The Chef
By Martin Suter
3.5/5
()
About this ebook
A thriller and love story that has gripped readers across Europe, filled with culinary exploits and sexual adventures, and includes 16 recipes
As the financial crisis tightens its grip on Europe, the gilded world of Zurich's leading restaurant, Chez Huwyler, seems immune to plunging stock markets and collapsing banks. But behind the scenes, even the rarefied world of haute cuisine is feeling the bite and so Maravan, a Tamil dishwasher and undiscovered culinary genius, and Andrea, a stunningly beautiful waitress, find themselves out of work and needing to find another way to survive. After Maravan seduces Andrea by cooking her a dinner that fuses the aphrodisiac recipes of his ancestors with the necromancy of molecular gastronomy, Andrea hits upon a business idea: romantic catering for couples. But even culinary magic can't ward off recession and when their new company begins to struggle, they are forced to enter into a much more unsavory business, plunging them deep into an underworld where murder and sex feed otherwise unquenchable thirsts.
Martin Suter
Martin Suter is a writer, columnist and screenwriter. Until 1991 he worked as a creative director in advertising, before deciding to focus exclusively on writing. His novels have enjoyed huge international success. He has also written screenplays for film and television, and several of his novels have been made into films. Martin lives in Zurich with his family.
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Reviews for The Chef
102 ratings5 reviews
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Chef, I expected more about food, mostly about war.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Readable. Rather sparse writing. It moves along at a clip with short chapters about two different sets-classes of people (the caterers (a Tamil immigrant & a lesbian) and the business guys), and a lot of description of molecular cooking processes. The premise of tamil food (lots of spices) molecularly prepared being super libido enhancing I found to be quite silly, but ok it set the plot in action.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I couldn't get through to the end. There is so much detail you can't follow the story.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Martin Suter hat mich bisher noch nie enttäuscht. Die Beschreibung der Kochvorgänge ist mir etwas zu ausführlich und - als Nicht-Köchin - langweilig und unverständlich, aber dennoch fesselt der Roman vom Anfang bis zum Ende. Die Charaktere sind lebendig und anschaulich beschrieben.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Hinter dem eher nichtssagenden Titel 'Der Koch' verbirgt sich eine vielschichtige Geschichte, reich an Überraschungen und Unglaublichkeiten, die sich aber genau so im Hier und Jetzt zugetragen haben könnte.
Maravan, tamilischer Asylant in der Schweiz und ein begnadeter Koch, eröffnet nach dem Verlust seiner Arbeit als Küchenhilfe gemeinsam mit seiner Kollegin Andrea einen ganz speziellen Cateringservice: Erotische Menüs, die selbst eingefleischte Lesben ihre Neigungen vergessen lassen. Schnell avancieren sie zu einem Geheimtipp in der Wirtschaftselite, doch Maravan hadert mit seiner Tätigkeit die seiner Lebens- und Moralauffassung fundamental widerspricht. Zudem plagen ihn die Sorgen um seine Familie in Sri Lanka, die vom dort herrschenden Bürgerkrieg direkt betroffen ist. Parallel dazu erhält man einen Einblick in die Welt der Schweizer 'Hochfinanz', die sich mit allem abgibt, was einen stattlichen Gewinn verspricht und auch vor kriminellen Machenschaften nicht zurückschreckt. Es ist kein schönes Bild das Suter entwirft, schnell ist klar wo seine Sympathien liegen.
Ein zwiespältiges Buch: Es macht Spass es zu lesen, es regt den Appetit an, aber zuguterletzt bleibt man doch mit fast leerem Magen zurück. Vielleicht ist es die überdeutliche Schwarz-Weiß-Darstellung seiner Figuren, hier die Guten, dort die Schlechten, die ein Gefühl der Belanglosigkeit hinterlässt. Obwohl Suter sicherlich gut recherchiert hat, seine Bezugnahme zum realen Weltgeschehen kaum aktueller sein könnte, bleibt nach dem Lesen ein schales Gefühl zurück. Ein gut geschriebener Unterhaltungsroman mit ernstem Hintergrund - schnell gelesen, aber auch schnell wieder vergessen.
PS: Falls jemand weiß wo man diese herrlich beschriebenen Sachen essen kann: Bitte mitteilen! Danke :-)