Chef's Kiss

by Jarrett Melendez, Danica Brine, Hank Jones, Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou

Synopsis:

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. According to the hiring committees, he doesn't have enough experience. But when he stumbles upon a "Now Hiring—No Experience Necessary" sign outside a restaurant, Ben jumps at the chance to land his first job. He's actually not so bad in the kitchen, plus, he can keep looking for a writing job in the meantime. But when he begins developing a crush on Liam, one of the super dreamy chefs at the restaurant, he'll start to feel torn between wanting to stay and cook and following his original post-college plan to be a writer. Watch things start to really heat up in the kitchen in this queer YA debut graphic novel!

Somehow, this review never got posted when I read the book in 2022, so here’s one from the backlog I guess!

Chef’s Kiss is really, really cute. I like the art style, and found it very easy to follow what was going on, both due to the clarity of the art and a good layout. That’s not always something you can take for granted (and depends strongly on your taste and visual comprehension skills), though it might sound like faint praise! I enjoy graphic novels, but being strongly non-visual, I’m not always the best at following them.

The cast of characters is fun: the main character is Ben, of course, who starts out looking for a writing job and then finally finds himself at the end of his tether, right in front of a restaurant that’s hiring. He meets one of the chefs, Liam, who happens to be really cute, and then… then the weirdness starts. The owner of the restaurant seems reluctant to handle hiring, and to almost want to deter Ben, insisting he pass a series of challenges in order to work for them, judged by the restaurant’s official taste tester.

The taste tester is a pig, Watson.

There are lots of silly bits surrounding Watson, but there’s a serious core to the story. Ben has to struggle with what he really wants to do, with what he wants to be, and with what his parents want for him. Fresh out of college, he and the friends he lives with have their whole lives to figure out, including interpersonal issues. And, of course, he has a massive crush on Liam.

The whole thing is pretty light, all the same, with lots of cute moments between Liam and Ben, and between Ben and his friends. There’s even a great scene with the owner of the restaurant that hits a strong emotional note — though that’s all I’ll say about that. I found the story a bit ridiculous, at times, but fun.

If you’ve worked in or adjacent to the industry, I can almost guarantee it will annoy you, though. Even I can tell it’s a whimsical and inaccurate imagining of it.

Rating: 4/5