Test Kitchen (Hardcover)

Neil Stewart

ISBN 10: 1472158253 / ISBN 13: 9781472158253

Published by Little, Brown Book Group, London, 2024

About this Item

Hardcover. 'Test Kitchen is phenomenal - a mad, magical, ten-course feast of a novel, gorgeously written, totally original, packed with ideas and invention. Incredibly ambitious too - so many characters, so many stories, all of it choreographed so expertly. I have no idea how Neil Stewart did it, even after reading it twice. It deserves to be a massive success. Three Michelin stars' Paul Murray, author of The Bee Sting'An amazing novel . . . Veering from humorous to horrifying, Test Kitchen shows real insight into the mildly unhinged nature of both high-end restaurants and their diners - with wit, lyricism and a killer turn of phrase' Marina O'Loughlin'A gorgeous tasting menu of a novel, a glittering mystery as sharp as a paring knife and as artfully constructed as its fictional restaurant' Lauren Beukes, author of The Shining GirlsWelcome to a Tuesday night at London restaurant Midgard. The kitchen is buzzing. The tables are set. And the staff and guests take their place.The maitre d' caught up in a conspiracy.The precocious young foodie with an axe to grind.The nervous new sous chef.The anonymous influential food critic.The patisserie chef stalked by her ex-lover.The wayward son of a dangerous family.The enigmatic head chef with the past she won't discuss.The lone diner with the terrible wound to his face.Watching everything from her hidden vantage is Marley, the restaurant's newest waitress. She alone knows bad things are about to unfold - but she is powerless to intervene.Tonight, everyone has a story. Is it too late to change how this one ends?Tense and moreish, Test Kitchen is a darkly funny and often macabre story about the culture of food, of dining and eating, about feeding and nourishing, about mothers, mortality and magic. Take a seat for an evening service at Michelin-starred Midgard, during which the stage is set for the most deliciously haunting who-done-it you'll read this year. Test Kitchen is a novel about food: about desire and violence, mothers and mortality. Do you dare let us whet your appetite? Shipping may be from our Sydney, NSW warehouse or from our UK or US warehouse, depending on stock availability.

Seller Inventory # 9781472158253

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Test Kitchen (Hardcover)
• Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group, London
• Publication Date: 2024
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1472158253
• ISBN 13: 9781472158253
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

Test Kitchen is set during a single evening's service at the Michelin-starred restaurant everyone's talking about, Midgard.

As Midgard's newest waitress, Australian born Marley is glad to have found a kind of family among the 'brigade' there. Like any family, however, it is dysfunctional. And by the looks of things this evening, possibly even lethal . . .

A violent event - an event she is struggling to piece together - has befallen Marley. She can't move. She can't speak. All she can do is observe the restaurant tonight, seeing but unseen. As she strains to recall what might have happened to her, she can only witness the tragedy that is about to unfurl in this hallowed space normally so meticulously run by Joanna, Midgard's famed yet unknowable head chef . . .

Tense and moreish, Test Kitchen offers a deliciously dark insight into the goings-on behind the scenes in the kitchen, as well as eavesdropping in on the dramas of the diners who are lucky - or unlucky - enough to have booked a table at Midgard on this fateful night. Test Kitchen is a gripping, funny and often macabre story about the culture of food, of dining and eating, about feeding and nourishing, about mothers, mortality and magic.