Bread and Butter

The information and questions in this guide are intended to help you in your discussion of Michelle Wildgen's Bread and Butter.

1. How are Harry, Leo, and Britt different?  How are they alike?

2. What is Harry trying to prove by opening up a restaurant in the same town where his brothers have their restaurant? Is his experience a useful background for a restaurateur, or do you think Leo and Britt followed a more helpful path toward owning a restaurant?

3. How does the relationship between the brothers evolve over the course of the novel?

4.  How would you define the roles the brothers occupy in their family? How do those roles shift over the course of the book?

5. What do you think about the names of the restaurants?  What do they reflect about each one?

6. How has the novel changed the way you think about restaurants and the people who work in them?

7. Do Leo and Britt own their restaurant or does it own them?  What about Harry?

8. What are the implications (moral and practical) of Leo dating Thea?  Is he wrong to do so?

9. How does Camille change Britt?  What about Thea and Leo?

10. What was your favorite main course described in the novel?  Favorite dessert?

11. How would you describe your attitude toward food?  Passionate?  Perfunctory?  Adventurous?  Would you order the lamb’s neck?