Last week, Oni Press released the graphic novel Chef’s Kiss, a charming adult coming of age story that serves up not just heartwarming charm and romance, but some truly delicious food that isn’t just a treat for the eyes thanks to the inclusion of original recipes written just for the story. Written by Jarret Melendez with art by Danica Brine, colors by Hank Jones, and letters by Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou, Chef’s Kiss follows Ben Cook, a recent college graduate who after struggling to find a job in his chosen field of study, ends up applying to work at a restaurant. It turns out that he’s a natural in the kitchen, but soon it’s more than delicious meals that are getting cooked up. Romance is simmering as well between Ben and one of the chefs, Liam.
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A story about love, the struggles of being a new adult in the world and finding your own way, friendship, and even a taste-testing pig who steals every panel he’s in, Chef’s Kiss is a manga-inspired delight of self-discovery that is a joy to read and experience. ComicBook.com recently sat down with Melendez and Brine to chat about Chef’s Kiss, talking about where the idea for the story came from, the importance of its wide appeal, that taste testing pig, and yes, the authentic recipes created for the book. Read on for our chat with Melendez and Brine to find out more!
Chef’s Kiss is on sale now.
Cover
Origins
ComicBook.com: Where did the idea for Chef’s Kiss come from?
Jarret Melendez: Danica and I had been friends for a few years already. And then one summer we were just kind of talking about what we’re both doing and what we wanted to do and eventually, you know she and I have a ton in common personality wise but also just our tastes and things and the stuff we read and watch. And there wasn’t a lot of this kind of content out at the time — we started this like four years ago and since then we’ve seen other queer romance books come out and other queer books centered around food, too … But it was just a conversation between the two of us, like ‘what if we did something cute about boys that fall in love and they both like food.’
One of the things I just loved about this book is that while you know it’s a queer romance, it doesn’t feel like a queer romance. It’s just a story and it’s just people living people lives doing people things and it’s natural and organic. How important was it for you guys to make a story that was very relatable for a very specific group of people, but also widely accessible?
We knew that we wanted this to be a queer book because we love boys falling in love with boys, but we didn’t want that to be the whole thing. And we didn’t want it to be anchored in queer trauma or queer persecution or anything like that. That is very much something that still happens and is still happening today, but we have a lot of stories are about that. And they are very sad, and they are very important, but this just needed to be like all the queer manga that we like, just like loving and fun.
Danica Brine: For me, as an all, I just kind of went with it. And the script was already, like, everything was already laid out. And when it came to drawing it, I kind of like, not would forget that the main characters are going through that aspect of like, you know, he already came out to his parents and his parents already know, his friends already know, he already has that support around him. So, it was as much about the struggle. It was about the struggles of a young person. The struggle of a young person looking for jobs and going through that and it kind of made it more like he just happens to be gay and that’s great. We didn’t want to show him struggling with any of that. And I think that’s what made it more genuine.
Watson
I have to ask, whose idea is the taste testing pig and why? He’s my favorite character.
Melendez: I love Watson. So, my ex and I, we were obsessed with pigs, and we started naming them while we were together and one of them is named Watson. So, we named the pig in the book after Watson and I think this come from like, stuff like Food Wars and these anime and manga that are about food but that have these like really bizarre tangents that happen.
Brine: There has to be the cute animal aspect. It’s the formula. It’s like ‘how do we put that guy in there?’ You know, like, we got to put that cute like, you know, all the Magical Girl enemies will have the cute little bunnies and stuff. It’s a formula and I don’t know what it is, but it works.
Variant Cover
Recipes
Reading the book made me hungry, but I kept thinking the entire time I was reading it, ‘I hope these recipes are real because I’m gonna need to make some of these things.’ And then you get to the end and there they are. Why include the recipes?
Melendez: Danica and I love food and while we were first developing this, Danica was working on a food comic project and so I knew… she’s killer drawing everything, but her food stuff is so pretty. It really takes on that Ghibli aspect. When somebody is making bacon and eggs in a Ghibli movie, you’re like, ‘I want those eggs.’
Brine: It’s easy for me, drawing food and stuff. It’s such a break from drawing faces. For me it’s like, trying to line up eyes? That’s a struggle for all artists but drawing a pear tart? I can imagine how it tastes and I just love it.
Melendez: Before this book I had worked in kitchens, I’ve been a chef. And currently I’m an editor for Epicurious so I’ve been a food pro for a lot of years just off and on throughout my life and so I actually developed all of the recipes. These are my original recipes for the book and Danica brought them to life in an exciting way, more beautifully than I could have.
Future Plans
Is there any hope we might get more from the Chef’s Kiss world?
Melendez: Our dream has been to do four books in total. This one takes place in fall; all the recipes are fall seasonal. You can see it in the outfits that Danica puts together and the coloring that Han uses, like the leaves are turning brown and starting cold and all that. We want to do all four seasons and have it be a year in the life of Ben and his friends and Liam and his friends.
