In the Kitchen

Gabriel Lightfoot is the executive chef of the restaurant at the Imperial Hotel, London. Yuri, the night porter, a Ukranian, is found dead in the basement of the hotel. It seems Yuri had been living there. Loneliness killed Yuri Gabe surmises. The Imperial Hotel had been built in 1878. Gabe seeks distraction from the kitchen, an incredibly busy place, with his girlfriend Charlie, a jazz singer. When Gabriel learns his father has cancer, he visits and discovers his sister Jenny has made a number of complicated arrangements so that his grandmother and his father are visited two times a day by someone. His circumstances are a common enough situation. Gabe left and Jenny stayed and now Gabe is the more valued. The household had been encumbered, in terms of functioning adequately, by the undiagnosed mental illness of one of its members. This is handled delicately by the author. The book is funny, colorful, picturesque. Perhaps everyone has worked in a kitchen or at least has imagined what it must be like to work in a large, well-staffed kitchen. The one in the story has a number of employees and is capable of turning out many formal meals. In its complexity, hard work, zaniness, and fun one is reminded of the British series, CHEF. Gabriel is like everyone. He is a lost man and a confused man. He ponders what family loyalty means. He wants to create his own family, but in the turmoil of conflicting emotions he tells a lie and he misses his chance. Near the end of the book he has a panic attack. Subsequently events have a way of emerging like fireworks racing forward. A nice ending gives the reader hope amidst descriptions of institutionalization and exploitation. This is ripping.

This book was a bit slow at the beginning, but once the story unfolded I could not put it down. It seemed normal at first, until the main character made a totally off-the-wall decision, at which point the character went downhill and the book went uphill. First of all, the author does a good job of describing a modern chef's kitchen, with the politics and the food being covered well. This is also an engrossing tale of mental illness, as experienced by the sick person. The description of his actions and their increasingly crazy results are just outstanding. There is also a lot of social commentary on the state of english multiculturalism, which is a social commentary on how the European states are destroying their own cultural identities by not encouraging people who emigrate to embrace english culture. This part of the book is also fascinating reading, but juxtaposed with the mental illness leaves one wondering if the ramblings of the main character represent the "ill" view, or a "fact" view that helped drive the man towards mental illness. I suspect the latter, due to the many clues in the early parts of the book wherein the many foreign nationals in a modern English kitchen are discussed. The book has some adult themes that would be unsuitable for children. I would suggest mid-teens or older as suitable readers.

In "Brick Lane", Monica Ali showed great promise of a talented writer with formidable narrative skill. Even though "In the Kitchen", her second novel and third book ("Alentejo Blue", a collection of stories, was her second book), is not as grand as Brick Lane, it's a very good novel, complex, engaging, and highly readable. The novel starts rather slowly, but the pace gains speed and the narration gains momentum, as the novel progresses. Portions of the second half of the novel are excellent, and here the reader gets glimpses of an astonishing and magical writer. This book could be considered as three stories weaved into a lively novel, or three strands of a story braided as if to create a lovely plait. Gabriel Lightfoot, the protagonist, is executive chef at London's Imperial Hotel. The first story is Gabriel's relationship with his long time girlfriend, Charlie, an attractive, red-haired singer at a club. The second story is Gabriel's affair and fascination with a beautiful and rather mysterious woman from Belarus, an escaped sex slave named Lena. The third story is Gabriel's relationship with his father, who has been diagnosed with cancer. And all three stories revolve around the central incident of the novel: a porter - an illegal immigrant from Ukraine, is found murdered in the basement of the Imperial Hotel. Through a realistic description of a busy kitchen of a fancy restaurant, and uncontrived, smooth flowing dialogue, and vivid descriptions and the magic of her pen, Monica Ali has created an absorbing and entertaining novel. And I think "In the Kitchen" will enhance her reputation as one of the important English writers.

If this book were a wedding cake, it would have at least three tiers, very elaborate icing, and a horse-draw carriage with a multi-ethnic groomsman and bridesmaids on top. Set in modern-day London, this story follows the chaotic life of an early-forty-something chef at a major hotel who may or may not be going mad. Up to a point, it's a little formulaic: the chef, or Chef, Gabriel is surrounded by 'colorful' immigrants from various countries; his girlfriend is a nightclub singer; his potential business partners are stuffy British politicians who wear, of course, bad haircuts and suspenders. There is a dead body in the basement, and a mysterious, ghostlike girl near the corpse, as well. Gabriel has the usual commitment-phobic thought patterns that unmarried men of his generation often do. The mysterious girl becomes the subject of his 'the-grass-is-always-greener' fantasies. At that point, you'll want to put the book down: will the waifish otherworldly blonde with an affinity for dead men become the woman of his dreams? or will she turn out to be the dastardly murderer in the end... But then, you get to the next layer, and it's something else entirely. Meandering through a funny, poetic portrayal of a big hotel kitchen, the story wends through exploitation of European emigres, human trafficking, the criminal element of modern Russia, and even African boy soldiers. Simultaneously, there is commentary on the final passing of the British Industrial Revolution and the change from Britain as a productive country to an empty, and poor consumer nation. (Or is that America?) The last third of the book adds yet another layer: the author throws in a spinning narrative about one of the main characters that reminds you of watching car-sized ice sculptures in hotels melt away--why are they there? Because they're there--and you realize that this is also, an existential novel...and you will want to throw it across the room again; some stories disappear like airspun sugar; this one will stay with you for awhile. It's memorable, funny, artistically descriptive, and sad. It's also very well worth the time spent reading it, particularly if you are looking for something engrossing. Eat it up!

Gabriel Lightfoot has it all figured out. At forty-two, he has a glamorous girlfriend he fully intends to marry though he hasn't asked her yet, and he's executive chef of the London's Imperial Hotel, a venue that is not as grand as its name. It's a stepping stone to having his own restaurant and he's partnered with two characters he feels less than comfortable with. He's left his working class Blantwhistle background behind him--he thinks. Having paid his dues in countless restaurants across Europe, learned to chop exact mirepoix, make the perfect cinnamon rolls, and cut mountains of potatoes into unnatural shapes; Gabriel is on the verge of achieving his goal. However, as the late, great John Lennon said, 'Life is what happens while you're making other plans', and the discovery of the body of the porter Yuri in the basement of the Imperial begins a series of events that derails Gabriel's ambitions. His father is diagnosed with cancer, his beloved Nana is deteriorating into dementia, and his sister Jenny reenters Gabriel's life sporting a frightening new hairdo. Worst of all, Gabriel offers temporary shelter to the mysterious and sullen Lena, a kitchen minion at the Imperial somehow connected with Yuri, and rapidly becomes involved in her life at the expense of his own. In the unforgiving environment of an upscale restaurant kitchen in which exquisite meals must always go out on schedule, Gabriel's future unravels. He must contend with his own inflexible, perfectionist nature; the sinister restaurant manager Gleeson, who's up to something, if Gabriel can't figure out exactly what; the United Nations in the kitchen--the annoying bible verse spouting Jamaican sous-chef Oona; Albert, the fifty-ish Viagra popping depressive whose conversion to the cult of anti-depressants has made him useless with puff pastry; the alcoholic Damian; Nicolai, the exiled Russian obstetrician who is a victim of perestroika; the poetry-writing, incompetent Ernie--not to mention his boss, the bully Maddox. After a wild day and night during which the sleep deprived Gabriel burns bridges with his partners, his fiancee and his job, and careens across London searching for clues to his own and Lena's existence, he ends up digging onions at Nut Tree Farm in the company of exploited Eastern Europeans. After having worked for years in the company of refugees, he begins to realize the truth of Nicolai's observation, "For a refugee, his story is the most important thing he owns..." As he comes to terms with his true nature, Gabriel begins to see value in the people around him. In The Kitchen is neither a quick nor a light read, but it is a rewarding one. Gabriel is an interesting and unusual protagonist. I know enough about commercial kitchens to know that Ms. Ali has painted an accurate portrait of the day to day workings of a restaurant such as the one at the Imperial Hotel, and her Gabriel Lightfoot is an authentic prism through which to view the cultural ragu of