* The Kamagawa Food Detectives by Hisashi Kashiwai

The Kamagawa Food Detectives open with a tantalizing premise, as a father/daughter team recreate dishes from their customers’ memories (think of Remy the Ratatouille rat cooking for the food critic). Alas, the book simply cobbles one story after the other, with lovely discussions of hyperlocal Japanese dishes, which are a little hard to follow for non-natives–and blur together for a tedious kaiseki-style meal.

** The Lemon by S.E. Boyd

The Lemon starts as a noir caper when a culinary travel show host is found dead, with an inconvenient witness. His agent and friends immediately try to control the message but it’s much more complicated than trying to silence the witness–and it’s quite fun for the first half or more of the book. The highly unlikely plot seems to unravel after that and it’s just one implausible or gratuitous scene after an other. Feel free to quit at any time: there’s no magic moment at the end.

** Made in California by George Geary

Made In California: The California-Born Diners, Burger Joints, Restaurants & Fast Food that Changed America is more of a coffee-table book than one to be read in one sitting–but enjoyable as the author tracks down the history, successes, and, often, demise of various eating establishments. The best part, for me, was the set of photographs that show the mostly Southern-California starts of well-known and less well-known enterprises.

* Number One Chinese Restaurant by Lillian Li

Number One Chinese Restaurant stars an immigrant family who owns a Chinese restaurant, of course, while one of the sons wants to strike out on his own and build something more fancy. There’s a difficult mother, the memory of a controlling father, a mafia-like figure, and a large case of waiters that complicate all decisions and actions. There’s a fire and a difficult opening night, and lots of behind-the-scenes intrigues. I did not find any of it very exciting.

*** Cork Dork by Bianca Bosker

If you are a wine connoisseur, you will want to read Cork Dork: A Wine-Fueled Adventure Among the Obsessive Sommeliers, Big Bottle Hunters, and Rogue Scientists Who Taught Me to Live for Taste — and you will undoubtedly like it. What’s more intriguing is that a non-drinker, or a cynic who thinks that the drinkers who mumble about tasting blueberries and grass and dirt (!) must be faking it, will both find the book fascinating. The author spent a year studying wine (and passing a difficult sommelier exam) and it turns out that it is, indeed, possible to taste blueberries, grass, or dirt, although many experts really use the words to telegraph a particular type of grapes rather than a particular taste. Who knew? She also touches on the restaurant business and restaurant people, and her descriptions of the very rich who are able to buy the most expensive wines could have been excised without diminishing the rest of the story at all. But the tasting stories are worth it!

* Sweetbitter by Stephanie Danler

We are staying in the restaurant business with Sweetbitter, a novel  in which a young woman moves to New York and finds a job in a fancy restaurant. The first half of the book is a well-researched description of the workings of high-end restaurants, with a heavy display of wine erudition. It’s not exactly gripping but it moves along tolerably. The second half descends into a tiresome and obviously hopeless love triangle. What a bore.

*** Chop Chop by Simon Wroe

Chop Chop starts as the twisted life of a restaurant kitchen, viewed by a poor English degree graduate who needs a job, any job, then blossoms into an even darker tale of gangsters. It’s written cleverly, as if the author had consulted with his ex-colleagues on the tale, always one step ahead of breaking the illusion of a brilliant tale. Much more fun than the standard restaurant memoir — and probably not the best choice to read before going out!

*** Counter Culture by Candacy Taylor

Counter Culture: The American Coffee Shop Waitress is a haunting book that describes long-time, “career” waitresses, highlighting the difficulty of their jobs as they walk miles, heft heavy loads of plates, and soothe the egos of difficult customers. If you think, like me, that any job is interesting and unique, and you enjoy learning about how everything works behind-the-scenes, you will enjoy this book — and tip, generously, your next capable waitress.

* Bread and Butter by Michelle Wildgen

Bread and Butter follows three brothers who own two restaurants in a small town, competing and yet intertwined in not so healthy ways. The story weakly mixes little spats between the brothers (including inane dialog) with lots of food porn about making and eating trendy dishes, and employee drama, including or not the brothers.

I did not like. Might be better suited for a food nerd…

*** Yes Chef by Marcus Samuelsson

Yes, Chef: A Memoir, by the Ethiopian-Swedish chef Marcus Samuelsson is  a sweeping personal story of an ambitious young man  who knows he must leave his adopted country of Sweden to fulfill his ambition of becoming a chef on the international stage. Along the way are some casualties, most sadly a daughter conceived when he was but a teenager and left behind, but they are told straightforwardly and serve to emphasize the tough life of a apprentices in high-end kitchens. The best part of the book for me was the author’s ever-present curiosity about food, ingredients, and techniques, wherever he finds himself in the world.

May all failed soccer stars have as much talent as resolve as Samuelsson.