Leslie Karst

Behind the Book: “The Fragrance of Death”

Welcome to “Behind the Book,” our fun new Chicks on the Case feature! Join us as we Chicks share the real stories behind our stories. Inspiration, motivation, frustration, jubilation–you’ll find them all right here… 

You may notice that the cover of my most recent Sally Solari mystery, The Fragrance of Death, depicts artichokes. No, it’s not the murder weapon (though that’s there, too), but the noble thistle does play an important part in the story.

Because I adore artichokes. I love plucking off the leaves one by one, dunking them in melted garlic butter, then scraping off the tender flesh with my teeth; and I love the way they cause everything you eat or drink them with taste surprisingly sweet. Given my love affair with artichokes, I decided it would be fun to include them in my new book, which revolves around both an artichoke cook-off as well as an artichoke farm up the coast from Santa Cruz, where the series is set.

I come by this passion honestly, through both nature and nurture. As for the nurture part, I’m a second-generation Californian (almost third, as my grandparents all moved to Los Angeles in the 1920s when they were in their twenties), and artichokes could be considered the unofficial state vegetable of California.

Artichokes are thought to be one of the oldest foods, and the plant likely originated in the Mediterranean region. Historians believe they were cultivated by North African Moors beginning about 800 A.D. and that the Saracens then introduced the plant to Italy. This would explain how the Arabic al-qarshuf—meaning “thistle”—became articiocco in Italian and eventually “artichoke” in English. They were first brought to California by the Italians (such as the Solari family featured in my books) who emigrated to the Golden State back in the late 1800s.

In 1922, Andrew Molera, a landowner in the Salinas Valley, decided to lease to Italian farmers the land he’d previously dedicated to growing sugar beets, encouraging them to try growing this “new” vegetable—the artichoke. His reasons were economic, as artichokes were fetching high prices and farmers could pay him triple what the sugar company did for the same land. And it paid off.

Now, one hundred years later, Central California, with its Mediterranean-like climate, produces virtually 100% of the artichokes sold in the US, and of that, more than 80 percent come from Castroville, the self-proclaimed “artichoke center of the world.” (Fun fact: Marilyn Monroe was crowned the very first “Artichoke Queen” of Castroville at age 22 in 1948, two years before she hit the big time with All About Eve and Asphalt Jungle.)

So artichokes are a big deal in California. And they’re also far less expensive here than in other locales. It’s not uncommon to see those baby artichokes on sale for as little as twenty-five cents each at roadside stands.

As for the “nature” part of my artichoke obsession, this comes from my mother, who was born and raised in Pasadena, California. Till her dying day, Mom was passionate about artichokes, and even at age 91 when I’d bring them to her at her assisted care facility—steamed with a side of mayonnaise, another one of her passions—she would devour them greedily.

Mom loved to tell a fun story about artichokes. My younger sister was born at the Ohio State University hospital, during my father’s tenure as a law professor at OSU. As was the norm back in 1961, Mom stayed the night at the hospital, even though the birth was uneventful. That evening, the hospital cafeteria for some bizarre reason had steamed artichokes on the menu for dinner, and all the new mothers were presented with half of a large artichoke, over which melted butter had been poured.

Now, this is most certainly not the proper way to serve artichokes (one pulls off the leaves and dips them in a separate bowl of butter), and the Midwestern women were unanimously repelled by the strange, ugly, and messy vegetables they had been presented with for dinner.

Except Mom—the home-sick Californian who hadn’t set eyes on an artichoke for years. The other women gladly gave all theirs to her, and my mother forever claimed that she ate every single artichoke served in the maternity ward that evening, gorging herself until she nearly popped.

Readers: Are you a fan of artichokes? When was the first time you tried one of the noble thistles, and what did you think?

About The Fragrance of Death:

Restaurateur Sally Solari is a champion, both in the kitchen and on the case, but after getting mixed up in one too many murders, her nonna’sfriends have taken to crossing themselves every time they meet. Sally’s determined to stay out of trouble and focus on her cooking. It’s too bad the food scene in Santa Cruz is cut-throat—sometimes literally.

When a head cold knocks out Sally’s sense of taste and smell, at the same time her old acquaintance Neil Lerici is murdered at the annual Artichoke Cook-Off, her powers of investigation are once again called into action. Could Neil have been killed by the local restaurant owner who took his winning spot at the competition? Or maybe by one of his siblings, who were desperate to sell the family farm to a real estate developer?

Sally plunges headfirst into the case, risking alienating everyone she knows – including the handsome Detective Vargas, who finds her sleuthing both infuriating and endearing. And soon it’s not just her restaurant and her tentative new relationship that are on the line—it’s her life . . .

25 thoughts on “Behind the Book: “The Fragrance of Death””

  4. I’m a fan! I love them! I most adore my spinach and artichoke dip. Give me a veggie and let me run it through a dip made with two more veggies. Very healthy. LOL! Just ignore that massive cream and cheese sitting there.

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  5. I’m amazed there are people who never tried artichokes. I love them, especially their hearts.

    Leslie, this is a fabulous post. I learned so much about artichokes and LOVED that story about your mom.

    But how could write about artichokes in central CA and not mention The Giant Artichoke?!

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    1. Ha! Yes, the Giant Artichoke sits in the center of Castroville (the town that made Marilyn Monroe queen)–and they sell delicious deep-fried artichokes, too!

      And I agree–amazing so many folks have never tasted them. I guess it really is a California thing.

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  6. I was never a big fan of artichokes as a kid, and I haven’t had one since becoming an adult. I have had artichoke hearts on pizza occasionally, but that’s it.

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  7. Congrats again on The Fragrance of Death, Leslie!

    As for artichokes, I’m a fan of the dip (see above comment).

    Honestly, I’ve always been intimidated by the scraping part of eating artichokes and haven’t tried that–only already prepared artichoke hearts.

    I’ve recently seen artichokes in bloom, though–and the flowers are gorgeous!

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  8. I love artichokes in all their forms. Like you, steamed and dipped in butter. (Wait. You know what I mean.) And one of our favorite pizzas is a Great White with Chicken and Artichokes. So good. Can’t remember the last time I’ve steamed one, though. Maybe it’s time to remedy that!

    I’m loving these BEHIND THE BOOKS posts, btw. So much cool info!

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  9. I looooooove artichokes–and this behind the book glimpse!! And the Unofficial Artichoke Capital brought to mind the Garlic Capital G (aka Gilroy), my dad’s hometown. ❤️ Now that I think about it, something with artichokes and garlic sounds scrumptious!

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  10. My mother introduced me to artichokes when I was a kid. It was in an Italian restaurant, where they came to the table “stuffed” with garlicky breadcrumbs. I started cooking artichokes for myself as soon as I got my first apartment, and quickly replaced boiling with steaming. I’ve never tried doing them with stuffing because, for the last 20 years or so, I prefer a shorter cooking time. I cut about 1/3 off the top with a serrated knife (some folks prefer a scissors), trim off the stem (it goes in the steamer too), cut the whole vegetable in half, and use a tablespoon to scrape out the blue spineys and the rest of the inedible “choke.” (If I’m doing a lot of them, I drop them in water that has a little lemon juice in it, to keep them from turning brown.) These clean, chokeless halves, set heart-side-down, can come out of the steamer in as little as 45 minutes. I typically make a dip of mayonaise and Dijon mustard (4:1), plus a little soy sauce; it’s also great with steamed Brussels sprouts.

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  11. Not a Southern thing. The only time I ever tried artichoke was in high school. Our home ec teacher make us cook artichokes. I think we boiled them. I thought she was pulling our legs about scraping them with our teeth! Leslie, I would, however eat some artichokes that you had prepared!

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  13. Leslie! What a fascinating and informative post! Thank you.

    And I didn’t even realize that those were artichokes on the cover…I had the impression that they were flowers…clearly did not look closely enough and that book has been on my nightstand for weeks! 🙂

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  14. I loved the book and really like artichokes. We used to eat them the way you did when we were young adults. I haven’t had one that way in a long time. But artichoke and spinach dip is great. I do have some jars of Donostia Foods Grilled Artichoke hearts in vegetable oil imported from Spain that are very good.

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  15. I really loved the book. My grandparents moved to Hollister, California in the 50s. They would bring us a case of artichokes when they came.back to Northern Nevada to visit us. Later our aunt moved to Castroville and then to Salinas so we learned to love recipes beyond the basic steamed version. I found a recipe for an artichoke, cheddar, green chili dip. Later I found a version of it baked in a bread bowl and we have made that every since!

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  16. I know this is a late reply. I’m finally catching up on my reading during a much postponed vacation.

    I love artichokes, though it wasn’t love at first bite. The first meal my husband (then boyfriend of one week) cooked for me was NY steaks and artichokes. Unfortunately, he was distracted and overcooked them. I wasn’t a fan of the strange mushy vegie. I think it may have been subliminally on purpose. The more for him. The next time he made them perfectly and was a bit surprised when I decided to give them another try. I’ve been a big fan ever since. Steaks and artichokes with a side of melted smoky butter is one of our favorite meals. We’re lucky we can get them all year round in California.

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