The Two-Plate Solution
A Novel of Culinary Mayhem in the Middle East
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- $4.99
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
A James Beard Award-winning chef stands atop a 50-foot-high diving platform having just plated a competition-winning culinary masterpiece. He looks down, faints from fear of heights, and careens into the water below. Worst of all? He knocks over his dish on the way down.
So begins The Two-Plate Solution, and it only gets better from there. Follow a diverse cast of young talented chefs as they compete in a high-stakes TV cooking competition set in Israel. Their culinary foes: fake “terrorists” brought in by the producers—that is, until some actual terrorists show up on set, and the producers must scramble to either integrate them into the show, or risk death.
Mysteries deepen, romances bloom, and chefs cook for their lives in this laugh-out-loud culinary adventure from Jeff Oliver, a major force in TV cooking shows the past fifteen years. His talented pen will have you caring about each character . . . and wondering how the many unforeseeable story twists will turn out.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Never mind that terrorists calling themselves Mal-Malaika, on the run after a bombing in Haifa, storm the set of season five of National Dish-aster, an outrageous reality cooking show being shot (and shot up) in the Israeli resort of Eilat. It's ratings that count for tough, charming associate producer Sara Sinek, the star of this antic, satiric novel from Oliver (Failure to Thrive). Since the show must go on, Sara persuades Mal-Malaika leader Izzelden Al-Asari to hide his cadre in plain sight by swapping their black ski masks and machine guns for chef's whites and knives. The contestants proceed to serve up such dishes as blue cheese and durian in the halvah competition and oxtail liverwurst on the Seder plate. Salid, the main chef for Team Terror, draws on his tragic childhood to compose a magnificent sinaya, Palestinian comfort food. Meanwhile, money-hungry Sara struggles to support her autistic brother, Nathan, who lives in Reno, Nev. Fully human characters help make this hilarious send-up a standout.