Chop Chop
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Penguin Books Ltd
Published:5th Mar '15
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
* * * SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2014 COSTA FIRST NOVEL AWARD * * *
Outrageously funny and completely original, Chop Chop by Simon Wroe is the story of a hapless young chef in the crazed world of the professional kitchen, featuring lust, revenge, neurosis and haute cuisine.
'A greasy, hilarious tale of loyalty, revenge and dark appetites. A gripping look behind the kitchen wall' Shortlist
Two months behind on his rent, young graduate Monocle swallows his dreams and takes the only job he can find: the lowest-rung chef in a gastropub in Camden. Here he finds himself surrounded by a group of deranged hoodlums (his co-workers) and at the mercy of an ingenious sadist (the head chef, Bob). What follows is a furiously-paced, ribald, raucous and unexpectedly touching tale of loyalty and revenge, dark appetites and fading dreams, and a young man finding his way in the world as he is plunged into the fat and the frying pan and everything else besides.
'Perfectly baked [with] a rich, gooey pool of dark comedy hiding beneath the surface' Independent
'Lively, amusing and alarmingly informative' Daily Mail
'Arch comedy ... Dave Eggers channels Anthony Bourdain' Kirkus
'A brutally funny look at the world of professional cooking' Gary Shteyngart
Brace yourself for this lively, amusing and alarmingly informative novel * Daily Mail *
A greasy, hilarious tale of loyalty, revenge and dark appetites * Shortlist *
Confirms all your worst fears about professional kitchens in a debut novel that is dark, pungent, twisted, surprising and above all genuinely funny. If you enjoy eating out, don't read this book -- William Sutcliffe, author of Are You Experienced?
Raucous and inventive, peopled with technicolour characters and savagely funny, Chop Chop announces Simon Wroe as both an heir to Martin Amis and an oven-fresh talent unto himself -- A D Miller, author of Snowdrops
A complete page-turner. Reminiscent of Kitchen Confidential but with an entirely fresh voice that is a pleasure to read -- Thomasina Miers, founder of Wahaca
Perfectly baked [with] a rich, gooey pool of dark comedy hiding beneath the surface. Despite straying into the realm of sabotage, blackmail and secret dinner parties serving stomach-churning illegal fare, Wroe's novel makes for fresh, appetising reading * Independent *
A brutally funny look at the world of professional cooking. Sometimes the truth is so strange it needs to be sautéed in a pan of fiction -- Gary Shteyngart, author of Super Sad True Love Story
Furiously funny, fast, surreal. The heat and the profanity feel painfully real; the prose, masterfully stylized, definitely the stuff of fiction -- Anya von Bremzen, author of Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking
Arch comedy ... Dave Eggers channels Anthony Bourdain * Kirkus *
Depicts the literal underworld of a restaurant kitchen with wit, vigor, and gleeful, necessary profanity * New York Times Book Review *
- Short-listed for Costa First Novel Award 2014
ISBN: 9780241967133
Dimensions: 198mm x 129mm x 35mm
Weight: 500g
336 pages