Ian McKewan's Sweet Tooth has one of those standout food moments that bookcooker is all about. The novel, which I must admit I thought would be a little sexier 007 than it was, is about Serena Frome, a smart, pretty, wispy Cambridge girl who finds her herself working for MI5 in early 1970's London. This is not a path Serena would have found on her own - she is the daughter of a bishop and a maths major with a suppressed passion for literature and bad taste in men. It is through an affair with a much older and worldly professor that she finds herself working in the British domestic spy agency during the gloomy days of the cold war, British economic depression and the threat of the IRA. It is the older professor that also introduces her to this earthy, sexy dish - forest mushrooms with creamy polenta. Serena and Tony Canning, a professor at Cambridge were Serena is a student, spend secret weekends together at a cottage in the country. Tony teaches Serena about world affairs and they drink wine and good food that Tony cooks. This dish was particularly intriguing to me (I love polenta!) and for Serena it was a symbol of the kind of sophisticated world she thought Tony was opening up for her. Of course, since this is a spy novel, Tony was not what he seemed, he cruelly dumped Serena but she went to work for MI5 in London anyway. Rather than the exciting and sexy experience you would expect, Serena's work and life was dreary and demeaning - until she was recruited into the "Sweet Tooth" project...
