SADIE ON A PLATE

An aspiring restaurant owner who's joined a reality food competition learns she has bigger fish to fry when her sexy fling turns out to be the show's new celebrity judge.

After having been fired by her ex-boyfriend/boss at Seattle’s renowned Green Onion restaurant, the last thing chef Sadie Brooke Rosen expected was to land a spot on the illustrious cooking show Chef Supreme. Eager to escape a secret that made her the laughingstock of the Northwest culinary scene, Sadie boards a plane to New York in hopes of showcasing her "food with a Jewish twist"—like matzah ball ramen—to interested restaurant investors. She faces off against 11 talented and opinionated chefs, including Nia, who's memorized every statistic from previous seasons of Chef Supreme; and Kaitlyn, Sadie’s quasi-nemesis from back home. The only person missing from the competition is Luke Weston, the dreamy half-Korean chef Sadie met on the plane and had an impromptu date with though she assumed he was going to be one of the other contestants. Sadie's memories of their steamy post-date kiss evaporate, however, as soon as he walks onto the set and is introduced as the show's new judge. Sadie knows she could jeopardize her chances of winning if any details of their date go public, but she soon realizes that she’ll never get anywhere in her relationships or her career if she continues to play it safe. Elliot’s first adult novel (she writes for teens and middle graders as Amanda Panitch) has the perfect amount of reality show hijinks and food innuendos that help dial up the heat: “By the end of our allotted time, I was sweaty, satisfied, and coated in a thin layer of jelly, which also described one of my past late-night flings with the owner of a local doughnut stand.” Elliot also highlights issues of diversity in the culinary world, like the way Black chefs are pigeonholed with Southern cooking or the problem with dubbing any “non-White” plates as “ethnic cuisine.” With the mouthwatering recipes and delicious romance served here, readers will be left hungry for more adult content from Elliot.

A satisfying debut for foodies and romance lovers alike.