Sadie on a Plate by Amanda Elliot Book Review

“I focused back on the challenge. ‘Me on a plate,’ I murmured. A dish that represented me somehow. Sadie on a plate. So what represented me?”

(pg. 62)

About

Author: Amanda Elliot

Genre: New Adult Romance

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Synopsis

Sadie is a rising star in the trendy Seattle restaurant scene. Her dream is to create unique, modern, and mouthwatering takes on traditional Jewish recipes. But after a public breakup with her boss, a famous chef, she is sure her career is over–until she lands a coveted spot on the next season of her favorite TV show, Chef Supreme.

On the plane to New York, Sadie has sizzling chemistry with her seatmate, Luke, but tells him that she won’t be able to contact him for the next six weeks. They prolong their night with a spontaneous, magical dinner before parting ways. Or so she thinks. When she turns up to set the next day, she makes a shocking discovery about who Luke is….

If Sadie wants to save her career by winning Chef Supreme, she’s going to have to ignore the simmering heat between her and Luke. But how long can she do that before the pot boils over?

Review

Spoilers Contained Below

To the people we cook for,

One thing you should know about me is that I love to bake. Cooking? Kind of. I still have a ways to learn how to cook because I don’t know how to cook many things, but I like the idea of cooking something from nothing. I just get scared if I burn something or undercook something and get food poisoning. I digress, so I have been loving the types of books that have been coming out about characters who cook because what a fun time.

“‘We’re not trying to sell people food,’ I said. ‘We’re trying to sell them feelings.'”

(pg. 21)

I liked how Amanda Elliot brought her own flavor to the cooking-book genre (get ready for the cooking puns to follow 😉). Sadie was Jewish and comes from a rich history and heritage, so part of what she cooked always included something from her Jewish roots. I really loved how Sadie cooked food that was authentic and relatable to her because it came from her heart. I also loved that she included Jewish cuisine because the dominant culture does not highlight many cuisines from different backgrounds such as Ethiopian food to Jewish food. As someone who grew up in a small place, I didn’t know about Jewish culture. because there were not many Jewish people were I lived or there weren’t many Jewish people who were known. I believe all cultures should be celebrated, and appreciated because we all have so much richness and diversity to share with the world, why not celebrate that?

I learned so much Jewish cuisines through Sadie’s creations that I have never ever ever heard of before, but would like to look up the traditional recipes to see what they are and if I have seen it before in real life. I think it’s cool and kind of sad how there are so many cultures out there that we don’t highlight into our cultures because we make people feel ashamed or uncomfortable sharing their heritage or part of who they are. It shouldn’t be that way. Imagine how much more food, how much more love the world would have if we accepted and welcomed people to try new things and be who they are—-to present that to the world.

I thought Sadie was a very scatter-brained and self-critical person.

I say none of this in a mean way, but just the vibes I picked up on.

I said scatter-brained because the writing made me feel like I was inside of Sadie’s overcharged brain where thoughts were pinging around non-stop from one direction to another. She gave me chaotic energy in kind of a good way, kind of not because she felt very jittery in her body. For example, she would talk about how the worst moments happened when she was naked and then one moment she would think something and then the next minute trail off and talk herself down as another thing or she jumped from point A to B a lot.

Again, I felt like I was very much in her brain.

And part of Sadie’s brain was how hard on herself she was—self-critical.

We saw that the inner critic came from her Grandma who was hard on her. Her Grandma Ruth passed away, but Sadie gained her love of cooking from her Grandma Ruth, so that’s why whenever she cooked, she could hear her Grandma speaking to her. The part that I could easily tell was how she wasn’t confident in her ability to cook. She had major imposter syndrome like she wasn’t good enough to be on the cooking competition or she didn’t belong there. If Sadie went through all the interviews and trials to be at the cooking competition, it gosh for sure was for a reason and she needed to give herself credit for being there.

All throughout the competition, I could hear her second-guessing herself or doubting her cooking abilities compared to everyone else. I understand how difficult it can be to turn off the part of your brain that compares yourself to other people, but I really wanted to tell Sadie that she earned her place there and that she kept proving that she did belong there with each round she stayed. Even when she won a round, I was incredibly proud of Sadie. However, it made me upset when Sadie still didn’t believe she was good enough even though time and time again showed just how good she was. Everyone else around her believed she was a good chef (except maybe Vanilla Joe), and the only person who was telling herself she wasn’t good was herself.

I know what it’s like to be hard on yourself to the point that you don’t even see how you treat yourself like trash. It wasn’t until a few years ago until a teacher talked to me and said she noticed how hard I was on myself that I realized that, “Wow,” I was beating myself up for absolutely nothing. If we are supposed to treat ourselves like a friend, I sure as heck wasn’t being a very good friend to myself. The thing was I don’t think we ever mean to be hard on ourselves, but that our inner self-critic comes from someone.

That’s when I had an epiphany a few years ago.

People are hard on themselves because others were hard on them.

I was hard on myself because others were hard on me; and Sadie too.

The voices had to come from somewhere because they don’t just supplant themselves into our brain; the voices come from those who treated us with harshness and mistook it for love or for kindness.

Sadie’s inner-critic game from her old mentor and ex, Derek who treated her like garbage. He treated her like less than garbage, so basically nothing. He treated her as if she were nothing. I will tear into him later. But He made her feel like she would never amount to anything as a cook and that was what niggled at the back of her mind—-the fear that he might be right.

He was absolutely wrong. I hated that he made her feel that way.

I hated what he did to her in general to even put her in the position she was in now.

Sadie went on a cooking show called Chef Supreme, which was basically the fictional world of Top Chef, which I haven’t watched before. I’m more into the baking shows like Cupcake Wars, Nailed It, and Sugar Rush. Chef Supreme was Sadie’s opportunity to find a job at a restaurant again after getting blackballed in Seattle because of stupid Derek. Chef Supreme was also Sadie’s in with starting her own Jewish-cuisine inspired restaurant because people who make the top four, usually get sponsorships from investors. The thing was, I knew why Sadie wanted to do the show and it sounded like a good opportunity for her, but.I also wanted a deeper reason to why the show meant so much to her. I felt like wanting to get a job and prove herself to others wasn’t a good reason and that she should have been on the show to prove something to herself. I also didn’t fully get the purpose of her being on the show when she could have literally moved elsewhere in the entire country to start over. Sis only got blackballed in Seattle. She could have found a job in Kansas, New York, Idaho, anywhere.

She didn’t need to be on a show to find a job or people who wanted to work with her.

Yet, she was on the show.

When flying to New York to be on set for the next few weeks, she sat next to a cute guy on the plane named Luke. From the minute she met him, she could tell by his hands that he was a cook. Must have been some impressionable hands 🤪. But I could see how she could tell because certain people have hands that tell a story. You know, painters hands, construction hands, ballet hands. Hands say it all.

From the minute we met Luke, I could swear on my Shadowhunter Codex sitting on my bookshelf that he was going to be a judge on Chef Supreme. I mean, he wasn’t giving the vibe that he was a contestant, but a judge. I just felt it. And Luke being a judge felt the most problematic, which meant he was probably a judge.

I did enjoy how they felt comfortable talking to each other. I liked when Luke took Sadie to a secret hole-in-the-literal-wall bar place where they got drinks and talked. I liked how Luke opened up about how he wanted to create Korean cuisine inspired by his Halmoni . I loved how I could feel like that was who Luke was on a plate—the nostalgic love of his Halmoni’s cooking 💙. There’s nothing more special or delicious than the food prepared by your grandma’s hands. I kid you not, there’s just something that hits differently about your grandma’s cooking. I am lucky to have been able to eat food made by my grandma’s. Anyway, I liked their bond about cooking and that Luke felt like he trusted Sadie to take her to a special place.

But what unsettled me was how fast they kissed. They literally just met each other, drank some drinks, and smacked lips. I don’t know if it was the rush of the moment like they felt this was a final goodbye or if they really liked each other. But I knew the kiss was ALSO problematic because DUH. I just didn’t buy that kiss because it was too soon and didn’t feel much of a connection. I felt a bond, but not a connection. But then again, I’ve never been in a whirlwind romance so who am I to judge 🤪?

Yoikes.

Anyway, Sadie had to cut contact with him because she couldn’t talk to him in her time on Chef Supreme. We all knew they were going to see each other again real soon.

Not going to lie, I wasn’t a fan of this whole Joe, Joe, Joe, Joe thing. I guess it was funny but I just thought that there are a billion names and having four Joes was not it. Also, bad call on the casting producers part to recruit four Joe’s.I did like Kel because they had great energy and Nia seemed very logical with her love of statistics. I also got a good vibe from Megan because we love a strong woman. Kaitlyn also joined the show, which I should have seen coming.

Kaitlyn used to work at the Green Onion with Sadie, so Kaitlyn knew what happened to Sadie. I liked that Kaitlyn was there, not going to lie, because it would make for an interesting competition. Also, there was obvious tension between the two chefs and I wanted to know more about why besides the obvious that Sadie didn’t like that Kaitlyn knew her secret.

The whole book felt like a script of being on reality TV, which it was. I just found it funny how they were basically told to say something nice about the appliances, the car, the beds, the chairs, everything because everything was sponsored. I wonder if that happens in real reality TV where they are told to name drop and hype up a product. But I also felt bad with how they always felt like they couldn’t be themselves—-that they always had to be on. I have heard from podcasts of people who have been on reality TV saying that they have a TV persona, which I can understand now because if you’re in front of a camera all day, you’re not really being yourself. You’re being an elevated version of yourself who things they have to be nicer and overreact to get a rise out of the television. It also sucked because I could understand how they didn’t get to control how they were portryed—the storylines they were given. All reality TV shows have the crazy one, the drama queen, the bitter one, the popular one, the one too nice that it must be fake one. And it’s literally all in how the producers portray it, so they had no control over who they were. It was interesting to see how Sadie thought about the cast and who was going to fill what roles too—-like they were all just playing a part.

I laughed at the part where Maz, the host, was like “Laugh,” and they all had to laugh. How fake 😂. Or when they filmed “spontaneous” scenes aka stages scene of feigned happiness. I also thought it was cool to hear about how they did the confessionals because I always wondered if confessionals are filmed after everything else is filmed because it’s not like they can talk about it when it’s happening. Reality TV magic, I tell you.

When Nia and Kel mentored that the old judge had health issues to take care of, I was like, “Yup, Luke’s a judge.” When Luke walked out with Maz and Lenore, the other judge, I was not surprised. I was surprised Sadie was surprised. She should have known 😅.

I know that Luke was trying to be flippant and act like he din’t know how Sadie was even though he was in love with her, but MY GOSH HOW FREAKING RUDE WAS HE.

I was like, dude can suck my toes because I didn’t like the wya he treated Sadie at al. I don’t care if he was feigning rude indifference, but he took it a step too far for me when he constantly called her Sandy. Who the HECK is SANDY??? I mean, through Sadie’s eyes it made her feel like he actually didn’t remember what transpired between them. What made me sad for her because she really liked him. Sandy my butt. Sand is what Luke is going to eat if he called her that again.

And his complete indifference towards her cooking—-his lack of comments made me want to scream what a dummy he was being. He couldn’t have had a spine to be a decent human being to her. When they were alone or had moments only they could hear, I was always surprised with how Luke was nice to her because it was such a contrast to the cool treatment he gave her. But also, this whole staged judge’s brunch thing with Luke, I wondered how not one camera picked up the vibes Luke and Sadie were giving. Not one camera. They were literally smiling at each other like idiots and laughing, so how could no one see that. they were also talking about Luke’s secret tattoo and the tattoo he tired to find on Sadie’s body and no one was picking that up?!?!?!? Doesn’t he have a microphone or something attached to him. Like gosh darn, I would have thought.

Also, not them silently having a silent apology through matzah.

“‘I wasn’t sure when you were first making it, seeing the sugar go in with the scrambled eggs, and I may have said some regrettable things about it . . .’ he had? ‘ . . but I shouldn’t have. I’m sorry.’

‘I think,’ I said carefully, ‘that I was maybe a little harsh. On the matzah brei. When it was browning, I let it go a little far. because I really wanted to eat it, too.'”

(pg. 173)

Not Maz literally being like, “It’s just eggs and matzah.”

Bro, it was more than that, it was a truce 🙈.

How no one picked up their subtle apology to each other was beyond me. That was an awkward conversation if anything.

I really liked the moment though where Sadie and the remaining cast snuck out back to that bar she took him too and that bartender told her that she was the only girl Luke had ever brought there. The bartender had known Luke since he was little, and Luke would constantly work in the kitchen and he would go out to ask the customers about what they thought of the food. Then he would return to the kitchen and give the chefs notes of what to improve. I thought that was such c ute and wholesome story because Luke always loved to cook and he liked seeing what people liked and what could be done better. I also thought it was cute how the bartender mentioned how Luke used to like drawing all these comics. I loved that. It did seem like something Luke would do. I hope he got back into drawing because he loved it.

“‘He was so happy here with you,’ the bartender continued. ‘The light that shone in his eyes as a child, that made him interrogate every diner and draw pictures on my menu, it faded away when I saw him with is father. But when he came charging in here with you, breathless and sweaty and lugging tow suitcases behind him?’ HIs smile was like a shadow. ‘It was back.'”

(pg. 195)

There’s something wholesome and magical of someone mentioning the magic they see between two people. I’m a sucker for an outside perspective and the light came back in his eyes trope. It just says a lot if someone else can see someone else’s happiness after knowing the darkness they carried with them. Luke felt a lot of pressure from his dad to cook food he didn’t want to cook. Luke was opening a new rich French cuisine restaurant, but his heart wasn’t in it and he resented it more than it excited him. To me, if he was cooking food, he should cook what his heart wanted to cook because that love would come across more in what he did. Also, Luke was a GROWN a** man who could had his own bank account, so in my mind I was wondering why the FREAK did he not just stand up to his dad and say I’m opening my own gosh darn restaurant and you’re not going to stop me 🤪! I mean, he had the means to do it. And it’s not like his dad’s opinion mattered. Who cared what his dad wanted, it wasn’t about him. Luke should have just done what made him happy in the first place.

We al knew there was a confrontation coming up soon with the dad and Luke.

But the whole bartender-sneaking out scene was also nice to see the human side of Luke and get to know him more. Because if I’m being honest, I didn’t really like the relationship between him and Sadie because it felt too rushed for me given how they just met and now were workmen together. They still dint’ really know each other, yet these feelings were there that I didn’t fully understand.

The cooking competition was fun within itself. I liked how each day was a new task that challenged the chefs skills. I also liked the conversation brought up about chefs and cooks.

“Cooks are women, but chefs are men.”

(pg. 44)

I never heard this saying before, but when I read it, I was like, “Huh, that’s true.” Not in the sense that the quote should be true, but true in the narrative how most people do allude to women as good cooks, but when talking to a man, somehow they are a chef—-like they have more respect because they have balls and not a vagina. It’s very sexist how even in the cooking world, we make women feel inferior like their efforts are only cooking because that’s what women did back then—cook and cleaned—but men are chefs because that’s a career. Women are chefs and deserve that title as much as any person.

Also, don’t even get me stared on this whole spatula duel and how sexist Vanilla Joe was.

Vanilla Joe more more like pain-in-the-butt Joe because he thought he was better than everyone and he made Kel and Sadie feel inferior during the entire challenge. He made them focus on the decoration because apparently women know how to decorate and that’s all they should be in charge of rather than grocery shopping the bulk items.

And he was so freaking full of himself being the boss of everyone and rubbing that in people’s faces. He was a gosh darn sucky boss to be honest. Like what kind of restaurant name is Table for one. Uncreative. I would not eat at a place called Table. If I wanted to eat at a place named after furniture, I would go to Home Depot because at least shy sound comfortable. I mean are we selling Tables or are we eating 😂? And then the fact that he was sooo stuck up about Bald Joe sticking to an appetizer and desert and Sadie an appetizer and dessert when they were literally okay with doing something else made me want to roll my eyes because he was just asserting his power because he could. He needed to get knocked off his high horse because it was ridiculous. And it said al to with how much they were floundering during the trial dinner with his dishes not going good, Kel having to go behind the kitchen to make sure he didn’t screw up his dish (that he already did), and then all the orders going out late. They honestly were not working as a team and I could tell from the minute Vanilla Joe was a butt about it and the other team was laughing.

They were not doing well.

But you know what?

Give Sadie an award because I was too freaking proud of how she stepped up in the kitchen to direct everyone so that they could run things much smoothly. I loved seeing confident Sadie because I know she had it in her, but she just doubted herself and kept quiet. The whole time Vanilla Joe was on his power tip, I could tell Sadie wanted to say soothing or give her feedback, but she didn’t because she didn’t hint she had enough experience or she was good enough. But see what happened when we speak up and believe in ourselves? She should have been the real leader, and not this Joe who was named after a spice.

One of the best parts of the book was seeing Sadie go from insecure to confident and trusting herself. I loved loved loved it.

I think after seeing her success with taking control of the Blue Group, she felt more confident in her ability to lead. Also, winning the Halloween challenge and continuing to stay in the competition was definitely a boost for her because it meant that she was a good cook—-something we knew the whole time. I was incredibly proud of her and happy she won a challenge because she deserved it, she really did. I was also really happy for her because she even seemed more assured about what she was making rather than second-guessing if it was good enough. Her confidence shone through in her dishes too with how she was bolder to try new things, which is something every great chef should do.

So it freaking sucked BUTT when she got to the part where they had to cook a dish based on their cooking inspiration. I can’t believe sh actually said her old mentor all those months ago when she applied. YIKES.

Derek didn’t inspire her, he repulsed her.

They really should have let her switch inspos or something because he was not it.

I really wanted her to make a dish in the shape of a middle finger and present it on TV so he could see it.

I SCREAMED, fell on my BUTT on the ground when they actually brought Derek and the other inspirations to set.

NOOOOOOOOOO. NOT THAT GARBAGE. TAKE HIM OUT 👏🏼!!!!

Derek was the ex boss and the ex boyfriend, and this is why you don’t date your coworker, let alone your boss. But this dude asked Sadie to send nudes in their relationship. Then a critic went to the restaurant and made some bad comment about a dish Sadie made, and somehow those nudes got out, and he pinned it all on her like she was some desperate woman. Then he had the AUDACITY to blackball her and fire her.

First lesson, take your nudes but don’t them 😂.

I say take the pictures because body confidence if you want, but NEVER send them. Once it’s out there in the internet, it’s out there and they can and will be used against you. I just wanted to rage down on Derek because he was a petty little weenie who had no respect for woman. And his pea-brain was pobnrbaly shriveled because he had no class or sense to see what he did was wrong and his ego needed to shrivel too because he was TRASH. I detested that man. How dare he make Sadie feel like everything was her fault and ruined her life because of a stupid thing that happened. Get over yourself 😡.

That man had got to go.

If I were Sadie, I wouldn’t be able to—-heck, wouldn’t want to—look at him.

I wanted to be the little voice in Sadie’s head to tell her to not let Derek the butthole’s presence throw her game off because I could el that that was exactly what it was doing. The person who put those insecurities in her head was right there in the room, practically breathing down her neck and rooting for her to fail, that I understood how strenuous it must have been to be there. I would have felt like all my pressure points were on high alert too. I didn’t blame her. She was triggered by an unhealthy person in her life. But my gosh, Sadie could have cooked so much better than she did if Derek wasn’t there and I knew it.

The fact that Derek actually told her her food basically sucked was a real show of character and I appreciated that he was an a** because now everyone knew he was an a** and America would see he was an a** and why Sadie’s cook gin was off. I really wanted Luke to beat the daylight out of him—tenderize him like a good meat 😂. He deserved it.

I FREAKING LOVED that Kaitlyn threw a meatball at his face 😂!

That’s what you call girl power!! And how she cussed him out??? LOVED.

I loved how no one stopped her too.

“Thanks for defending my honor,’ I said. ‘I didn’t . . . honestly, I wasn’t even sure if we were friends.’

‘That’s enough,’ she said dryly. ‘So we aren’t platonic soul mates. So what? That doesn’t mean we can’t be there for each other. To stand up for each other, and for what’s right. And to respect each other as excellent chefs.'”

(pg. 214)

Exactly Kaitlyn, exactly. You preach it 👏🏼!

As much as the romance was between Luke and Sadie, I enjoyed the friendship dynamic between Kaitlyn and Sadie much more 💙. Their dynamic was not at all what I thought it was going to be, and I loved it in the best way. I thought they were going to be petty with each other and then come to some mutual understanding, but I liked how they were honest about their feelings much sooner and that allowed their relationship to blossom into a deeper friendship— a friendship that would have the other defending the other’s honor with meatballs.

They had a conversation in the grocery store part of the bar the night that they snuck out. The tension between them was a classic the grass was greener on the other side. Kaitlyn had always thought Sadie didn’t like her or judged her when Sadie thought the same thing about Kaitlyn doing that to her—- a misunderstanding of the situation. They actually really wanted to be cordial with each other but wasn’t sure if they could because of the vibes they got from each other.

I liked how Sadie acknowledged that a part of her looked down on Kaitlyn because she was jealous of how easy things came to Kaitlyn, and how that jealousy built a wall that made Kaitlyn feel judged and hurt. Once they understood each other’s feelings, I loved how there was compassion between them and not anger. I liked how Kaitlyn reassured Sadie how great a cook she was because Sadie needed to be reminded not to be hard on herself. But I also liked hearing Kaitlyn’s vulnerabilities because she also was jealous of how great a cook Sadie was and how she too seemed like she had it figured out.

“Cooking is showing what’ sin your heart, right? So if I don’t know what I want to cook, does that mean I don’t know what’s in my heart?”

(pg. 204)

Kaitlyn gave me the vibe that she didn’t know what her passion was. She liked cooking, but she didn’t seem to love it as much as Sadie, but it was just something she was good at. Kaitlyn also felt insecure in how she didn’t know what the food of her heart was—-who she was on a plate. Many chefs cooked food of their culture or a culture they understood and appreciated, but Kaitlyn wasn’t close or feel connected to her Cuban cultural. I liked that this conversation was brought up because sometimes popped can be one heritage or culture, but they don’t feel connected to it or feel like they earned the right to explore that culture. I think that if you try to connect to your culture, you do deserve to figure out wha that culture means to you. If you cook or do something from another culture, to really research and be authentic to that culture to not be offensive or appropriated.

Kaitlyn was still finding herself as a cook.

“I just . . I’ve spent all this time cooking for other people that now I’m not sure how to cook for me.”

(pg. 205)

Such a vulnerable and honest thing to say.

When you do things so much for others, you do get lost in what makes you happy or what is true to you. Luke had a similar problem. Both were so focused on making others happy, that they weren’t making themselves happy.

After that night and conversation, Kaitlyn and Sadie’s dynamic shifted for the better, and I loved seeing how much love was between them and how that love only grew 💙. From moments like pelting a common enemy with a meatball, to supporting Sadie in her cooking, and so much more. Kaitlyn was the unexpected friend and such a good person.

People aren’t the villains we think they are.

Because Sadie’s dish wasn’t the best, they chopped her out of the show. I literally wrote in my notes “Awww, NO!” I mean, there were more pages to go and her story couldn’t be over now! She had so much going for her!! And she didn’t make the top four like she wanted to—needed to. I wanted to cry for Sadie because I wanted her to go all the way.

I liked that she had a second chance to redo a meal with that return competition thing with the other chefs who got cut. It was so fun seeing them again. I had a feeling Sadie was going to battle Kel because Kel was such a fantastic chef, but Vanilla Joe ruined their chance. Stinking Vanilla Joe.

I liked how it was friend against friend and that they were more playful and supportive about it than competitive. I also loved loved loved how I could feel the calm and peace Sadie felt without Derek there, and how she was in this zone. It was so cool to see compared to how skittish she was about her cooking in the beginning.

But I think knowing that she got as far as she did, made her truly believe in herself. That’s the most beautiful thing about the competition—-that even though Sadie had gotten cut—-she found so much confidence that she won in more ways than one.

“It was me. It was beautiful. It was worthy. Even if I didn’t win, even if I didn’t return as part of the final final four, I’d redeemed myself. At least to myself.”

(pg.248)

It was beautiful indeed to see how far Sadie came from not believing she was good enough to be there to being proud of herself and what she created 💙. She should be proud. I also loved loved loved how she cooked for herself—-like I was saying earlier.

Doing this competition for herself and growing into herself was the real win.

Sadie did win the cook off and she returned as the final four. It made my heart happy when Kaitlyn saw Sadie back in the competition. But I was heartbroken when Kaitlyn got caught before the final three. They had a competition where they had to cook a full course meal at Luke’s restaurant and whoever had the most orders was guaranteed a safe space in the final. I loved her utter support when she left the stage and said if anyone could win it all, it would be Sadie because she had what it took. We love a supportive moment!

You know, for someone who didn’t think she was a good cook or had it together, Kaitlyn also needed to give herself more credit because a sis made final four.

Ah, when cooking in Luke’s restaurant, a little something something happened between Luke and Sadie. They kissed because dude was in the refrigerator taking stock and then Sadie found. They thought they were alone until they saw blinking camera on them. I could just tell from the moment Sadie saw Luke alone that she needed to back the freak out of that refrigerator. *shakes head* Also, I got the sense that Luke deliberately was in that refrigerator by himself because dude didn’t need to be taking stock after the challenge, he had people to do that for him.

She was always finished with the conception, she couldn’t wait a few days to kiss him to her hearts desires 😫. When she saw the camera, I hoped for her sake that it was Luke’s security cameras and not the filming cameras. I still don’t buy it that Adrianna was the only one who saw their steamy takeout session because she couldn’t have been the only one with access to that footage.

I gotta say, I respected that Luke took the blame for their kiss and how Adrianna and Sadie went with the change in story. Adrianna did see the clips of Sadie kissing Luke—being the one who initiated it—-however, Luke stepped back from judging, saying he initiated the kiss. Doing so, Sadie could stay in the competition because he would seem more at fault and it wouldn’t hurt his reputation as much for him to back out of the show rather than kick Sadie off last minute. What a decent man to do that for Sadie. He must have really loved her.

I also liked how Adrianna was okay to spin the story that way because she also saw something special in Sadie for Sadie to finish the completion and possibly win. Adrianna was a distant character because she was the producer, but I liked how we got to know her in glimpses with how she didn’t really know how to cook, but she did want a another woman to win. I wonder how she got into her job.

The last challenge was to cook a whole course meal for a fancy restaurant.

I freaking loved how they brought back all the old contestants to be sous chefs for the finalists—-Sadie, Nia, and Vanilla Joe. I was happy for Nia because she was great. Vanilla Joe? Eh, he didn’t deserve to be there 🙈.

I knew Sadie was going to pick Kel and Kaitlyn because they were her two closest friends and biggest supporters. And you should always have your two biggest supporters in your corner.

I loved how the vibes of Sadie running the show was such a contrast to when Vanilla Joe managed the cooking group in the Spatula Duel. This time, Sadie, Kel, and Kaitlyn were in synch and were there to support Sadie to win. There was a calmer, teamwork vibe. It was a s surreal moment to see Sadie be the chef I knew her to be and to take risks with her cooking.

You know, I really appreciated how not everything she treated was perfect. Not just in the final challenge but all throughout the book. I liked that she wasn’t perfect because not everything we make or do is perfect, and her messing up but going with he changes is what happens in life and I found ti authentic that she did face a challenge and went with it. Sometimes that’s what you gotta do. You might not like it or it’s not what you wanted, but you do what you gotta do. Sadie did it.

“I was glad to be competent now, but I wouldn’t come back to do it again. Because I’d already gained what I was looking for, I realized. Yes, I wanted the prize money and the title. But I’d learned to like myself, learned all that I could do, and that was so much more important.”

(pg. 309)

Exactly 💙.

I absolutely loved the that her. She should be proud of herself and all she learned and accomplished.

When the winner was announced, I knew that it would be too easy if it was Sadie who won. So it didn’t surprise me that Nia had won 😊. I as happy that Nia won because she was an amazing, honest, hard-working chef, but also because she wasn’t Vanilla Joe. Hahaha, if he won, I would have liked a recount and a protest. He sure got knocked high off his pedestal, which he needed.

But Sadie didn’t need a trophy or a prize to win because the journey was her win—-the journey to be who she was at that moment and who she had at her side.

Throughout the day, she kept looking for Luke to be there. Evne though he wasn’t the judge anymore, he could have come back for the last challenge and the producers probably did include him in some way. He was there, by guess what?

The bathrooms.

I COULD NOT.

Not a creeper by the bathrooms. Again

“‘But what do you think I was doing here in the first place?’ . . . I’ve spend more time going to the bathroom than I have in my entire life in hopes of run-in into you and your damnably tiny bladder.”

(pg. 286)

I could not with ho I felt like all the romantic moments or big scenes happened in a bathroom 😂—-a urinal or a porta-pottie

Nothing says romantic than sneaking off to the toilet to reassure someone you love and to confess your love there too.

I just found it bizarre how they were always at the toilets confessing love 😂.

I know that the bathroom was the only private place, but seriously. I felt like half the book was in the bathroom because Sadie had to feign peeing or actual pee. And not half a page talking about how nice the bathroom was. They really needed to upgrade their romance from bathroom status to real world because at this point, I would not be surprised if they got married in a urinal.

In the great words of Lizzo, “it was about damn time,” how Luke finally stood up to his dad after talking to Sadie about how he was still hiding and not doing what he wanted for himself. When he walked out of that urinal, away from Sadie, I was like what was he doing? He was literally there waiting to talk to her and he leaves first? But he had a good reason. It took him a while, but better late than never. He really needed to let his dad stop dictating what he did because he was his own person and this was his life. Sadie inspired him to stand up for himself and I think he wouldn’t have had the courage to do so without her.

The dad did suck though because he never saw how unhappy or tense Luke was around him. Couldn’t the dad tell that his son’s heart wasn’t into French cuisine as compared to Korean cuisine? It made me sad when Maz mentioned during the judges brunch how he didn’t even know Luke was Korean. It was because Luke had deeply hidden any traces of him having Korean roots that others didn’t even recognize it too. But that’s not who Luke was or what he wanted. He was proud of his heritage, as he should be.

I loved loved loved how at the end Luke did walk away from that fancy smancy French restaurant to open up Halmoni’s in honor of his grandmother 🥰.

Sadie also had her own restaurant!!!!

I loved that for her.

She had the most unlikely investors.

Throughout the competition, Sadie kept messing up big time around this one couple. First it was Luke’s dad’s birthday appetizer thing and she told the couple that the food was served with “shiz.” Then she accidentally cussed them during one of her meals when serving. The best part was when her Halloween gory dessert literally flew her on the couple. The POOR couple 😂! I kept thinking they had the worst luck or she must have really hated them 😂.

So I found it comical that it was them that wanted to invest in Sadie even though she swore at them and dumped food on their clothes. They really supported what she was stood for though because they were also Jewish and admired Sadie’s cuisine. They wanted to invest in someone who upheld Jewish cuisine and shared its love with the world. I loved how they saw something in her this whole time and that’s why the kept going back to her even if it was a risk of being sworn at or flung food at.

So Sadie opened up a restaurant called Wander based on her people who had wandered the world for a thousand years during the Diaspora—-a cumulation of traditions and her roots. I loved loved loved how her restaurant was her—-Sadie on a plate.

So much better than Table 😂.

I loved how we also saw how Luke and Sadie had a life after Chef Supreme. If I knew they were dating after the competition, I would have been an even bigger fan of the show because everyone loves an on-screen or off-screen romance between co-stars. I would have liked to see more what their relationship was like outside of Chef Supreme besides them waking up next to each other. I loved how we knew Nia had a booming resultant and so did Kel—-two successful queens/kings! I also cracked up at how Vanilla Joe had a food truck. Not that there’s anything wrong with a food truck because they are popular and successful, but he really went from I’m the boss of everyone because I think I’m hot shiz to I own a food truck compared to all my other competitors who owned top-notch restaurants 😅.

But I loved how everything worked out for everyone and they all found kingship and success in their careers. But again, the book never felt about winning, but about finding confidence in yourself and trusting who you are to create what you know and love—-do what you are passionate about.

Some notes I have was I really wasn’t a fan of the romance between Luke and Sadie because it just felt too quick and that there was no deep reason why Luke liked Sadie and she liked him. They bonded over cooking and supported each other, sure, but the deep connection was missing. Why exactly did he love her? Why did he care about her? The only chemistry they seemed to have was physical. I was looking for the emotional. I also wanted more depth from Luke because we only got to see his dad. What about his mom? Who was Luke? What was his backstory and what made him him? Also, who was Sadie? What was her family dynamic like? Was that another source of the inner critic?

I wanted depth. I also wanted a character arc. I liked Sadie’s arc, but I felt like Luke had the potential of an arc with his dad if we dug deep into why he was always afraid to stand up to the dad. We could have followed Luke on a journey of understanding that fear and working through that and for Sadie to be there to guide him to standing up to his dad. It just felt like Sadie constantly told him to stand up to his dad and then he finally did it without any work or anything on our part that we saw him work on. I wanted to know the why behind Luke’s actions.

If they were also in a relationship, I wanted more cute romantic moments that really sold their connection because stolen moments in toilets and refrigerators didn’t cut it for me 🙈. And half the book, he was being a cold butthole to her, soooo? What connection 🤪? They only had that Korean bar moment and the kitchen scene before the big make out in the fridge. All those moments were not enough in my opinion to build a strong love.

I also wanted something more enticing with the conflict towards the resolution because there was not big conflict where it felt like Luke fought for their relationship or not any real conflict. The only conflict I could see was Sadie battling herself, which I was here for. What a different kind of problem in a story and I liked it because we can be our biggest critic and get in our own way. So this book was Sadie fighting to get out of her way and finding success and love herself. The story was more about her than it was about romance. SO not really a rom-com vibe even if the book was marketed as a rom-com.

Another thing, because the book followed Sadie’s realty TV journey, there were moments that felt very monotonous or dragged on in terms of storyline—-almost like it read like a script. I sometimes got lost in all the details of the food Sadie prepared that I missed having an arc or more action to follow, especially if this was a rom-com.

I don’t say any of this to be mean, just my opinion on what I thought could have been added or improved. I did enjoy the story for Sadie’s growth and her friendship with Kaitlyn though, so definitely a good read. Just not a rom-com, but a self-discovery story.

Anyway, what was your favorite part of the book? Least favorite part? What did you think of the book? 

What is a dish from your culture or heritage you like to eat and cook?

Let me know below in the comments as I love hearing from you all 💕

I hope you have a beautiful day whenever and wherever you might be reading this 😊.

And as always, with love,

Rating

3.67 Full Bloom Flowers

Characters: At first, I was hesitant about Sadie because she gave me chaotic energy, but when she trusted in herself, her confidence grew. I loved seeing her be more sure of herself and how far she had come.

Plot: If you like cooking competitions and forbidden romance, this one surely is for you

Writing: Easy to read, but some of the story gets lost with all the details of the food that sometimes I missed more action or cutesy scenes.

Romance: I didn’t really feel the connection between Luke and Sadie, and I enjoyed Sadie’s friendship with Kaitlyn and Kel a lot more.