Romance and other things

Chef Evan Stanford steadily climbed New York City's culinary ladder, earning himself the Rising Star James Beard award and an executive chef position at an acclaimed restaurant. But in his quest to build his reputation, he forgot what got him there: the lessons on food and life from a loving hometown neighbor. Patrick Sullivan is contented keeping the memory of his grandmother s Irish cooking alive through the food he prepares in a Brooklyn diner. But when Chef Stanford walks in for a meal, Patrick is swept up by his drive, forcing him to reconsider if a contented life is a ful­filled one. The two men begin a journey through their culinary histories, falling into an easy friendship. But even with the joys of their burgeoning love, can they tap into that secret recipe of great love, great food and transcendent joy?

Review:

In so many ways this book was a wonderful, lovely surprise. Somebody on Amazon board I like to hang out recommended it, but I do not know this person's taste that well, how it corresponds with mine, so I really took a chance. Why, I am not even sure.

I am sure all of us have read m/m romances which feature chefs as main characters. I do not know about you, but vast majority of those that I have read gave a nod to their profession and that's it, we can go have sex now and maybe briefly mention cooking. I was *not* lucky with books about chefs to put it mildly.

This one was SO different. Evan and Patrick meet when Evan and his stuff walk in the diner where he works to have dinner and what Evan remembers for days is the *dish* Patrick cooked for him, his passion in the kitchen. There are plenty of mouth watering descriptions of food, of food preparation. The guys are mature men who had lives and careers before they met and it is clear that they will have lives and careers even if they will drift apart (but they are certainly stronger together).

The conflict they are dealing with centers *around* their work - Evan trying to figure out why he lost passion for what he does (not lost passion for cooking, but lost passion for cooking in the shape and form of what he does now).

When they are together, their favorite fun is to cook together, they talk about cooking stuff (and no, I was not bored). It is basically what I consider well written fluff, you know?

This is not a very angsty book at all, but conflict and dilemma feel real.

I kind of feel that the resolution felt too easy (in a sense that it relied on convenient thing falling in their hands), but it still made sense to me.