Review by Karl Verhoven

When released in 2022 Chef’s Kiss proved a sleeper hit, earning Eisner Award nominations, and several others, non-comics specific, several of which were won. The total was an impressive haul, which led to a hardcover deluxe edition re-release.

Lead character Ben is one of four room-mates who’ve just graduated and moved to the city, where they discover university grades count for very little without practical experience. Ben’s always enjoyed cooking, though, so his choice drills down to moving back home or taking whatever job he can, which is how he ends up working for Chef Davis alongside Sous Chef Liam, who immediately has Ben’s hormones jumping.

By that time Danica Brine has already seduced readers. Jarrett Melendez has created a likeable cast, and Brine’s clean art brings those personalities to life, settling them within fully realised backgrounds. Emotional complications abound from Ben’s attraction to Liam, to his lying to his parents about where he really works, and Brine gives these moments the right nuance. An especially nice touch is the use of Tintin-style little squiggles indicating movement.

What’s good about the writing is that it overcomes the irritating quirks. Because one flatmate is a Shakespearean specialist Melendez frequently has the cast lapse into cod-Shakespearean dialogue when she’s around. Lines such as “’twould seem thy ruse was for naught. Thy claim upon victory came in time” definitely wear thin, even if not prolonged throughout, and the joke about Chef Davis deliberately calling Ben by the wrong name is overused. However, the compensation is a wealth of nice touches that have the feeling of Melendez calling on personal experience. He certainly has ideas about the actual recipes, which are filtered through Ben as a series of Bake-Off style challenges. Whether or not the chef keeping a pig in the back yard was an actual memory or not, it’s the whimsical inclusion with the greatest charm.

Readers will predict that Ben soon coming to feel at home in the restaurant, and other aspects, but the delight is following the cast where they lead. Chef’s Kiss is a romantic comedy drama in the old fashioned sense, and only those with stone hearts won’t become caught up in a bunch of nice people’s problems even when the choice they build to is inevitable. There’s a clever solution, though. It’s Friends for the 2020s, and the format of choice is surely the 2024 hardcover edition.