Judith‘s review of Stir Until Thoroughly Confused
Mary’s given up everything, including an unsatisfying marriage, to become a chef. But the career comes with a side dish: Kegan, her sexy but controlling new boss. They’re soon involved in a personal relationship as well as all-too-frequent arguments, and when it becomes clear that they can’t work together AND be together, Mary faces a dilemma: choose between her dream job or her dream man.
Choose your favorite restaurant, especially one that is considered a “fine dining” establishment, and behind those swinging kitchen doors exists another world, an environment full of tension, competition and jockeying for advancement in a way seldom experienced in a professional setting, jeolousy and conspiracy to push someone else out of the way, and ultimately, those who seek complete control. This is the world of commercial food service and the people who make their living preparing and serving world’s best food. Few people know the difficulties experienced in the process and the human cost because of the resulting tension and stress.
It is this world Mary seeks to enter, not because she wants the negative aspects of the job, but because she is good and knows her craft, and has always wanted to be a professional chef. Her marriage put those hopes and dreams on hold by a husband who literally strung her along until finally she said, “Enough!” Now she is seeking to be executive chef of Steel and Magnum, two find restaurants who are owned by a very competent but controlling individual. Steel has recently burned and must be re-opened while Magnum was to be a second establishment to be opened soon. Mary is determined to be involved and even though she is summarily excluded and dismissed almost without interview, she continues to just literally sit on Kegan’s doorstep until he has no choice but to respect her determination, give her an opportunity to demonstrate her skills and recipes, and allow her to be a genuine candidate for the position.
Mary and Kegan’s love affair is warm and inviting and these two people love with depth and great passion. But the same passion that drives their personal relationship also flairs up in their professional interaction. Kegan is a micro-manager par excellence and in spite of his assurances that he will trust Mary to do her job well, he constantly interferes and short-circuits her efforts to give him her best. There are some serious trust issues involved. There are one or two individuals who actually seek to sabotage the Grand re-opening of Steel to the point of putting dangerous ingredients in the food, all in the hopes of derailing Mary and forcing her firing. There’s lots of tension in this novel and one begins to despair that Mary and Kegan can ever rise above the conflict and clashes Kegan’s control issues continually cause.
This story is enriching in that it deals with some of the basic conflicts people encounter in many professions and between creative and competent professionals. So many good people are short-circuited by an unhealthy rivalry and so many managers/bosses/CEO’s cheat themselves out of their staff’s best efforts because they can’t let go of an obsessive and unhealthy need to control. This story puts it right out there and if a reader doesn’t enjoy this kind of raw, dealing-with-reality kind of story, then don’t read this book. I found it to be compelling in so many ways and as one who has spent years in the commercial food service industry in a number of different settings, I could relate to much that was a part of the context of this story.
This is one of those books that exercises the brain vigorously while telling a warm and engaging love story. Mary is a strong woman who knows her own skills and capacity for loving; Kegan can be an understanding and warm human being–he does some truly romantic things to demonstrate the depth of his caring for Mary. So I recommend this book as a delightful and informative read.
I give it a 4.25 out of 5 rating.
This book is available from CreateSpace . You can buy it here
Hello…. Wow…you are simply awesome. You inspire me to pick up a pen and write my thoughts. Good. I like your way of narration…simplistic and informative. Hope to read more such good articles in the future.
The story seems very fun. I didn’t dare continue reading the review after the summary because now i want to read it for myself. Seems like a good read!