paperbackmorning 's review for:

Tart: Misadventures of an Anonymous Chef by Slutty Cheff

2.5

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Tart is a love story between a woman and cooking. And it’s also maybe just an excuse to overshare about her sex life for 300 pages. The food writing in this memoir was the best part- I really felt the passion Cheff has for cooking. I also really appreciated the details of working as a woman in male-dominated kitchens. It sounds like the author was really able to hold her own in these spaces and that’s something to be proud of.

However, the whole thing sort of feels like the author read some Anthony Bourdain and wanted to emulate his lifestyle. The author quits her boring corporate office job and experiences a brief period of depression which she solves by moving home with her loving parents and dropping $10k on cooking school. She then gets hired to cook in the first restaurant she interviews at but burns out after seven months of long hours of cooking and quite a lot of partying. But don’t worry, her family owns a cottage by the seaside, so she spends an idyllic summer cooking at a smaller, slower-paced restaurant. However, she’s bored out of her mind there and finds another job at a fine dining spot in London where she quickly moves up in the kitchen hierarchy. 

While I appreciate the intention to share the way her passions fueled her journey, a lot of the content of this book felt like it was just there for the shock value and was quite gratuitous and tedious after awhile. It’s not my intention to slut-shame Slutty Cheff by any means- it’s just that it felt like there was nothing original there. Anyone who has worked in hospitality knows the stereotype of the chefs who drink to excess and sleep around. This felt like the story of a privileged young woman who wanted to live an edgier lifestyle and never really experienced any growth that made it worth writing a book about. 

Thank you to NetGalley and S&S/ Marysue Rucci Books for the opportunity to be an early reader of this title, available now!