Margaux Vialleron

dancing, writing in kitchens

I’m a French-born, Glasgow-based writer, co-host of the SPK Book Club and home cook.

Most of my work focuses on memory and archives, food and seasonality, and how these interlink with language, bodies and culture. I’m passionate about storytelling and my practice threads between fiction and non-fiction writings. My debut novel, The Yellow Kitchen, was published by Simon & Schuster in July 2022 and has been selected as Indie Book of the Month. My short story, Fernanda’s Fish Soup, was runner-up in the 2022 Harper’s Bazaar short story competition. I also write essays, recipes and reviews for publications like Potluck and Compound Butter, or via my newsletter The Onion Papers. I’ve given lectures and joined panels on the subjects of literature, translation and food, and I co-host the SPK podcast and book club.

I’m open to speaking and writing commissions in both English and French. For queries or to discuss a project, please get in touch with my agent Kirsty McLachlan. For translation requests, you can write to me via the contact form below. Alternatively, you can find me on Twitter and Instagram.

The Onion Papers are agglomerations and digressions from things I cook, eat, read and observe. You’ll find me swirling around languages and toying with ingredients to explore cooking as storytelling.

It’s free to subscribe and I hope to see you there.

The Yellow Kitchen

7th July 2022

A yellow kitchen stands as a metaphor for the lifelong friendship between three women: Claude, the baker, goal-orientated Sophie and political Giulia. They chase love and careers; dreaming and consuming in the city, but always returning to the yellow kitchen to share a meal.

That is, until a trip to Lisbon unravels unexplored desires between Claude and Sophie. Having sex is one thing, waking up the day after is the beginning of something new.

Exploring the complexities of female friendship, The Yellow Kitchen is a hymn to the last year of London as we knew it and a celebration of the culture, the food and the rhythms we live by.

Order your copy here:

‘Rich and thoroughly intoxicating, The Yellow Kitchen is a sensual journey into friendship, food and female sexuality, full of complex, fascinating characters and bold ideas. I loved it’
— Rosie Walsh 

‘A heady mix of politics, friendship, sex and food, poignant, provocative and utterly distinctive’
— Paula Hawkins 

‘An exquisite novel — beautifully rendered, powerfully told, and so deeply felt. I urge you to read this novel — you will never forget it’
— Lucia Osborne-Crowley 

‘The Yellow Kitchen is so warm and convivial in atmosphere, and its discussion of the politics of the UK and their impact very poignant. It portrayed beautifully the sense of adventure of being a certain age, with its rush and richness and emotional confusion, and I found it such a satisfying read’
— Emily Itami 

Essays and Journalism

My short story, Fernanda’s Fish Soup, was published in the September issue of Harper’s Bazaar and was runner-up in their annual short story competition. Recent published essays and recipes include Boil, Simmer and Pause: in favour of broth in Compound Butter and Toscana in bocca in Potluck.

Some online examples of my work include Cucina Pantesca, My Mother’s Tongue, If Silence Could Speak, Three Tokens of Time, and In Praise of Eating in Bed.

I also like to write about places such as the woods and foraging, Vendée, Paris or Livorno.

I co-write the Salmon Pink newsletter, a celebration of women artists and writers in the form of a last supper. You can read our special edition of the newsletter in honour of my novel, The Yellow Kitchen, here.

Book Club and Podcast

I co-host the SPK Book Club podcast with Irene Olivo. You can expect conversations on books, authors’ lives and creativity, rediscovered classics and author interviews. 

You can also find the previous two seasons of the salmon pink kitchen podcast, in which we interviewed guests whose work and thinking challenge the world of food, its culture, history, production chain and sustainability.

Read more about the SPK Book Club and how to join on our website and on our Instagram. 

You can listen to us on your favourite audio platform, Spotify and Apple Podcast.

About

I was born in Paris in 1993. After studying for a degree in Comparative Literature in Montréal, I moved to London in 2015, where I lived in nine kitchens. One had salmon pink walls and introduced me to the world of feeding and all that came afterwards: solo cooking, cooking with flatmates, or hosting meals for friends; dancing and thinking in kitchens. I’m now based in Glasgow. 

I love photography, collect postcards, and I record the seasons as I hike, run, swim. I type notes to myself on my phone as much as the cloud allows (before I free some space and repeat). 

Pronouns: she/her

Get in touch

If you’d like to get in touch about a commission, a project or simply to say hello, you can use this form to reach out to me directly.

I’m represented by Kirsty McLachlan at Morgan Green Creatives.

For PR enquiries regarding my novels, please contact Rebecca.McCarthy@simonandschuster.co.uk.