Book-themed food event matches meals with fiction

The Bookish Banquet is a culinary event for bookworms that takes inspiration from popular fiction.

Dining is more than just a treat for the tastebuds and takes in a whole range of sensory thrills, which explains the popularity of themed film events such as Toronto’s Mise — which matches its menu with on-screen dishes. Now the Netherlands is serving up The Bookish Banquet, a culinary event for bookworms that takes inspiration from popular fiction.

Located in Amsterdam, the event chooses one title for each evening and offers both a menu and setting that aims to take attendees into the world of each novel. For example, its first outing saw guests arrive dressed as characters from Alice in Wonderland, with a seven-course meal offering up rabbit stew out of pastry top hats. The dining event also serves as a book club, with guests reading sections and discussing their thoughts about the title. Previous themes have included The Collected Sherlock Holmes, Momo by Michael Ende and Angel Carter’s Nights at the Circus. The next Bookish Banquet will take place this weekend, focusing on Yann Martel’s Life of Pi.

By matching dining with a different form of entertainment, The Bookish Banquet creates a unique event that offers more than the typical meal out. Are there other ways food events could be themed to make them more extraordinary, perhaps taking in even more of a niche interest than literature?