The Discovery of Chocolate by James Runcie, HarperCollins, 拢12.99, ISBN
000710782X
THIS title is misleading. You might expect a dissertation on how the Aztecs
discovered the cacao bean and learned to exploit its properties. But this
roman-脿-clef starts with the prized chocolate drink that was a notable
feature of Aztec cuisine and civilisation.
The narrator of The Discovery of Chocolate, Diego de Godoy, sails with Cortez
to Mexico, becomes his secretary and takes part in the conquistadors鈥� campaigns
to conquer the empire for Spain and gold. This is his story, in which he becomes
magically immortal along with his dog after drinking a potion mixed by his Aztec
lover. He spends 600 years ruminating on the meaning of life and exploring the
delights of chocolate more precious than treasure. He makes liqueur chocolates
in the Bastille with the Marquis de Sade, witnesses the serendipitous birth of
the Sachertorte, a famous German confection, and lands on Sigmund Freud鈥檚 couch.
Along the way he crosses the Atlantic with Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas to
take up a job with a chocolate manufacturer called Fry. He is reunited with his
lover, who also drank the potion without telling him, in a final ecstasy on top
of the chocolate ones.
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De Godoy seems in a trance even before his first encounter with chocolate. He
shows no surprise that the Aztecs speak Spanish. De Sade was not a prisoner in
the Bastille. But such points don鈥檛 matter really. Nothing much happens. You
will learn something about chocolate technology. The dog dies.