Food, to make, to eat, to save

Synopsis

Can they stand the heat…?

Maggie’s in the running to be the next head chef at Michelin-starred Manhattan restaurant, Jean-Sébastien’s. Unfortunately, she’s competing against notoriously arrogant Ethan to prove she’s the best chef for the job.

Food critic Emily can make or break a chef’s career. When she visits the restaurant to see what interim head chef, Maggie, has to offer, Emily is having a particularly bad day…

Single mum Nayomi needs a job and Jean-Sébastien’s needs a kitchen porter – perfect! She just has to keep her head down and money coming in. But she’s desperate to speak up and help struggling chef Maggie – Nayomi’s own skills might be just the recipe to save Maggie’s career and impress Emily.

A delicious story of unexpected friendship and risking it all, for fans of Zara Stoneley and Lauren Weisberger.

My review

Jean – Sébastien’s is a Michelin – starred restaurant in Manhattan. But when the head chef, Jean Sébastian suddenly dies, Maggie hopes she will finally be able to prove her worth and become the next chef, in honour of her mentor.
But then she sees her promotion changing into an interim job, and her worst enemy Ethan is ready to take over the chef’s cap…
And it doesn’t help when food critic Emily visits the restaurant. One review from her can make or break a chef’s career. And Emily feels she has a score to settle…
But Maggie finds helps in the newly hired kitchen porter Nayomi, a single mum in need of the extra cash.
Despite Nayomi’s resolution to be as invisible as possible, she cannot stand and just watch Maggie struggling. And Nayomi’s background can be exactly the thing to help Maggie out.

I love reading books and watching movies about food. And I am always intrigued by how it works behind the scenes in a restaurant. but I can say with 100% certainty that it is a job I would never ever ever do it myself.
So I have respect for people who work every day,  every shift in a restaurant to just let us enjoy a lovely meal!

At first I thought I would be confused while reading this book, as there are three main characters, facing their own struggles.
But my fears were unfounded, as it was very easy to keep track of just everyone’s background.

All the women are facing difficulties in their lives and are struggling with just keeping their head straight.
I am not going to tell exactly what each woman has to endure, because I want you to discover every story yourself.
But I cannot not say how even if apparently there was no emotional link between the women, it all came together and the missing bits were linked together.

This story is about strong women, trying to stand up again after a great pain. In their own way, they try to stand their ground, but have to face the emotional background and pick up the pieces again.
Not only is it about making amends, but also about following your passions, dare to move on and allow love (back) in your life. Not only the love – love but the friendship – love, the parent – child love and food – love also!

I found this a lovely story to read, and it reminded me of movies and I saw and I saw while reading a lot of potential in making into a movie, with a better storyline than the already seen movies.
The author shows us in this book how wrong sometimes our perception of an event can be. But also that another hurtful event can be the start of something new and the possibility to do some internal search of what we truly want from our lives.
And that no matter what happened in the past it’s never too late to undo the wrong we once did.
Oh, and there is tons of food in it! Just dig in!