The Delicacy
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
Rare and delicious fungi spell trouble for an ambitious restaurateur in this sumptuously painted graphic novel from one of Scotland’s most imaginative young cartoonists. This thrilling page-turner, a fascinating glimpse into the high-pressure world of big-city restaurants, is a must-read for foodies, Anglophiles, Food Network fans, and those with a taste for beautiful, terrible people. Tulip and his brother Rowan have left the simple comforts of their remote Scottish island with a plan: to grow succulent, organic vegetables in an idyllic market garden, and to open a restaurant serving these wholesome culinary delights to the busy sprawl of London. The world of fine dining seems impossibly competitive... until they discover a deliriously scrumptious new species of mushroom. The dish brings diners in droves, catapulting their small restaurant to success beyond their wildest dreams. Now, pressured by the demands of a hungry city, Tulip is desperate to crack the secret of their new ingredient's growth. But just how much will he sacrifice to feed his own insatiable ambition?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The haute cuisine scene becomes a devilish morality play in this heavy-handed but still pungent graphic novel from Albon (A Shining Beacon). "Homeschooled and never vaccinated" brothers Rowan and Tulip (who prefers Danny) grew up with a domineering hippie mother on a remote Scottish island where the former farms and the latter dreams of being a fine-dining chef. They are no sooner given news of a family inheritance than the brothers are off to the mainland. Danny opens a high-end London eatery serving organic produce from Rowan's nearby farm. A rough start is saved by Rowan's discovery of a curious mushroom whose otherworldly taste—a glorious two-page spread depicts Danny's first nibble as a consciousness-expanding moment of ecstasy—brings crowds flocking. But as celebrities and food bloggers swoon, and the restaurant becomes an empire, Danny's greed becomes an ever-hungrier beast. A visit from a gangster tips the tale of bootstrapping "cuisine de terroir" into Blood Simple territory. The art delivers shivers of both beauty (the swoops of color have a van Gogh quality) and caricatured horror (Danny's trend-hunting clientele are Ralph Steadman–esque grotesques). It's a sharply rendered tale of unlikely tragedy.
