Chef's Kiss has worked its way into the lofty halls of my favourite LGBTQ+ graphic novels, where it now smuggly resides alongside Heartstopper, Check Please! and Bloom...coincidentally 2 of which also feature cooking and baking like Chef's Kiss, I must have a very niche taste!

The artwork is beautiful, the warm tones and intricate details compliment the feel of the story and its characters perfectly. The plot feels believable (even with the adorable food critic pig!) and will probably resonate with a lot of people's experiences of life after education.

Overall, a really comforting and joyful read that left me desperately craving a mushroom tart.

Thank you NetGalley and Oni Press for providing me with a free digital copy in exchange for an honest review.

This book follows the story of a young man truly discovering his passion and maybe finding some love along the way. I truly enjoyed Chef’s Kiss. The cast of characters was fun and inviting but not so perfect that felt unrealistic. There were so many elements to this book that I did not see coming, but quickly got me invested in the story. Overall, this was gorgeous story with a fun cast of characters and all I can say was that it was truly a chefs kiss book.

I loved everything about Chef's Kiss. The friends! The food! The most adorable pig!

Chef's Kiss highlights a very common problem with new grads: I have a degree and no one wants to hire me. Being told for your whole life that if you go to university then you'll get a job only to have door after door closed in your face is disheartening. Chef's Kiss examines how sometimes the only way to move forward is to try something new, even if it means you'll have to question everything you thought your future would be. This novel succinctly shows readers that as you grow you can find new passions, new careers to pursue, which can lead you to success.

And, let's be real, Watson is the star of the show. You should read this just for that adorable little pig!

I thought this was really cute! What I loved most about the book was the art style. It was appealing to the eye which kept me engaged, well laid out so it wasn't confusing, and there was a good amount of dialogue that was easy to follow along with and it didn't clutter up the panels. Store-wise, it's not going to be an immediate hot bestseller because it was pretty even keeled and was your typical college kid tries to please parents while doing something he doesn't want to when he finds something he wants to do and loves but risks parents disapproval story. I liked the characters and were a good support system for Ben. Liam was a dreamboat but wasn't that fleshed out aside from being kind, sensitive, and major eye candy. I mean, HELLO. Those tattoos? YUM. But most of all what I liked was that this story was Ben's journey and getting with the obvious love interest wasn't the major arc of the story but rather him finding his niche in life and what he enjoys.

I enjoyed this quite a bit - it was a refreshing little cupcake! A gay new adult graphic novel with a romance element, but it's more about a young man falling into a culinary career. The parents, I will say, seemed awfully cartoonishly evil - maybe that's just an artifact of me getting old enough to be closer to them in my timeline than to young people just out of college! Highly recommended, very sweet and charming.

This was a very cute sweet read with great drawings. Ben Cook is struggling after college with the existential question of following his parent's wishes of being a writer or pursuing other avenues after countless job rejections. This ends up with him trying to prove his worth in a restaurant with a very cute coworker.

I enjoyed this book and loved the drawings. It was a sweet, cute read but nothing more. I feel like it could have been longer with more in-depth characters and relationships. I barely knew who Ben was as a character or who were his friends or co-workers. There was some friend conflict that felt a little forced with a conclusion to that argument that felt way too textbook apology to be real. I wanted to know more about the past with his friends, who Liam was (it is bad I couldn't even remember his name and had to look it up), and the chiefs. I definitely enjoyed this book but it was very surface-level. It disappoints me because I loved how beautiful the illustrations were and the humor.

Tldr: a cute graphic novel with great illustrations, lacks depths it could have had.

A cute comic, a nice easy breezy read. I liked the plot, it felt very grounded and realistic. We can all relate to struggling to make a huge life decision and disappointing people in your life. Nice LGBTQ+ representation too.

Cute! For a book with "kiss" in the title, it doesn't spend as much time on the romance as I expected, but it's a nice story about Ben learning to make decisions for himself. And the pig is funny.

Chef’s Kiss is a slice of life comic that explores what it’s like to be a new grad on the job search — and coming up empty. It’s perfectly pleasant, with recipes that will make your mouth water, but unfortunately it doesn’t do much else. A quick, slightly boring read that spends a bit too much time on slightly odd tangents and not quite enough time on developing the romance.

Thank you to Oni Press and NetGalley for providing me the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Absolutely adored this sweet graphic novel. It is such a lovely balance between becoming an adult and finding your path and the meet-cute silly fantasy AU fic that makes your heart melt. I really enjoyed all the characters and hope to see future expansions on everyone!

This was adorable!

A very relatable modern story about a young writer trying to find a job - and more importantly a purpose - at the start of his career, that I think every young person (and not so young, like me) can enjoy. The art matched the style of the book well, being realistic with a slightly cartoony edge, and although we didn't spend much time with the side characters they still felt like they had their own lives off the page, rather than simply ciphers to move the plot along. I did feel the story moved too fast, and was too short, to really get to know anyone in greater depth however. I also wouldn't classify this as a romance, not because the developing relationship isn't sweet, but because I wouldn't want anyone expecting more to be disappointed in this very charming book.

Chef's Kiss is light and sweet like a freshly whipped meringue - not enough substance to get you full, but a delicious treat that certainly leaves you satisfied.

I'M SO HUNGRY. This book really just laid out all these yummy foods and I had to sit here and not have a single bite of any of it.

Chef's Kiss is so visually appealing, then you add the cute story, a pig, and a whole lot of food and there's very little to not like? I think the only thing I didn't like (besides the lack of food for me personally) was that I wanted so much more.

Ben and his friends have just moved into their own place and are all trying to find out what is next for them. Some of them have landed jobs after they graduated and others - Ben - are having a tough time finding work in their field. In a final attempt to look, Ben finds himself in front of a restaurant that has nothing to do with the English degree that he worked and studied so hard for, and suddenly everything sounds a little more promising. He meets Liam inside and after things go well, the chef aggressively puts him into a trial hire. If he passes the test, he may just have a job there. Ben struggles with the idea of pursuing this job despite his parent's expectations of him following through with a writing career but he loves food and you never know what may come up when you're not exactly looking for it!

I really just loved this a lot. I wish I had more constructive things to say about it but sometimes you don't have to say anything at all if something makes you that happy. I found this really enjoyable and I am glad it lived up to the hype I created around it in my head. I can't wait to buy this one!

Cute, and I completely resonated with Ben on the job search. Getting a career in the field you studied in is extremely hard right now. But while the book was super cute, it also was sort of surface level (a lot of graphic novels are though). Not my absolute favorite, but still a cute, quick read.

This graphic novel was immaculate. The art style was unique, expressive and beautiful to look at, the characters were extremely well-developed and relatable for such a short story, AND the writing was hilarious, inventive and so wholesome. Also can we just talk about the mouth-watering depictions of delicious food in this story? And the ADORABLE romance sprinkled throughout?! Reading this gave me so much joy and I connected with and loved all of the characters so deeply.

I would recommend this book for fans of graphic novels like Check, Please! first and foremost, but also for fans of low-key contemporary romance novels, as this graphic novel art style and format was so accessible.

Thank you so much to Oni Press for this e-arc!

This was such a lovely comic.
It's about growth, romance and best of all: food, which looks ridiculously good.

Ben Cook (yeah, I know) has just finished school and moved in with his friends, ready for new adventures in the grown up world. Unfortunately it doesn't go as planned as finding a job proves more difficult than he imagined.
One day he walks by a restaurant looking for a new cook, and here his life gets turned upside down with the help of a good looking chef, an angry manager and a pig who's a really picky eater.

It was just a really good slice of life comic, with a splash of romance and a ton of cuteness!

Absolutely loved this! The aesthetic is pleasing; the story is captivating. Suspense right up until the last panel! Well done! Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for the ARC.

A sweet, light story of a new college grad who discovers a passion for cooking (and meets a handsome sous chef) at an unusual restaurant. It’s fairly chaste — nothing more graphic than a smooch and some hunky shirtlessness.

I had fun, and romance readers from middle school on up will too.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Oni Press for letting me read this ARC. #ChefsKiss #NetGalley

This was adorable. I definitely judged it by its cover and was hoping for Bitty and Jack vibes from Check Please but I really enjoyed this in its entirety. I would love to read a sequel.

Chef's Kiss begins as its protagonist, Ben Cook, is packing away his college dorm and setting forth on the next chapter of his life. Soon after, Ben finds that the job market is not exactly thriving for an English major with zero professional experience. Luckily, he chances upon a help wanted sign outside a local restaurant and walks in. Not only does he find a job he's surprisingly adept at but he also meets a cute sous-chef named Liam to crush in. What follows is Ben's struggle to find work-life balance, meet the expectations of his parents and figure out if his work crush is picking up what he's serving outside of the kitchen.

This was cute and well-illustrated. A few of the characters come across as too whimsical for their own good but it's nothing that's too grating to get past. Go in expecting more of a character study of Ben than a romance and his tale of post-uni woes will definitely resonate!

New college graduate Ben struggles to find a job in his chosen field of writing, but soon stumbles across an opportunity as a sous-chef in a restaurant. He grows to enjoy the work and develops feelings for his coworker, but knows that his parents won't be happy with his possible change in vocation, and the tension within him builds.

So, this was cute. The art style was adorable, the story was fluffy, and of course it's always nice to see a gay character whose sexuality is not the main point of conflict. However, for me, it lacked depth. All struggles are fairly surface level, and I couldn't feel emotionally connected. The ending was also slightly unsatisfying.

But again, fluffy, cute, adorable, and entertaining. In the same vein as Pumpkinheads in my opinion.