A heartbreaking debut about family, love, grief and food. Perfect for fans of Joanne Harris' Chocolat and Julia Powell's Julie & Julia.Victoria, eighty and recently bereaved, is lonely and needs to find a way to reconnect with the world. When she starts teaching cooking classes she doesn t expect Lorca, a troubled teenager, to be her first pupil. Lorca is desperate to find a way into her mother s affections and as a last attempt decides to track down the recipe for her ideal meal, an obscure Middle Eastern dish called masgouf. As Lorca and Victoria form an unexpected bond over almond and pistachio cookies and baklava, they begin to suspect they are connected in more ways than just their love of food.