-day-old granddaughter, to show you,’ added Sally proudly.

  Alice was so pleased for them, having their first grandchild. It was such a milestone.

  ‘Champagne to celebrate?’ She laughed as she took the Bollinger from the fridge, Hugh gallantly doing the honours and opening the bottle for her.

  ‘To little Ava,’ they toasted, as Nina Brennan and her husband David joined them, too.

  ‘I’ll stick with the red wine,’ insisted Joy. ‘Champagne just goes straight to my head.’

  Alice could certainly vouch for that.

  They moved to the sitting room, the fire blazing in the grate, as Alice’s neighbours, the Cassidys, appeared. Molly Cassidy had been a great friend to Alice over the years, and even though she and her husband Jack were a good bit older than Alice they were wonderful company. Jack, retired from his career in the Garda, still seemed to know everything that was going on in the country.

  The last to arrive were Alice’s brother Tim, his wife Patsy, and their daughter Erin – who was six months younger than Jenny. An only child, Erin had spent a vast amount of her childhood in the Kinsellas’ house, and she and Jenny were great friends as well as being cousins.

  Jenny went to get more champagne glasses as everyone relaxed and chatted easily.

  ‘This is such a treat,’ declared Molly. ‘Jack is always delighted when Alice invites us over, as she’s the best cook we know.’

  ‘Good to have a decent meal compared to that awful stuff we ate on holiday,’ Jack said.

  ‘Where were you?’ asked Joy.

  ‘We got back from Egypt on Tuesday,’ explained Molly. ‘We went on a cruise on the Nile, visited Cairo and the museum, and of course the Pyramids. We stayed in some wonderful places.’

  ‘Cost us an arm and a leg, but it still didn’t stop us getting tummy trouble.’ Jack groaned. ‘Followed all the precautions, but it made no difference …’

  ‘Well, at least you’re back on your home turf now,’ consoled Joy.

  Alice slipped back into the kitchen. Everything was going perfectly. She checked the lamb: it tasted rich and warm, perfect for a chilly night. She would serve it with couscous and a creamy mash that she knew Jack and her brother Tim were very partial to. The green beans were perfect, and there was the obligatory salad as she knew Erin and Jenny were big into greens. She popped her starter of goats’ cheese into the top oven to warm. Once everyone was seated she would cover it with some crumbs and herbs and give it a quick toasting before serving it on a bed of rocket, accompanied by the cooked beetroot that went so perfectly with it. Lighting a few candles, she called everyone to the table.

  Sitting around chatting as everyone ate and laughed and told stories, Alice relaxed.

  David and Tim were on second helpings of the lamb, and Jack had gotten through a mound of creamy mash. The wine was flowing, and Hugh was great at making sure that new bottles were opened as needed. They were all such good friends, and she didn’t know how she would have survived the past eighteen months without them. They had bent over backwards to support her and encourage her to stand on her own two feet again; each person at the table in their own way had listened and advised and encouraged her.

  ‘Alice, how do you do it: cook such delicious food and still manage to lose weight?’ Sally sighed. With her curvy figure she was constantly trying diets and gyms and weight-loss clubs.

  ‘Heartbreak, Sally, but you well know I wouldn’t recommend it.’

  ‘I put on almost two stone after Malcolm and I split,’ admitted Joy. ‘I was so sad, and I guess I was comfort eating. It was only when I realized that poor Beth was worried about me that I managed to pull myself together, and decided that there had to be a life after Malcolm. It was what both Beth and I deserved. I realized that the only person who could make me happy with my life was me!’

  ‘And you’ve been enjoying yourself ever since,’ teased Jenny.

  ‘Of course!’ said Joy, raising her glass. ‘That’s what it’s all about!’

  Alice smiled. Joy had refused to let her sit home and mope after the break-up, and had dragged her to dinners and lunches, walks, theatre and gallery openings, weekends in Barcelona and
Prague – as well as a few trips to Joy’s holiday cottage down in Wexford. Alice would be lost without her best friend, and they always seemed to have fun together.

  The talk at the table turned to politics, and Jack and Tim nearly came to blows about the state of the economy and what should be done to solve it, while Hugh the accountant tried to calm things.

  At her end of the table Molly told them she and Jack were planning to visit China the next year, to see Beijing and Hong Kong and walk the Great Wall.

  ‘You two are such intrepid travellers, you put us all to shame!’ remarked Nina Brennan enviously.

  ‘Well, as Jack says, it beats sitting around waiting for the two of us to get old!’

  Jenny helped Alice serve the warm apple and almond tart with vanilla ice cream and whipped cream, and made coffee for everyone. Alice was relieved that everything had gone so well.

  ‘Alice, that lamb had such a flavour! How do you do it?’ asked Sally.

  ‘The secret is in marinating it in lots of spices overnight, and then slow cooking it,’ Alice explained.

  ‘And you must give me the recipe for this,’ begged her sister-in-law Patsy as she finished the last crumb of the light almond tart.

  ‘I’ll email it to you,’ Alice offered.

  ‘I’m always trying out Alice’s recipes, but somehow when I make them at home they never seem quite as good,’ Patsy joked.

  ‘That’s because she’s a natural cook.’ Jack beamed. ‘Molly has got green fingers; she can get anything to grow. And Alice is the equivalent with food.’

  ‘Cooking makes me happy,’ admitted Alice. ‘I guess that’s why I like having you lovely people over and doing it for you.’

  ‘And we love coming here and enjoying your fine food,’ replied Hugh, toasting her.

  By midnight Jack and Molly had said their goodbyes and Jenny and Erin had disappeared to the comfort of the leather couches in the family room.

  Alice produced Liam’s vintage port and a bottle of Baileys, and they all relaxed.

  ‘Sorry, Alice, but we have to head off, too,’ apologized Hugh, sipping his glass of creamy liquor. ‘We’re driving down to Waterford in the morning to see Sally’s parents. Her dad is celebrating his eightieth birthday and there is a big family lunch. We’ll have to be on the road by ten o’clock tomorrow.’