Milo Roby tries to hold his family together while working at the Empire Grill in the once-successful logging town of Empire Falls, Maine, with his partner, Mrs. Whiting, who is the heir to a faded logging and textile legacy.

Hassan is a culinary ingenue with the gastronomic equivalent of perfect pitch. Displaced from their native India, his family settles in a quaint village in the south of France. They plan to open an Indian restaurant, that is, until Madame Mallory, the owner of a classical French restaurant, gets wind of it. Her icy protests against the new Indian restaurant so near her own escalate to all out war; until Hassan's cooking talent and love for Mme. Mallory's...

Chef Adam Jones had it all, and lost it. A rockstar chef of a two-star Michelin restaurant with the bad habits to match, the former enfant terrible of the Paris restaurant scene did everything different every time out and only ever cared about the thrill of creating explosions of taste. To land his own kitchen and that third elusive Michelin star though, he₂ll need the best of the best on his side, including the beautiful Helene.

Roy Eberhardt is the only child in a family that is constantly relocating for his father's work. At 14, he's once again the new kid, this time in the tiny Florida beach town of Coconut Cove. Predictably, a bully nicknames him "Cowgirl" and proceeds to torture him. Unpredictably, a barefoot blonde boy who runs alongside the school bus every morning fascinates him. Tough-as-nails girl jock Beatrice befriends Roy, helps with the bully, and is revealed...

"Bud Threadgoode grew up in the bustling little railroad town of Whistle Stop, Alabama, with his mother Ruth, church going and proper, and the fun-loving hell-raiser, his Aunt Idgie. Together they ran the town's popular Whistle Stop Café, known far and wide for its famous 'Fried Green Tomatoes.' And as Bud often said of his childhood, 'How lucky can you get?' But sadly, the railroad yards began to shut down and the town became a ghost town, with...

"Eleven-year-old Maizy Chen visits her estranged grandparents, who own and run a Chinese restaurant in Last Chance, Minnesota; as her visit lengthens, she makes unexpected discoveries about her family's history and herself"--