Flavor of the Week - Softcover

TUCKER SHAW is a committed food fanatic and love junkie who lives in New York City.

Gr. 8-10. The Iron Chef meets Cyrano de Bergerac in this flossy romantic comedy about Cyril Bartholomew, an overweight cooking prodigy, whose two top-secret passions --food and a girl named Rose--land him in a love triangle. It all begins when Cyril's handsome best friend decides to woo Rose, a crunchy-granola type who finds men in aprons irresistible, by passing off Cyril's culinary creations as his own. Figuring this may be his only chance to cook for his love, Cyril loyally goes along with the ruse. Unfortunately, the resulting turmoil imperils his audition at a prestigious culinary institute. In the end, good-hearted Cyril earns a spot at the institute by serving up simple, honest food, and he gets the girl through a similar approach. Though the subsidiary characters are underdeveloped, Cyril is a charismatic hero whose mixture of kitchen machismo and relationship timidity will endear him to readers--even those more interested in pepperoni pizza than "Carmelized Onion Paste with Shaved Truffles" (one of 25 dishes for which recipes are provided). Jennifer Mattson
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