Comics Corner – Cooking up a romantic storm with ‘Chef’s Kiss’
Finding your first ‘proper’ job after university can be a nightmare – not only are you desperate for money to start whittling down those years of student debt, you’re also usually looking for a career, something to define yourself by based on your academic choices. Unfortunately, the reality is more often that of entering a job market that demands experience it’s impossible to have accrued, even for menial jobs.
It’s a situation English grad Ben Cook is becoming intimately familiar with, after being turned down for everything from proofreader to refuse collector. However, when he stumbles on a restaurant hiring with no experience required – a twist of nominative determinism plucked straight from the pages of Ben’s beloved books – his luck may be about to change. But can he keep his cool in the kitchen when faced with a series of performance tests by the restaurant’s owner Chef Davis, the gourmet palate of an unusually intelligent pig named Watson, and Ben’s growing attraction to his new colleague Liam?
Chef’s Kiss is an upcoming graphic novel from Oni Press, written by real-life chef and food writer Jarrett Melendez and illustrated by artist Danica Brine. It’s a beautiful, funny, and emotional slice of life tale that blends the excitement of starting your adult life and experiencing first loves with the trials of directionlessness, expectations, and does it all with a queer twist.
Here, we chat with creators Melendez and Brine on the book’s creation, its manga and anime influences, and the evolution of LGBTQ+ stories away from trauma – but first, check out the Gayming Magazine exclusive trailer for Chef’s Kiss!
How did Chef’s Kiss come about, particularly in terms of your collaboration on the book?
Jarrett Melendez: Danica and I had been friends for a few years, and shared a lot of interests, like food and BL manga and, of course, beautiful men. We wanted to see more books that suited our tastes and decided that it was up to us to make that content!
Danica Brine: Knowing Jarrett for many years, we always knew we wanted to collaborate on a project together. We share many aesthetics and interests which made it easy for us to create something like Chef’s Kiss.
Were there any real life influences on the book? For instance, Jarrett has a culinary background, but have there been any kitchen romances or bizarre job trials to factor in?
Jarrett: No bizarre job trials, but I did have a crush on a co-worker in one of the kitchens I worked in years ago!
Danica: Maybe not exactly like Ben, but I’ve definitely had my share of odd jobs before being a full time comic artist. One thing that I did share with Ben, is the feeling of “having to prove yourself.” Jarrett’s answer is much more romantic!
Manga and anime seem to hang over both the narrative and the visuals of Chef’s Kiss – is that a fair assessment? If so, were any particular series influences?
Jarrett: 100% fair assessment, definitely. Danica and I are big fans of various genres of manga and anime, especially food-related series. Yakitate Ja-pan was totally one of the influences! Food Wars is a favorite, too, but I think I started watching it after I’d finished writing Chef’s Kiss.
Danica: Growing up, I read manga religiously. I would read a lot slower than my friends because I meticulously looked over each and every panel, studying facial expressions, backgrounds and character interactions. I’m definitely still influenced by that today. I loved when characters like Goku and Usagi were depicted when they would feast, both hilarious and relatable!
Do you think the surge in popularity of manga in recent years, and particularly yaoi series, has ‘primed’ western readers for slice-of-life gay love stories like Chef’s Kiss in western comics?
Jarrett: Yes! I actually finished the script for Chef’s Kiss back in… I think 2017, and the industry has changed so much in so many ways. At the time, I think I was working at a comic shop, and I’ve been watching the market shift in real time toward manga, and manga-style/influenced books. There’s a real thirst for queer content, too. It feels like right now is the perfect time for this book to come out, but time will tell.
Danica: Yes, I do think this genre has definitely gained a broader audience through the last few years. Many of these original japanese titles never get a translation in English, so I feel like Chef’s Kiss helps propagate queer content in the west. Though Chef’s Kiss potrays a gay protagonist, I do feel like this book whould appeal to not only queer individuals but anyone who likes to read anything alternative. Chef’s Kiss is very sensitive, and easily digestible! 🙂
On a western comics note, Chef Davis seems cast in the J. Jonah Jameson mold of ‘curmudgeonly boss’ – is that a deliberate comparison?
Jarrett: Hah! I didn’t have JJJ in mind when I was writing Davis, but that’s a perfect comparison. He keeps people at a distance, but he steps up and shows his heart of gold when it counts.
Danica: Davis is a big teddy bear, don’t take him too seriously.
It’s particularly interesting that there’s essentially zero ‘gay trauma’ in the book. Ben’s friends are all fine with his sexuality, and even the main source of conflict – the relationship with his parents – is about career expectations. Why do you think it’s taken so long for queer narratives to reach a point where stories like this, that don’t hinge on coming out angst or gay-bashing, can gain traction?
Jarrett: That’s a big question. My guess would be that so many queer creators, and queer folks in general, have some amount of traumatic history tied to their identity, myself included. As a result, that becomes a really common thread for many of us, and then ends up in the content we create, whether fiction or based on real life. Heck, my graphic memoir is going to show a bunch of the trauma I experienced growing up, and writing it was very cathartic. I think it’s important to keep shining a light on that experience to make folks aware that this kind of thing still happens to queer people, and to let folks that are living trauma currently know that they’re not alone. I also think it’s important to tell stories about queer characters that aren’t mired in trauma – just queer folks living relatively mundane lives, just existing, dreaming, working, loving, and so on.
Danica: As a heterosexual creator, the most important thing I kept in mind following Jarrett’s script, was to illustrate the characters as ‘real’ as possible. What I mean is characters like Ben and Liam are just simply living through the motions like anyone else.
Chef’s Kiss is fairly chaste, but the occasional changing room scene with Ben and Liam still pack in a lot of sexual tension. Danica, where was the ‘line’ in keeping things sexy while still maintaining the will-they-won’t-they balance?
Danica: I think there is a ‘line’ so to speak. If the line is crossed then we embark on a whole other genre! I think keeping it real and not fetishising was what we were trying to do. Although, I don’t think there’s anything wrong throwing a little chilli pepper in the soup when it asks for it! 😉
We don’t see a lot of Ben’s friend’s lives but there is the focus on Liz’s yoga class. It’s subtle, but I have a feeling some readers will be seeing a lot in the few panels Liz shares with Aimee – is there perhaps something more going on there?
Jarrett: Perhaps! There may be a seedling of another relationship somewhere in this mix, too. Honestly, one of the things I’m looking most forward to is seeing who readers ship, apart from Liam/Ben.
Danica: I wouldn’t know! Readers are free to think what they want.
Finally, are you treating Chef’s Kiss as a done-in-one story, or is there scope for more stories, either focusing again on Ben and Liam, or shifting attention to his friends?
Jarrett: My hope is that Danica and I can do more with these characters now that they’re all established. I think the focus would still be on our two boys, but I really want to expand on this cast of lovable dummies and give all of them some more room to breathe. If readers want more Chef’s Kiss, I will gladly write all they can eat!
Danica: I agree with Jarrett, I hope the audience responds well to Chef’s Kiss so it can encourage us to create more stories with those characters!
Chef’s Kiss will be published by Oni Press on 1 March, 2022 – preorder here (UK) and here (US).
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