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In the Kitchen: A Novel by Monica Ali
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In the Kitchen: A Novel (original 2009; edition 2009)

by Monica Ali

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6014239,009 (2.93)51
Gabriel Lightfoot, the executive chef at the posh Imperial Hotel, has more than one pot set to boil over. Beside the unusual nuisance of brash diners, unpredictable kitchen staff, and an absolute ogre of a genreal manager, Gabriel finds further difficulty just under his nose when a Ukranian porter turns up dead. Throw in a mysterious woman from Belarus, add a dash of family trauma, and it's obvious the beleagured chef is overseeing a complicated menu that even he might not be able to master.… (more)
Member:featherbooks
Title:In the Kitchen: A Novel
Authors:Monica Ali
Info:Scribner (2009), Edition: First Edition, Hardcover, 448 pages
Collections:Your library, bookclub, Letters, Howard's End is On the Landing, Untitled collection, Cookbooks, Currently reading, To read, Galleys/Reading Copies
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In the Kitchen by Monica Ali (2009)

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» See also 51 mentions

Showing 1-5 of 42 (next | show all)
Had high hopes for this one. Monica Ali who wrote the amazing Brick Lane! And a book set (partly at least) in a restaurant, with a chef as the main character. Sadly it was a rather tedious read. It starts out interesting with the death of a man, one of the restaurant staff, in the kitchen cellar. And a mysterious young woman appears, needing help. The kitchen staff is a great mix of migrant workers and all the scenes set in the kitchen or restaurant are great. I guess I just didn’t really care about the main character Gabriel enough and in the end, the dead man seems to have been forgotten. A bit of a disappointment. ( )
  RealLifeReading | Mar 11, 2022 |
I didn't care for this book. Good premise, though. It didn't go where I thought it should go. ( )
  Chica3000 | Dec 11, 2020 |
After the success of her debut “Brick Lane”, Monica Ali revisits the immigrant experience in this her third novel. This time though, the location is a central London hotel’s restaurant kitchen and its working life. Ali’s prose captures the teamwork of the assortment of nationalities with their different temperaments and makes you feel the tensions and heat of their working environment.
The executive chef, Gabriel Lightfoot, struggles to keep the team on track as well as worrying about his elderly, unwell father and his poor relationship with him and at the same time trying to finalise plans to open his own restaurant in order to fulfil a long-held ambition. Ali reveals the pressures building on him and his mental equilibrium is thrown off balance by revelations about his dead brother and his suspicions about the activities of some of the hotel and kitchen staff.
These challenges build to an intense climax where Ali’s writing steers you to an ambiguous ending and Gabriel faces an uncertain future.
  camharlow2 | Dec 17, 2018 |
A most painfully dull read. I see the point Ali is trying to make about undocumented workers etc, but she has chosen whiny, annoying unlikeable characters to tell her story. Another bomb! ( )
  Rdra1962 | Aug 1, 2018 |
An uneasy mix of kitchen culture, mental health, class and race. I admired what she was trying to do without actually enjoying the book much. ( )
  laurenbufferd | Nov 14, 2016 |
Showing 1-5 of 42 (next | show all)
Monica Ali’s main themes are already coming into focus. “In the Kitchen,” like her wildly successful first novel, “Brick Lane,” takes on multicultural, postcolonial Britain. What does it look and sound like? Who gets included? What are its prospects?
added by LiteraryFiction | editNew York Times, William Grimes (pay site) (Aug 6, 2009)
 
This novel also demonstrates some of the strengths of her first work. There is much pleasure to be had in the lovingly crafted characters, the vivid scenes and the generously comic eye that lurks even in a novel detailing great human tragedy.

However, these many strengths do not constitute a thoroughly engaging whole, largely because of a lack of narrative drive. Perhaps in an attempt to mirror Gabe's uncertainty and vacillation, the story lurches erratically and stalls repeatedly.

One of the recurring ideas in the novel is the nature of choice in life - the degree to which one can shape one's own destiny. But however shapeless real life may be, readers can be unforgiving of novels with a real-life plot structure and, as a literary conceit, it is old news.

The thematic development is also clunky, with many of the characters' conversations on capital-T themes seeming tacked-on and didactic.

Ali furnishes Gabe's kitchen with the intellectual Nikolai, a refugee doctor forced to become a junior chef, and his conversations with the increasingly manic Gabe recall the Socratic discussion of a philosophy tutorial.

Towards the end, the plot finally gathers momentum, indicating that some vigorous pruning would have released the story and made for a more absorbing novel.

As it is, too many readers will be lost in the swirls of Gabe's erratic breakdown, which is unfortunate because this writer's many talents could have made for another critical and popular success
 

» Add other authors (6 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Monica Aliprimary authorall editionscalculated
Björkt, Moa-LisaTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
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Gabriel Lightfoot, the executive chef at the posh Imperial Hotel, has more than one pot set to boil over. Beside the unusual nuisance of brash diners, unpredictable kitchen staff, and an absolute ogre of a genreal manager, Gabriel finds further difficulty just under his nose when a Ukranian porter turns up dead. Throw in a mysterious woman from Belarus, add a dash of family trauma, and it's obvious the beleagured chef is overseeing a complicated menu that even he might not be able to master.

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