A Guy's Gotta Eat: Gourmet Eyes

"And it was true. In recent years -- I'd one day tell her the whole story -- I'd learnt to cook. discovered, in fact, a bit of a flair. I take trouble. I chop and mix. I look up recipes, I'm choosy about ingredients. I stop at the Fine Foods section, even when I'm shopping for basics.

And food counts, I'll bear that out. In times of trouble, eat well, don't skimp. look after yourself. don't live out of the microwave. Use love and care. Just because you'ere on your own.

I'll vouch for it, I've been there..."

-- George Webb, in The Light of Day

"I eat French crap a lot."

-- Spenser in The Widening Gyre

• Nero Wolfe by Rex Stout

The original foodie eye, Wolfe is, of course, the most famous gourmet detective, even employing his own cook, Fritz.

• Frank Cannon by Edward Hume

Fine wine, fine food, large fees....

• Spenser by Robert B. Parker

Big on stuff he's picked, caught, grown or possibly killed himself, Spenser was perhaps the ultimate hunter/gatherter/yuppie. Parker himself occasionally suggested he was working on a Spenser cookbook, perhaps tongue-in-cheek, but it never came to pass.

• Pepe Carvalho by Manuel Vazquez Montalban

This Spanish eye may be the only other private detective, besides Nero Wolfe, to have his own personal chef.

• George Webb by Graham Swift

After years of, as he puts it, "fuelling up on canteen grub and whatever you could snatch on the hoof," this gumshoe discovers he has a flair for cooking. But that new passion indirectly leads him into trouble...

RELATED LINKS

• "I Got Some Cooking to Do"

Cookbooks by Mystery Authors (and their detectives)