Chef’s Kiss

Jarrett Melendez, Danica Brine (Illustrator), Oni Press (MAR 1) Softcover $14.99 (160pp), 978-1-62010-904-5

A young man is drawn to the culinary arts and a coworker in the romantic graphic novel Chef’s Kiss.

Ben, a recent college graduate with an English degree and aspirations of becoming a writer, is having difficulty finding work in his field. In need of money, he takes a job at a restaurant whose demanding chef presents a new cooking challenge each week. Ben begins to enjoy the job— in large part because of his attraction to a fellow employee, Liam. He also impresses his boss, showing ambition, creativity, and persistence. When Ben’s father arranges a job at a literary magazine, Ben is faced with a difficult choice: between writing and his parents’ approval on one side, and his new loves, cooking and Liam, on the other.

The book is infused with a cute, happy tone, even when its characters are navigating problems. It strays from reality to enhance that feeling in the form of a pig, Watson, who smokes cigarettes and whose taste buds make the decisions about which dishes (and chefs) pass muster at the restaurant. The light, tongue-in-cheek approach is appealing, as is the book’s excellent artwork, which captures the colors and textures of Ben’s culinary creations.

Chef’s Kiss is a sweet, funny graphic novel that shows that sometimes the best things in life are unplanned.