Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for giving me an advanced copy of this book to read and review.

The Last Super Chef is a combination of a family book mixed with a reality cooking show. It is a sweet idea and the author pulled it off beautifully. Super cute and light read.

I hope the kids in the kitchen trend is here to stay. Though I did prefer the similar Alice Fleck's Recipe for Disaster, this one is super fun too.

Anyone who knows me knows I love to watch cooking shows, especially shows in which kids produce such amazing, mouth-watering dishes. Naturally, novels about kids on cooking shows are also a favorite category of mine. So I was pretty excited to read The Last Super Chef by Chris Negron, especially since I enjoyed his other book Dan Unmasked so much.

Money problems have always plagued the Pith family - mom, Curtis, 11, and fourth grade sister, Paige. Curtis, who is the family cook and wants to be a chef when he grows up, creatively makes due with whatever food they can afford, but it just never seems to be enough.

Naturally, Curtis' favorite TV show is Super Chef, starring world renowned chef Lucas Taylor. Not only is Chef Taylor an amazing cook, but Curtis is also convinced that he is his father, thanks to a causal remark his mother made when he was in 2nd grade and asked about his absent, unknown father.

Now, Curtis' mom has been fired, their greedy landlord is after the rent money owed him and it is announced that once the new cooking champ is crowned that will be the end of Super Chef. BUT, a culinary contest called The Last Super Chef is announced and this show will feature only five kid competitors instead of adults. And the winner will receive $250,000 with which to do anything they want.

Curtis is determined to become a competitor, but how can he make the required video submission of himself demonstrating his unique cooking talents when the Pith family has so little in the way of food and a kitchen that leave much to be desired? There is only one thing to do - sneak into the landlord's super stocked, fully equipped kitchen and have his best friend Tre record him.

But when Curtis finds himself one of the five kid competitors, he discovers that there is more to cooking and life than he ever expected to experience. Staying in a set up high above the television studio, the kid competitors - Kiko Tanaka from Japan, Pepper Carmichael from Boston, Joey Modestino from Chicago, and Bo Agosto from Mexico, and of course, Curtis- are isolated from family and the rest of the world.

The Last Super Chef isn't a weekly elimination contest. Instead, the kids will accrue points and the one with the greatest number of points will be the winner, to be announced on Thanksgiving. Additionally, each week, one competitor meets with Chef Taylor, who takes them to various New York restaurants to get to know them better. Things don't go well for Curtis, who is upset and angry that Taylor won't acknowledge that he is his father, causing Curtis to have a hard time controlling his anxiety and his feeling of resentment that Chef Taylor had the means to help the Pith family out and just ignored them. Curtis, it turns out, has much to learn about himself, who he really is and what he really wants out of life.

The Last Super Chef is kind of a fun book that tackles some serious issues. Curtis' yearning for a father who can help his family out is understandable, and so is his fixation of Chef Taylor to fill that spot. His anger at the chef may be misplaced, but is also understandable until the truth comes out. Yet, Curtis manages to grow emotionally despite the disappointments and setbacks he faces. His experiences aren't without their positive aspects, however. And, of course, there is the reason why Chef Taylor is retiring at the top of his game. Even though Chef Taylor is hero status is in flux for Curtis, can he help the Chef face his own future after learning the reason for the sudden retirement plans?

This novel has a nice premise to it and is perfect for kids who like cooking, cooking shows, and/or characters they can easily relate to.

This book is recommended for readers age 9+

Curtis is an aspiring chef and when his favorite cooking show announces a competition for kids, Curtis is all in. How will his skills stack up against other kid chefs who have more experience than he does? Will the Super Chef be all that Curtis hopes he will? This very fun story is fast paced, funny, and exciting. I think kids are going to like this one a lot.

Curtis Pith is a masterful chef. He can take top ingredients and make amazing dishes. Or he can take the last few things in the pantry and whip up a tasty dinner. He has a wealth of cooking information in his head, from recipes he uses every week to dishes from the other side of the world. That’s not so unusual for a chef. But it is unusual for an 11-year-old.

Usually he cooks dinner for himself and his little sister Paige while their mother works evenings. And he makes sure never to miss an episode of Super Chef. Each season of the competition cooking raises the stakes just a little. Chef Lucas Taylor, the original Super Chef, runs the weekly contests with his two sous chefs, and Curtis stays glued to the television to learn as much as he can from the master.

And then the Super Chef makes an announcement. He is retiring from the show. But he wants to see the future of the business. He wants to find the next Super Chef, and for that he is looking for a kid. The show will be accepting video submissions for kids, and the top five will be chosen to be on the show, The Last Super Chef. As soon as Curtis finds out about this competition, he knows he has to be in it. He has to win it. First, there is the cash prize of $250,000, which would change their lives. He could buy his mother a house, and she wouldn’t have to worry so much about her job.

But there’s something else, something Curtis has never told anyone. Chef Taylor is his father.

When he’d been in second grade, he had asked his mother who his father is. She burst into tears trying to tell him. She was finally able to tell Curtis that he was a chef, a super chef, and then she pointed towards the television, where Lucas Taylor had been, on his show Super Chef.

So the second reason Curtis wants to be, no, needs to be on The Last Super Chef, is to finally meet his father in person.

Every night for a week, a new winner is announced on the news. Curtis watches each night as one contestant after another is named, and it’s not until the last night that they come knocking on his door. His video of him making a single perfect cheese soufflé was enough to get him on the show.

Suddenly, he’s off to New York City to meet the other four contestants and compete to be the Last Super Chef. As the challenges whiz by and he makes friends with the other kids, he has to fight against his anxiety as well as his growing resentment at Chef Taylor being so distant all those years. Clearly, he had the means to help the family, to come visit and see how Paige and Curtis were doing as they grew up. So what kept him so far away?

Will Curtis be able to put his feelings aside and win the competition, or will he let his feelings distract him too much? Will he be the Last Super Chef? Or will be find something even more valuable than that title?

Author Chris Negron has taken a little but of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and mixed in some Master Chef Junior to create The Last Super Chef. This story of family, food, friendship, and a madcap cooking competition is just as fun and charming as you would hope. If you’ve got kids who are fans of cooking shows and competitions, then they will chow down on this novel. It keeps the flavor of the reality show with a lot of off-screen moments, and the characters are the kids you could find in any neighborhood school.

I absolutely loved The Last Super Chef. It’s a fun play on the reality competition shows but also has a real depth of feeling and family in the story. It’s smart and funny, interesting and charming, and genuinely heart-warming. This one is an instant classic!

Egalleys for The Last Super Chef were provided by HarperCollins Children’s Books through NetGalley, with many thanks.

Reality cooking shows are my jam, so I was excited to see this book come down the line. I usually have some prior knowledge of a book before it makes it to my TBR (to-be-read) pile, but this one was chosen for pure fun. Curtis is obsessed with the idea of making it onto a kids only version of a cooking show and he succeeds. Beyond the desire to compete, he is also motivated to get closer to the host who he believes to be his father.
I enjoyed learning cultural tidbits about the diverse competitors, feeling the pressure of the kids engaged in the contest, and reading the detailed descriptions of the cooking challenges throughout the book. Curtis certainly uncovers personal details of the show’s host, but they are not what he expected.
I read some backstory about the author’s inspiration for the book that was very interesting to me, but I won’t spoil it. Fans of cooking competitions will enjoy this book.

The Last Super Chef reads like a behind-the-scenes expose of MasterChef/MasterChef Junior. Lucas Taylor is an easy stand-in for multi-Michelin starred chef Gordon Ramsay, and Curtis could be any of the contestants that have participated over the years.

Obviously, there are some differences — the main one being the long-lost father storyline — but the overall passion, competition concept and cookery are not only similar, but feel true to the circumstances.

The Last Super Chef can be divided into two parts — the cooking competition and everything else. And that’s to the book’s benefit.

When the kids are competing, that’s where all the action is. It’s tense, and it’s tunnel vision. It’s all about getting through the next hour (or less) with the best outcome possible. These are the parts of the book that get the readers’ heart racing and the pages flipping.

It’s in the quieter, noncompetition moments where the creativity comes through. This is where Curtis and the other kids become the characters you care about. It’s where they discover each other’s strengths and weaknesses and learn to work together.

If The Last Super Chef’s strength is in these two contrasting parts. They create a push-pull balance that makes it enjoyable for readers who are fans of cooking, and those who aren’t.

And on the topic of cooking, it’s clear author Chris Negron has done his research. He gives readers enough information to understand the concept of what’s being made without spoon feeding it. There’s a lot of nuance here that’s to be appreciated.

The Last Super Chef is an engrossing read that should appeal to a wide cross-section of readers.

I love this book about family and friends. The cooking references are inspiring. Learning to trust yourself and others is the best part

Thank you to HarperCollins and NetGalley for this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
Eleven-year-old Curtis Pith loves to cook. His favorite show is Super Chef, a cooking competition show hosted by Chef Lucas Taylor. But Curtis has a secret – Chef Taylor is his long-lost father! And when Chef Taylor suddenly announces that he will be retiring and launches a campaign for kids to submit entries to be the Last Super Chef, Curtis is beside himself! He, along with his sister and best friend, gain entry into his landlord’s fancy kitchen. Under time constraints until the landlord returns, Curtis whips up a grand cheese soufflé. Amazingly, Curtis is one of five chosen from around the world. But when he gets to New York, the competition and pressure are more than he bargained for.
This is a great middle grade read for kids who really enjoy cooking shows (and even those that don’t watch!). The story is well written and the characters are well developed. The one thing that kept me from giving this book 5 stars was the constant mentioning of Chef Taylor being Curtis’s father. So 4.5 stars from me!
#TheLastSuperChef #NetGalley

This was such a good book. The show in the book was very reminiscent of Hell’s Kitchen and it was so much fun to read about Curtis and how he loved to cook and was so excited to audition for the Last Super Chef since he is so passionate about cooking. His sister is so cute being his sous chef and his best friend Tre who helped them film the audition video when they broke in to their landlord’s house. Curtis just idolizes Lucas Taylor who is Super Chef but he resents him as well since he thinks that Lucas is his father from something his mom said when he was really little which is why he wants to be a chef since he thinks it’s his calling since his father is the Super Chef. He goes to the competition not only to win the prize which will help them get a new house and that his mom won’t have to work as much but also to finally meet who he thinks is his dad. It was really fun to see all the other audition winners and how they interacted with each other with the competition which doesn’t have any being eliminated every round just has a winner and whoever has the most points at the end wins the competition. This was a really good story and fast read and the ending was really good and about how you don’t have to be perfect and that you are still great even if you need some help sometimes.

Thanks to Harper Collins Children’s Books and Netgalley for the complimentary copy of this book in e-book form. All opinions in this review are my own.

The Last Super Chef by Chris Negron

This was such a heartfelt story! A fun combination of Iron Chef and Willy Wonka with great themes of family and friendship, this middle grade novel is perfect for young readers with a love for the culinary arts.
I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you NetGalley!

Don't be fooled by his age - Curtis is an extremely talented chef, even if he is only in 5th grade! Despite his mother's struggle to pay the bills, Curtis and his sister still manage to whip up culinary masterpieces, so when the biggest reality food competition on TV announces a season for kids, Curtis knows he is destined to participate. It would be amazing to win the $25,000 prize, but it will be even more amazing to meet his idol, Super Chef Lucas Taylor, whom he's convinced is the father he never met. This is a fast-paced middle grade story that will appeal to fans of Chopped Junior, Master Chef and other cooking shows. Some moments are predictable, but young readers will be so wrapped up in Curtis's story that they won't mind.

This book was wonderful for many reasons. Chris loves to cook, and dreams about meeting the Super Chef. This book shares his cooking journey as well as his personal journey. Parts of the book reminded me of Roald Dahl's 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.' for reasons I won't divulge here to ensure there are no spoilers. Anyone who loves cooking, contests and persona growth will surely love this book.

Granted I am far from the target audience on this book, but I found it a cute mix-up of Willy Wonka and all the cooking contests on the Food Network. It has a bit too much inner dialogue, but would be great for younger teens to read to learn some life lessons.

The writing is fine but the plot is flawed and rather unbelievable. 11 year old Curtis Pith believes it is his destiny to be a chef because his overwhelmed single mother once told him in second grade that his absent father was acclaimed television chef Lucas Taylor. When Taylor announces a planned televised series to find his successor from a group of talented chefs, Curtis immediately applies. Any reader can likely guess how the plot will end (spoiler: you're right) and it's hard to believe that Curtis himself couldn't guess the conclusion to the tale. Numerous other unlikely plot elements also abound including Curtis' surprise that his wealthy landlord would object to Curtis breaking into his house to use his high end kitchen, that multiple sets of parents would happily hand over their children to a television studio for weeks and months at a time, and that NONE of the parents of any of the young chefs realize their kids don't enjoy cooking and instead are all driven to succeed in the kitchen in order to obtain their parents attention and approval.

One part Willy Wonka, one part MasterChef Junior, The Last Super Chef is a whirlwind of a story in the hands of a master storyteller. Chris Negron opens your heart to 11-year-old Curtis Pith and his deep-rooted need to both save his family and connect with the Super Chef himself—the man he believes to be his father. From the precise descriptions of cooking techniques to the dishes and ingredients the young chef manages, readers will be drawn into the culinary world as if they had never been elsewhere. You don’t need to be a fan of cooking to enjoy this heartfelt tale of a young boy trying to find himself, but in the hands of Negron, young readers will find more than enough reason to wonder if they, too, could be the Last Super Chef. For kids and adults alike, this is must have on your shelf.

Young elementary and upper elementary kids will love this book about young aspiring chef Curtis Pith. Don't let his bitter name fool you, Curtis has the confidence that he was born to be a chef, even though many times his mom couldn't afford the ingredients. So when Curtis is able to enter the contest of his dreams, The Last Super Chef and meet Chef Lucas Taylor, his hero, he jumps at the chance. With his single mom's economic troubles, Curtis has more on the line with the contest than anyone knows. I thought at first that this book would be a morality tale in the way of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with the mysterious chef offering the keys to the kingdom, but this couldn't be further from the heart-warming tale that I read. Teachers can use this text with internal conflicts and struggles as well as a lesson in why point of view is so very important.

.5 stars!!
Curtis has been a faithful viewer of the show Super Chef since he was seven, and as a result he’s developed amazing talents in the kitchen. He can cook anything from appetizers to desserts, as well as international dishes for his younger sister and his mom in their tiny apartment kitchen. The descriptions of his dishes (especially the cupcakes - YUM!) will leave you drooling and wishing he would take over your kitchen. When the Super Chef unexpectedly announces the show is ending, Curtis is devastated, until he learns five kids will be chosen to compete in a cooking contest for a $250,000 prize. He quickly decides he can be one of the five and win the money to save his family.

This heartfelt story about five kids who are extremely talented and knowledgeable in the kitchen, is not only about the competition, but also about how much they learn about themselves, their families, teamwork and kindness toward one another. It’s about the tremendous pressure they put on themselves as they all strive to please their parents, win the prizes and in Curtis’s case be the best possible role model for his sister and to the best possible son.

This MG book is available 7.6.21. It’s one you’ll want to preorder for the aspiring chefs in your family, as well as your MG readers looking for a really good story to add to their summer reading list.

Thank you to @netgalley and the publisher for the preview copy of this book.

Thanks to #NetGalley for this early read in exchange for an honest review. I loved this middle grade book SO much! Curtis lives with his mom and his sister and they are barely making it by. Curtis enters to compete on a cooking show for kids. He also thinks the host, "The Super Chef" is his father.
I think this book will teach kids some great life lessons and also maybe inspire them to start cooking as well. I cannot wait to get my hands on a hard copy of this book!