#IMWAYR: Chef's Kiss!

Hi hi, folks! I've got quite the review for you today, so let's get to it!

Chef's Kiss

Written by Jarrett Melendez, illustrated by Danica Brine, colored by Hank Jones, and lettered by Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou

Young adult/adult · Graphic novel · 2022

Add it on Goodreads · Preview the illustrations

· · · The publisher says: · · ·

"A perfect mix of romance and self-discovery." — Publishers Weekly

2023 Alex Award Winner

2023 Eisner Award Nominee

2023 GLAAD Award Nominee

2023 YALSA Great Graphic Novel for Teens

2022 New York Public Library Best Book

Watch things start to really heat up in the kitchen in this sweet, queer, new adult graphic novel!

Now that college is over, English graduate Ben Cook is on the job hunt looking for something…anything…related to his passion for reading and writing. But interview after interview, hiring committee after hiring committee, Ben soon learns getting the dream job won’t be as easy as he thought. Proofreading? Journalism? Copywriting? Not enough experience. It turns out he doesn’t even have enough experience to be a garbage collector! But when Ben stumbles upon a “Now Hiring—No Experience Necessary” sign outside a restaurant, he jumps at the chance to land his first job. Plus, he can keep looking for a writing job in the meantime. He’s actually not so bad in the kitchen, but he will have to pass a series of cooking tests to prove he’s got the culinary skills to stay on full-time. But it’s only temporary…right?

When Ben begins developing a crush on Liam, one of the other super dreamy chefs at the restaurant, and when he starts ditching his old college friends and his old writing job plans, his career path starts to become much less clear.

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(A quick note on age range: This book resides in that strange college-aged limbo zone that is not quite adult, and not quite YA. This book has some suggestive themes that, in my opinion, aren't anything teenagers haven't already seen. But I'll still give you a heads-up so you can use your own judgment before sharing this book with the readers in your lives!)

So, I'm going to preface this review by saying that (a) sometimes I have a sense of humor, and sometimes I absolutely don't, and (b) after my April breakup, I'm still a little bit cynical about romance. And none of this really lent itself to reading and enjoying Chef's Kiss, alas. I say all this because I have more critiques than I initially expected to, but I want you to take them with a grain of salt, in the sense that maybe this was a better book than I experienced, and I was just totally in the wrong mood to read it. (In my defense, I thought I was in the right mood to read it at the beginning.)

Anyway, let's start with the good! And there is a lot of good in Chef's Kiss. This book is determined to be as fun as humanly possible. It's built around a great idea—what if you take a relatively normal human being (Ben) who we can all relate to, and get him caught up in a series of increasingly absurd and picturesque adventures as he tries to figure out his career and (just maybe) finds love? Ben ends up working at this restaurant where he essentially has to compete for his right to stay as a chef, creating new dishes each week like it's a Food Network TV show, and having them judged by a pig (yes, a pig) with a very particular palate. I mean, that's too fun. And the book has a sense of humor at every turn, with silly banter between friends, and absurdist illustrations of what characters are imagining or what stories they're telling. The back matter even includes fun character bios and bonus art—the creators clearly enjoyed spending time in this universe. And the book is a fast-paced read too, and it's generally self-aware that it's pulling all kinds of tropes into a blender and cooking up (get it?) a rollicking, silly, not-too-realistic story. It's like that friend who takes a slightly-cringey joke further and further and further until you finally relent and laugh.

But there were a few things (one of which, I'll admit, was my own emotional experience) that kept me from actually relenting and getting 100% on board with this story. One place where I got tripped up was Liam, our potential love interest. I'll be completely transparent and say that I was hoping this would be a book where I could identify with Ben, and swoon after Liam. But to be frank, Liam is so uninteresting that I can't imagine why anyone would have a crush on him. Sure, he's pretty. But the most interesting he says in the whole book is this bizarre thing about being "a man with Viking blood" that honestly gave me the ick. Otherwise, he has no real defined voice, no interests, and no particular life outside of work and his interactions with Ben. And it's a real problem, because as cynical as I may be about romance right now, I'm also totally optimistic and hopeful, in the sense that I believe romance is the chance to meet someone whose everyday existence you find magical, and who expands your horizons while making you feel seen and cared for. And there's so many books—Aristotle and Dante, Heartstopper, Sunhead, Taproot, Crumbs, If You'll Have Me, Bloom, Northranger—that capture the magic in a way that makes me excited to fall in love for real. But there's no particular magic in Ben and Liam's connection—just fairly standard interactions and "bare minimum" kinds of romantic moments. (Wow, he took you to see the sunset...does he want a gold medal?)

Also, there's just too many abs in this book. Look, I get it that Liam is the love interest and he's supposed to be ripped and hot and whatever. Fine. Cool. No problems there. And I'm gay, and I'm just as attracted to abs as the next guy. Again, all fine. And I can tolerate, though not well, the fairly contrived situation to show off Liam's abs, which is the locker room at the restaurant where Ben and Liam change into their chef's outfits. I'm 99% sure restaurants don't have locker rooms, but this book is clearly here to have fun, and I understand that it just wants an excuse to show off Liam's abs. Fine. Whatever. And I GUESS I will put up with the scene where Liam and Ben are both changing their shirts and Liam puts his hand on Ben's bare skin without even asking, though if someone did that to me and we weren't dating, I would throw them off a balcony. (Not actually, if the FBI is asking.) But good freaking grief, what I cannot deal with is that Ben, who is supposed to be our relatable self-insert everyman (or at least that's what I hoped for), and who is a 22-year-old ENGLISH MAJOR, ALSO has abs and is ripped just like Liam. Like, what? No. I can't. How am I supposed to relate to you or sympathize with you if you're hotter than I'll ever be? Then it's not even wish fulfillment of the normal guy getting the hot guy—it's just two hot guys who are into each other. Like, just...ugh. And I have to be SO IRRITATING for a second—because here's the thing. We are allowed to be attracted to conventionally attractive characteristics. We are! I'm not disputing that. But how limiting to imagine that we can only be attracted to conventionally attractive characteristics. And in both the books I've previously referenced and in real life, normal-looking people with normal physical characteristics fall in love, and they are perfectly attracted to each other and it's actually magical and lovely. You don't need abs to be lovable. And it's not that this book is saying you do—really, it's just that the whole world is constantly equating beauty with attractiveness and it's annoying and this book just reminds me of it and it's a convenient excuse to vent. I do love venting. (Clearly.)

I'll admit that the previous paragraph isn't so much about the book as it is inspired by the book. But I do have one more thing to say that's actually about the book, for real. This is one of those books where a character decides to keep a secret from other people, because he's afraid of how they'll react. (I don't want to specify the secret, but I'll say that it's not anyone's sexual orientation.) I personally don't love books where characters keep secrets, because it's ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS a bad idea, without fail. But I went with it, in part because it creates just enough tension to prevent the book from being all light and fluffy. So you know, I'm reading along, and I'm assuming that the character is going to tell this secret to those other people, and they're going to be totally fine with it and the whole secret-keeping exercise will have been pointless, as it so often is. And then the secret comes out, and the other folks react by...well, let's just say that I honest-to-goodness asked myself, "Is this a dream sequence? Am I going to turn the page and find out that this didn't happen? It can't have possibly happened." But within the book's canon, it did happen. And it's really baffling. I get that all books are contrived to a degree, and I get that fun, rollicking romance reads like this are especially contrived in the sense that they're trying to get from point A to point B. We know what the points are, they do too, and they've got to get us there. But even contrived, fun, lighthearted stories still have internal logic, and this whole situation seemed to violate...I don't know, both the internal logic of the book, and also just logic, period. And then the whole thing sort of gets glossed over and the book rushes to the finish line, without really stopping to acknowledge this giant can of worms it has opened, and also without managing to resolve any of the broader theme-based questions that this situation raised. I wasn't thrilled with how all this was handled.

I'm conflicted about this review, because I know the folks who created this book worked so hard on it, and poured so much heart and soul into it, and I want to respect the labor of love that was involved here. I want to be the kind of person who spreads kindness and doesn't eviscerate books just because I'm bored. At the same time, I hope I did an adequate job delineating my thoughts on the book from my thoughts on human existence. I'm grateful that gay romance graphic novels like Chef's Kiss exist at all, for readers like me to enjoy. At the same time, I do think this one has flaws that would give me caution before wholeheartedly recommending it. And I think I'm bitter both because there's not enough of the romance stories I really want—those that capture the magic possible within human connection—and because I'm afraid of whether I'll actually find that story in my real life. And you know, if I'm going to be scared and hopeful and a little bitter about my romantic prospects, I figure why not write it up in entertaining fashion, so a few of you can get a good laugh out of it? So apologies to Chef's Kiss that it has become collateral in my romance rant—may we all find the people we hope to find (romantic or not) who show us kindness and compassion, and improve our lives. (And are maybe just a little more interesting than Liam.)

Other stuff!

I mentioned a few months back that I started taking yoga classes, and I have really stuck to it! I'm still going multiple times a week, and I've actually ramped things up now that I'm done with school for the semester. I love it so much. I feel a lot more comfortable in my own body, and I get a real sense of achievement when I go. And I feel like part of a community with the other folks at the yoga studio—being able to go somewhere and say hi to other human beings has really helped with the isolation I usually feel during breaks from school. My anxiety baseline is already so high that it's about 50-50 odds whether I truly feel calmer after class, but the other benefits are more than enough for me. I highly recommend it if you're ever considering trying a new activity!

Also, after reviewing Monument Valley 2 a few weeks ago, I am delighted to report that Monument Valley 3 is AMAZING. I played it twice in the first week it was out, and the ending made me cry the first time I played. It is such a peaceful and meditative space to exist within, and I love how it takes the imagery and themes that underpin the whole Monument Valley series, and intentionally breaks them apart in order to show us how they were boxing us in, and keeping us from discovering other kinds of joy. The second game will always have a special place in my heart, but this third game is a very worthy addition to the series.

Also, I am getting rid of FOUR PAPER BAGS of books I haven't read and probably never will—my completely full bookshelves are less completely full than they were. I no longer have books in front of other books to where I can't see the books I want to read—at least until Christmas, that is.

Also, I am so glad to be on winter break. It's really funny, as angsty as the blog post above is, I've actually been feeling so much better lately. I've accomplished so much in 2024—attempted romance, got my driver's license, got my first job, started yoga, made a new friend, discovered amazing music, dug deep in therapy, and practiced my self-love. I'm getting better at remembering that I have a lot to offer this world—I am empathic, and interesting, and worthy, no matter what others think, and no matter what the VERY LOUD and anxious voices in my head sometimes tell me. Even when I forget that things are okay and I am okay, things are okay, and I am okay. That will always be true, and it's a really good thing.

The Kidlit Lovers' Meetup!

We had a wonderful Kidlit Lovers' Meetup a week ago Saturday! And now I'm gearing up to schedule our January meetup—if you're hoping to attend, please fill out this scheduling survey before Tuesday night!

If you'd like to learn more about the meetups or sign up for updates, you can do so here.

That's all for now—thanks for joining me on this adventure of a blog post, and happy holidays! ✨✨