In this brief summary of Isabelle Allende's Aphrodite: A Memoir of the Senses, Brad Hooper describes Allende's work of non-fiction as a cookbook which, while also providing actual recipes, most importantly provides historical and biological rumination on the "inseparability of food and eroticism."

"Eggs"—from caviar to the kind produced by chickens—"lend themselves to all sorts of naughtiness," Isabel Allende writes. (She prefers hers "served on my lover's navel with chopped onion, pepper, salt, lemon and a drop of Tabasco.") In Aphrodite, Allende turns the joyous preparation and consumption of fine food into an erotic catalyst; it culminates in a collection of serious recipes for your first—or next—bacchanal. Illustrated by Robert Shekter's bold nymphs and mischievous satyrs, Aphrodite discusses forbidden fruits, orgies, whispers, pheromones, erotic poetry and Indian tantric rites. Be warned: some aphrodisiacs require more courage and dedication than others. In China, baby...