4-4.5 star

Very enjoyable read. The flow of the inner dialogue was very entertaining and drawing the right balance of comedy and the story unfolding. Inventive story that played out well.

The reason for the 4 rather 5 was that there felt to be areas of jeopardy, particularly earlier in the book, that we just skirted over or almost dismissed out of hand. More could've been made of this to build the tension.

As someone who likes their meat, even I would balk at some of the foodtsuffs served at Hide -- an exclusive restaurant venture specialising in unusual, sometimes less than legal meats. But when the owner gets involved with a Russian gangster, his idea of what might constitute an exclusive and unprecedented meal grows to include a very particular kind of meat...

The question of morality hangs over this darkly humorous take on the food industry and the lengths those with money will go to in order to attempt things no normal person would consider. Kash -- the owner of Hide -- is takes us on a believable journey as he shows just how far one can stretch one's own morality to cater to the superrich and to get within reach of their world. This is a book about the American dream seen from the view of an immigrant, about how money creates more problems than it can ever solve, and about one can break taboos without breaking the law (or at least skirting it a little). Great fun, sharp as a chef's nice, and will either help you work up an appetite or ensure you never look at a plate of unknown meat the same way again...