Brunetti, introduced in 1992 in Death at La Fenice (the Venice opera house), caught on as a character in part because he was so well drawn as a family man with a life outside his intriguing homicide cases. A German television series gave him even greater visibility, and tourists to Venice can even take Brunetti's Walking Tour of sites mentioned in Leon's novels.
From the first, the complex commissario was often seen lingering over lunches and even lengthier dinners with his wife, Paola, daughter, Chiara, and son, Raffi.
Brunetti's mother makes a great lasagna, we learn in Leon's Through a Glass, Darkly, and in A Noble Radiance, Paola teaches Chiara to make ravioli con funghi. Fearful that the pasta "will have the consistency of wallpaper glue," Brunetti offers to take the family out for pizza instead.
To Leon, Brunetti's appreciation of good food does not make him a gastronome. He does not have a uniquely refined palate. He is merely a Venetian, and as such, he savors every bite. Whether at home with Paola or at a cicchetti bar with a colleague, Brunetti paces himself, always leaving time for a coffee, some wine or grappa.
By the fourth Brunetti mystery, fans were taking notice of the detective's many meals and requesting recipes.
Finally, Leon agreed. She collaborated with her friend Roberta Pianaro, a talented home cook and lifelong Venetian, to create Brunetti's Cookbook (Atlantic Monthly Press).
"At first, the response from readers surprised me, for there had been nothing intentional about the placement of meals in the books," Leon writes in the cookbook's introduction. "These novels deal to a certain degree with family life in Venice, and this was the way that I had observed Venetians to eat."
