The Food Chain

Virgil Marcel is a young restaurateur who owns one of L.A.'s trendiest eating establishments and is also the scion of the Golden Boy fast-food dynasty. He receives an unexpected invitation to the Everlasting Club in London, England which has been in operation for 350 years and is wrapped in an air of secrecy. When he arrives he finds members gorging themselves at an orgiastic banquet. He makes a spectacle of himself at the club, is banished and embarks on a debauched food tour of England with a young woman who was a nude centrepiece on the table at the club. Virgil's parents and his chef also enter the fray. Not one of the characters is remotely likeable.

In alternate chapters we are given factual accounts of gastronomic and sexual overindulgence over the centuries. It's all dark, twisted and over the top. I read the book through to the end but didn't feel much like eating for a long time after finishing it.