Book Review: Knives, Seasoning, & a Dash of Love

You know what you shouldn’t do is be on an empty stomach while reading Knives, Seasoning, & a Dash of Love. Katrina Kwan’s debut romance set in the world of haute cuisine is just as packed with mouthwatering recipes as it is with a cast of characters that are alternately sweet and spicy. 

Grumpy and oh-so-serious chef Alexander Chen has his world knocked out from under him when his Michelin-starred French restaurant gets a new sous-chef in the form of Eden Monroe. Eden has a pretty serious secret: she’s lying about…pretty much her entire employment history and formal training. While Alexander tries to adjust to this new, sunshine-personified presence in his kitchen, Eden fights to maintain her secret in order to keep a job she can’t afford to lose.

Alexander takes Eden under his wing, and the two of them grow closer, with the heat in the kitchen eventually turning into heat elsewhere too. But things are never so simple, with Alexander also feeling a lot of intense pressure from the restaurant owner to perform to a certain standard, as well as harboring some secrets of his own.

One of the highlights of the book is easily the setting. A restaurant kitchen is a prime location for hot tempers to run hotter, and for high stress to bring prime angst right to the surface. The cast of characters that round out Alexander and Eden’s story, comprised of their fellow chefs, make for an entertaining chorus-like group rooting for these two kids to put their snark aside and give in to their very obvious feelings. 

In her debut effort, Kwan manages to firmly immerse the reader in the world she’s created, combining slice-of-life moments with the larger more Big Plot-centric concerns, which can make some chapters feel more like little self-contained vignettes. That said, Knives, Seasoning & a Dash of Love is still overall a sweet, breezy romance, sprinkled with spice to keep things interesting, and I would definitely be interested to see what Kwan comes up with next.  

Knives, Seasoning, & a Dash of Love is out December 19. Special thank you to Netgalley and Lake Country Press for the advance copy for review purposes.