Off Menu: A Graphic Novel by Oliver Gerlach
Summary
This book follows a young woman who has to overcome her evil boss. The stakes are high as her boss wants to control not only the kitchen she works at. But he also wants to control the people around town she considers family.
Soup is a older teen who is at a crossroads. She wants to make her way in the world but she is having trouble leaving the restaurant she calls home. You see Soup was found at this restaurant as a baby. She grew up and learned to cook there.
Things change however when her boss snaps at her. This opens her eyes to his patterns of abuse and blackmail. These behaviors aren’t limited to the kitchen but extend to the whole town.
She challenges her boss to a cooking competition and hijinks ensue has her friends rally around her. In the competition nothing is what it seems and Soup will have to get the support of the whole community if she wants to win. Bonus points that it includes fun fairy magic.
Review
So we have another food based graphic novel. This is clearly my niche genre. Off Menu has a lot of the same tropes present in many of the books in this genre. More specifically a food competition and a rival cook.
I still like how Soup and her friends get involved. They put together a community effort to defeat her evil boss. This reminds me in a way of Noodle and Bao. I also finished it just recently. In it, they have a cooking competition against an evil foe for the sake of their restaurant.
However I think while it may be typical of the genre it is a good take. I like the different characters that come up to help with Soup’s adventures. Especially her her friend who helps her along on adventures and their ambiguous gender and cute attitude.
This book is like a lot of other food based graphic novels, such as Basil and Oregano. But as a fan off the cooking competition genre in graphic novels I don’t mind that. The tropes are well done here.
Love this little LGBTQ graphic novel. And would recommend to anyone who middle grade and up who loves to learn about cooking.
About the Author/Illustrator
Oliver Gerlach is a writer, escaped chef, and doctor of classics, living and working in Edinburgh, Scotland. His work can be found in places including 2000 AD’s Mega City Max and the GLAAD and Ringo award-winning anthology Young Men In Love. On the rare occasions when he is not writing, Oliver can be found teaching and selling board and role-playing games. He still can’t quite believe he gets to do both of these for a living. He probably spends too much time in the kitchen too. Off Menu is his debut graphic novel.
Kelsi Jo Silva is an American illustrator and artist based out of Denver, Colorado. After graduating from the Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design with a BA in illustration, Kelsi went straight into formulating a creative career. They’ve worked on a number of projects, most notably the Ela Cat children’s series with Good Luck Black Cat books, the first of which was awarded a MoonBeam award for illustration. Online, Kelsi is most known for her depictions of women in loving relationships and sapphic redesigns of Greek mythos.
Image by Crafter Chef from Pixabay
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