In The Kitchen
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2.6 • 5 Ratings
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- £7.99
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- £7.99
Publisher Description
At the once-splendid Imperial Hotel, chef Gabriel Lightfoot is trying to run a tight kitchen. But his integrity and his sanity are under constant challenge from an exuberantly multinational staff, a gimlet-eyed hotel management, and business partners with whom he is planning a new venture. Despite the pressure, his hard work looks set to pay off.
Until the discovery of a porter's dead body in the kitchen appears to tip the scales. It is a small death, a lonely death - but it is enough to disturb the tenuous balance of Gabe's life.
In The Kitchen is Monica Ali's stunning follow up to Brick Lane. It is both the portrait of a man pushed to the edge, and a wry and telling look into the melting pot which is our contemporary existence. It confirms Monica Ali not only as a great modern storyteller but also an acute observer of the dramas of modern life.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
From the author: “There’s different backgrounds, ethnicities and languages found in the melting pot of the kitchen. And Gabe is very at home with this diversity. When he goes back to his hometown, his family seem to be less than happy with the changes they’re witnessing. Gabe is infuriated by what he sees as the racism, to put it bluntly. But this book interrogates those attitudes—is it really as simple as that?
“I grew up in a northern mill town: Bolton. And Gabe’s father still lives in a town not dissimilar. Gabe is in a London hotel, presiding over a kitchen that’s very multicultural and multinational and he has a breakdown. At one point, he finds himself working on a farm with Eastern European fruit and veg pickers—he’s sort of lost his mind at this point, and his identity, literally and figuratively. The book at its core is about identity. And at that moment he’s lost it. He then goes on to rebuild it. So I think that was a means of me tapping into who you are, how you construct yourself from the ground up. How much is it for you what society puts on you and how much of this is internal?
“I did lots of research in kitchens in London. And there’s a lot of alcoholism, there are lots of drugs, a lot of scars—literal scars, forms of self-harm and then accidents. It’s hot, fast-paced and tense, and it’s low paid with long hours. Which can be great and can also bring tension. In part, it’s like a ballet—a dance when the kitchen comes together—but it’s partly on a sort of semi-permanent war footing too.”
Customer Reviews
Didn't light my fire
I enjoyed the atmospheric depictions of London. However, I found the plot a tad tedious. I didn't really buy the whole psychological unraveling of Gabriel. Too many actions seemed at odds with his character. The twist/reveal at the end had never rolling my eyes.