Chef's Kiss is an absolutely adorable story. It's SO CUTE and I got super invested in the characters right away. Not to mention Watson the pig is the absolute best character. And the illustrations of the food made me so hungry. It makes me feel like I need to cook something.

This is a fun, cute graphic novel perfect for fans of Heartstopper. The images are beautiful and add a lot to the story. The story itself is a little basic, with a mostly predictable storyline, besides the pig's backstory, however the book gives all the warm and fuzzy feelings of new love.

This was such a lovely comic with a lovely narrative and rich graphics.

The story follows Ben who is a recently graduated English major looking to find a job in the field only to be denied due to lack of experience. After a terrible job interview he stumbles upon a restaurant looking for chef apprentice without any experience needed. Ben goes in an is interviewed by Liam whom Ben develops an instant crush on.

The story is about doing out what you love even though you never though you would and of life taking you in a different direction.

The reason why it didn't quite make the maximum rating is because I found the Chef character and trails really OTT. I wasn't a fan of Ben's BFFs attitude not his toxic parents. I thought that the resolution on the conflict on both BFF and parents was a little rushed.

Liam is BAE though I wish there was a bit more character development on his side and not just a really hot visual...because Liam is a gift from the Norse Gods.

Overall I really loved it and were this to be continued into a series I'd definitely keep my eye out.

**I received an electronic ARC from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for honest review.**

Thank you to NetGalley and Oni Press for an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Overall, this was an enjoyable read with a sweet romance.

I enjoyed that the story was about the immediate post-college stress of trying to work out what to do with your life but, honestly, I felt like Ben and all of his friends landed on their feet a bit too easily. I would have liked to see more of their difficulties of navigating early adulthood from all of them, not just Ben. That being said, I liked the overall message of this book that you don't have to have it all worked out, and you don't have to have just one thing that you want to do – you can follow what you enjoy and go from there.

I found the pacing of this book to be a bit fast and I felt overwhelmed trying to keep up with everything that was going on as each page felt quite busy. The whole thing with the pig definitely contributed to the manic energy of the novel.

Others have commented on the toxic workplace and the bad attitude from Ben's boss that just got swept aside without ever being addressed. I also felt like his relationship with his parents wasn't addressed or resolved properly. I think this is a side effect of the fast pacing of the book, the story itself is only around 130 pages and a lot is squeezed into that time.

I would have liked to have seen more development in Ben's friends and more of their personalities. They all felt a little like plot points rather than characters in their own rights. The romance, whilst sweet, was also a pretty minor part of the plot and I didn't really have a grasp on who Liam was as a character.

Overall, I enjoyed the experience of reading this novel, but it's not going to be one that really sticks with me.

Oh my Goodness this was absolutely adorable! So sweet and heartwarming! I couldn't stop reading!
Ben has just finished college and he's trying to find a job in his field but finding really hard because everyone asks for experience he doesn't yet have. He's getting desperate when he decides to look for any job. That's how he ends up working as a trainee at a restaurant and where he meets Liam, a handsome sous chef.
The story was beautiful! It really captured the struggles of finding yourself (and a job) when you finish college. I really loved Ben's group of friends and the relationships between them. And the romance was the sweetest.
The artwork was also gorgeous, I adored the artist's style.
I had the absolute best time reading it and I highly recommend it.

**I received an ARC from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for honest review.**

THIS GRAPHIC NOVEL WAS SO CUTE!??
Featuring:
• A+ cullinary content
• cute boys (with top tier romance)
• an iconic friend group
•an adorable pig named watson!!!

It was funny and heart-warming and absolutely adorable. I found myself recommending it to everyone I knew. Such a wonderful pick-me up story! I definitely see myself coming back to it again and again on rainy days.

Very very cute and short romance. My only complaint is that it is a little too short and slow but other than that I absolutely loved it.
Thank you netgalley for the ARC!

an endearing visual novel that, while I was sceptical about it at first, managed to pull a few heartstrings. It has a fun cast of characters with varying designs and personalities. while most of the side characters don't get a lot of "screen" time, the reader still gets a sense of what kind of people they are and what their relation to the others is. I liked that a lot about it.
I do feel like the story was slightly choppy at times, pun not intended, where story elements were just sprang onto me. It reminded me a bit of the way some people tell stories. "so he was cooking, and then his parents came in, and they got angry" kind of storytelling. I understand this might be a stylistic choice in order to deal with the visual format, but I would be amiss not to point out that it bothered me occasionally. I would have liked a wee bit more dept, and smoother transitions.
But in the end, the author managed to create a story i found myself caring about, with characters I wanted to see succeed, and I think that is the most important part of a novel like this.

PS, not a remark on writing, but some of the panels appear to have been scaled a bit weirdly, and get a bit pixelated on my screen

This was an easy fast paced read that I found lighthearted and enjoyable. I am an English graduate myself so I appreciated seeing someone else’s struggle with what to do with an English degree and found Ben’s journey very relatable and inspiring.

I didn’t enjoy the character of the Chef. I found his behaviours unnecessary however it can be seen as playing into a stereotype for the character he was supposed to represent. All of the characters were individual and realistic and worked well within the story.

Both the narrative and the illustrations worked well for this book and I think it worked really well together.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This was such a sweet book and a fast, amazing read. The protagonist struggles with pleasing his parents, searching for a job and figuring out his own feelings, which was very relatable for me but it is still not a heavy book at all; there were a lot of parts that made me laugh. It made me happy to see how he figured out what he really wanted throughout the book and that there was a happy ending for him and his friends. All this is accompanied by wonderful illustrations that I liked a lot. I don’t usually read many graphic novels but I couldn’t put down this one!
(I was provided this book by NetGalley for an honest review)

Unfortunately there was no way for me to access this book so I can't give a review of it. I'll hopefully be able to read the finished copy.

Thank you to Netgalley and Oni Press for providing me with an e-ARC of this amazing book!

Chef's Kiss was an absolutely adorable quick read. I loved all the characters so much and I had so much fun reading this book. I honestly laughed out loud, blushed, giggled and squealed way to many times than I can count. If you are looking for a quick, gay, cute contemporary/romance graphic novel, you should definitely give this a read (especially if you love cooking).

I am only taking a star away because it took me a while to get into it, but once I did I absolutely loved it! Also I wish there were more cute moments between Ben and Liam and that they would have gotten together a bit earlier on.

Such a cute, wholesome grpahic novel !

Ben is a soft and adorable character, with the worries of life after university, conflicted about what he wants versus what his parents wanted for him, navigating his personal relationships with his friends and his new working environment.

The author and the illustrator gave a lot of attention to the food scenes, and the whole coloring and drawing is amazing !

Comedic elements are also spot-on, with the chef and the food-critic pig being hilarious !

And of course, Liam and Ben are adorable!

Thank you Netgalley and OniPress for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Loved this graphic novel. The illustrations were so vivid. It was an enjoyable read. Really loved the colors.

I could not wait to read this graphic novel, to the point that I consumed it the first chance I could. It was simply fantastic and I enjoyed every second of it.

The characters were great and really well developed for a short form story like this. I found Ben (our central character) extremely relatable and I completely understand where is he coming from. Ben had quite a few friends and I felt that each got given enough time for me to learn a bit about each of them and fall in love.

The story was fun centering on a cooking challenge for a job. The plot does touch on parental expectations, job-hunting and young adult life generally. The story also had LGBTQIA+ representation, which included a slow-burner romance as a secondary story.

To put it simply, this is a must read and I need either a sequel or a series of spin-offs from each of the other characters in this story ASAP.

In 2022, I'm planning to read more graphic novels. I adore them and I feel as though the last few years I've not read as many as I used to so it's high on my list of book goals for 2022. I'm so glad Chef's Kiss was the first for this year as it was so brilliantly cute!

Ben is just out of College and struggling to find a job in the writing world. Weeks go by and he stumbles across a restaurant advertising a job as an assistant chef. This begins our crazy story where a pig in the form of a gastronome selects the chef from the food. Sounds nuts but it actually works.

This story features a super sweet gay romance, quirky side characters and an exploration of the pressure family can put on us. I highly recommend a read if you're looking to branch out into the GN world or if you're into cute romances.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Oni Press for a copy of this novel. ARC provided in exchange for an honest review.

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS

Chef's Kiss is a cozy little story featuring Ben Cook, a recently graduated English major who isn't sure what to do with his life. It becomes quickly apparent, interview after interview, that the job market isn't nearly as open as college graduates are promised it will be -- Ben faces seventeen rejections in just three weeks, all based on the cyclical problem that he has no experience in the professional field, yet can't gain any without being hired (sound familiar, anyone? :'D). Enter Liam: the sous chef at a restaurant that just happens to be hiring a position where no experience is necessary. Ben is immediately put to the test by Liam's boss who demands, quite outlandishly, that Ben undertake 3 cooking challenges and be judged by an actual pig. If Watson (the aforementioned pig) likes his food, he will be hired. If not, he will be immediately fired on the spot. Thus begins Ben's new life of culinary challenges, roommate tensions, and blossoming love.

There were parts of this graphic novel that irked me: I thought the tension between Ben and Liz was unfairly put on him. It centers around Liz wanting him to drop everything to go out celebrating when he's already explained to them that he needs to be taking the challenges seriously if he wants to keep his new job. He apologizes for not being around, but like...they're adults? That's adulthood? Granted, it can be a rough awakening for some people when they leave college to realize that work becomes a giant factor of your life that you have to work around, but you gotta work to get paid, and you gotta get paid to eat? ...Is that too cynical a view for a fictional graphic novel? Probably, yes.

HOWEVER: the rest of this story more than made up for it. It's quirky, cute, cozy, and just a (mostly) light-hearted read about learning what truly makes you happy, or perhaps even learning that not knowing what makes you happy in the moment is okay. There's time to figure that out. Life doesn't end after college. My own love of food certainly helped me enjoy the cooking segments of the graphic novel, and the comedic tone was the right kind of soft. While I think some people may find this story on the boring side, with the only real confrontation being the fight with Ben's parents toward the end, if you can enjoy a good story without conflict, you'll find something in this graphic novel to love.

As a separate note, though I've added this to my "LGBTQIA" shelf, if you're looking strictly for a romantic graphic novel, this is probably not the one for you. Though Liam and Ben are clearly interested in one another and ...well, *spoilers*, their romance is not exactly central to the plot.

**STAR BREAKDOWN**

Art: ★★★★☆ [Fantastic!]
Story: ★★★☆☆ [Above Average!]
Would I Reread?: Yes!
Would I Buy?: Probably Not
Overall Star Rating: ★★★★☆

...don't ask me to explain my rating system, it seems to be changing constantly these days 🤷

First, thank you so much for netgalley and onipress....
I AM SO GRATEFUL 🙏🙏🙏
I DO

So, let's talk about Chef's Kiss 😌

The Cover...
Seriously, look at the cover. It's pretty simple with solid color and focused on Ben. Yep, take a great look for our boi, Ben. I really love Watson being cupid.

The characters...
Can we talk about Liam and how hot he is, especially in Ben's naughty imagination. (I laughed so hard on these scenes). Chef's Kiss serves us many type of characters'. You can feel the diversity in this book. And one special character, is that Piggy, Watson. Watson takes an important part in this book. Eventhough, it feels so unreal (That Piggy and the story about it) but it's okay. Since, every parts related to Watson are hilarious and not cringey.

The Plot itself is quiet simple but really grounded. Many people have the same issue like Ben. So, it's easy to feel like "Ah, I feel that too".

How about the art? No complaint. The Art is totally gorgeous.

After all, Chef's Kiss is really fun to read and perfect recommendation when you searching for "feeling-good" books 😍

Chef’s kiss was a perfectly cute, light-hearted graphic novel that totally warmed my heart. I loved Ben and his entire cast of friends, they were really fun.

It’s a story that’s been told many times and this one is really unique and adorable. A graduate student who’s struggling to find a job, exploring different opportunities and making new friends, meeting cute love interests, restaurants, a food-critic pig, etc.

What I will say though, is that this book isn’t entirely what it’s described as. It’s definitely marketed as a romance, and honestly its main focus is discovering and exploring your identity and career in your twenties.

Another thing that I did not sit well with me personally was the humor. Most of the jokes are really vanilla and it feels like you’ve heard them before. And others feel forced at times. Like the owner’s grumpy personality didn’t really have a reason and it felt like he was just forcing that kind of attitude. Also is it just me or did they really overdo Tom’s free food jokes?

Overall, definitely enjoyed this book, but I don’t think it’s the kind of book that I’d pick up.

I loved this graphic novel! It was so cute and sweet and I just absolutely adored it.

Ben has recently graduated from college, and is struggling to find work. On the path for any job that will make ends meet, he stumbles upon a restaurant taking on staff. With nothing to lose, Ben applies for this job and meets the handsome sous-chef Liam. An intense training period followed by increasingly challenging tasks are all that stands between Liam and a full time role. In typical young adult fashion, nothing is that simple. Having aspired to be a writer for his whole life, and having expectations to do so, causes doubts in Ben’s mind about whether this is truly the right path for him.
In between navigating the new role as a chef, Ben has to come to terms with the changes with his relationships with childhood friend and housemate Liz, who is feeling left out and resentful towards Ben’s new job and the friends he is making. It was so nice to see such a strong friendship facing such troubles, and the emotions of the characters are ones that are so easily identified with.
There are many sweet moments in this novel, and the artwork is just absolutely stunning. If you are looking for an easy read with a hint of romance, then look no further! I will shout about this book for a long time to come, and will definitely be buying it when it comes out in March 2022!!