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Test Kitchen
Test Kitchen is set during a single evening's service at the Michelin-starred restaurant everyone's talking about, Midgard.
As Midgard's newest waitress, Australian born Marley is glad to have found a kind of family among the 'brigade' there. Like any family, however, it is dysfunctional. And by the looks of things this evening, possibly even lethal . . .
A violent event - an event she is struggling to piece together - has befallen Marley. She can't move. She can't speak. All she can do is observe the restaurant tonight, seeing but unseen. As she strains to recall what might have happened to her, she can only witness the tragedy that is about to unfurl in this hallowed space normally so meticulously run by Joanna, Midgard's famed yet unknowable head chef . . .
Tense and moreish, Test Kitchen offers a deliciously dark insight into the goings-on behind the scenes in the kitchen, as well as eavesdropping in on the dramas of the diners who are lucky - or unlucky - enough to have booked a table at Midgard on this fateful night. Test Kitchen is a gripping, funny and often macabre story about the culture of food, of dining and eating, about feeding and nourishing, about mothers, mortality and magic.
As Midgard's newest waitress, Australian born Marley is glad to have found a kind of family among the 'brigade' there. Like any family, however, it is dysfunctional. And by the looks of things this evening, possibly even lethal . . .
A violent event - an event she is struggling to piece together - has befallen Marley. She can't move. She can't speak. All she can do is observe the restaurant tonight, seeing but unseen. As she strains to recall what might have happened to her, she can only witness the tragedy that is about to unfurl in this hallowed space normally so meticulously run by Joanna, Midgard's famed yet unknowable head chef . . .
Tense and moreish, Test Kitchen offers a deliciously dark insight into the goings-on behind the scenes in the kitchen, as well as eavesdropping in on the dramas of the diners who are lucky - or unlucky - enough to have booked a table at Midgard on this fateful night. Test Kitchen is a gripping, funny and often macabre story about the culture of food, of dining and eating, about feeding and nourishing, about mothers, mortality and magic.
304 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 4, 2024
About the author
Neil D.A. Stewart
3 books8 followersNeil D.A. Stewart was born in Glasgow in 1978 and lives in London. He was educated at the University of Glasgow and holds an MA in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia. He is the arts editor of the online magazine Civilian and works as a freelance proofreader for Tate Publishing. The Glasgow Coma Scale is his first novel.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
June 15, 2024
Test Kitchen reminded me, at times, of Japanese literary fiction. It has all the hallmarks of the strangeness often encountered there.
The novel is centred around Midgard, THE restaurant to go, from its experimental flavours and the innovative servings to the living ash tree in the centre of the dining area, everyone wants to go there. The story itself takes place on a Tuesday night - traditionally the dead night of most restaurants but not Midgard which is booked up months in advance.
The story is told from the peculiar point of view of one of the waitstaff but also that of the customers that night. It moves from one to the other seamlessly making it seem as though everything happens simultaneously. Its an intriguing formula and I really enjoyed it. The story told by Marley unfolds so deliciously slowly you feel like you know exactly what's coming but there are some twists along the way. Test Kitchen is much darker than I was expecting but it's all the better for that. Highly recommended.
Thankyou to Netgalley and Little, Brown Book Group UK for the advance review copy.
The novel is centred around Midgard, THE restaurant to go, from its experimental flavours and the innovative servings to the living ash tree in the centre of the dining area, everyone wants to go there. The story itself takes place on a Tuesday night - traditionally the dead night of most restaurants but not Midgard which is booked up months in advance.
The story is told from the peculiar point of view of one of the waitstaff but also that of the customers that night. It moves from one to the other seamlessly making it seem as though everything happens simultaneously. Its an intriguing formula and I really enjoyed it. The story told by Marley unfolds so deliciously slowly you feel like you know exactly what's coming but there are some twists along the way. Test Kitchen is much darker than I was expecting but it's all the better for that. Highly recommended.
Thankyou to Netgalley and Little, Brown Book Group UK for the advance review copy.
July 31, 2024
Midgard is a fine dining restaurant with a tree in the middle whose multiple small courses evoke childhood memories and disguise one foodstuff as another. The London establishment earned two Michelin stars and has a perpetual waiting list, but as a news piece at the start presages, it will be forced to close its doors within five years after a series of disasters. Every other chapter introduces another set of diners, table by table: a first date, a reunion of old friends, a 12-year-old foodie trying to forestall his parents’ divorce, a restaurant critic and her freeloading acquaintances, and a solitary man who should really get that face wound seen to.
Many of these situations aren’t what they seem; the same goes for the intervening glimpses into the kitchen. Our host for these is Marley, the most recently hired waitress, who fled a chaotic home life in Melbourne. She didn’t show for work today; she’s in hiding, yet knows everything about the staff dynamics so is a perfect tour guide. There’s a mixture of nerves and bravado running through the kitchen as dinner starts. A knife accident, a food allergy, and a champagne cork hitting a customer are only the beginning of the evening’s mishaps. While I was initially drawn to the structure, which is almost like a linked short story collection, and I can’t resist a restaurant setting, the narrative trickery and the way that the mood evolves from slapstick to grotesque put me off. I enjoyed individual vignettes, but the whole didn’t come together as satisfyingly as in Sweetbitter or Service, among others.
Originally published on my blog, Bookish Beck.
Many of these situations aren’t what they seem; the same goes for the intervening glimpses into the kitchen. Our host for these is Marley, the most recently hired waitress, who fled a chaotic home life in Melbourne. She didn’t show for work today; she’s in hiding, yet knows everything about the staff dynamics so is a perfect tour guide. There’s a mixture of nerves and bravado running through the kitchen as dinner starts. A knife accident, a food allergy, and a champagne cork hitting a customer are only the beginning of the evening’s mishaps. While I was initially drawn to the structure, which is almost like a linked short story collection, and I can’t resist a restaurant setting, the narrative trickery and the way that the mood evolves from slapstick to grotesque put me off. I enjoyed individual vignettes, but the whole didn’t come together as satisfyingly as in Sweetbitter or Service, among others.
Originally published on my blog, Bookish Beck.
July 13, 2024
I think the most important thing here is that the writing is gorgeous, ESPECIALLY the descriptions of food. I couldn’t read too much at once because it kept making me so hungry.
I loved how strange it was and the constant shifts in mood alongside the different plot twists. I loved the setting and I felt like it had a lot to say.
That aside, it also felt a little confused. The repeated snapshots of the different tables and customers lives took away attention from the main story while not really being long and deep enough to be that impactful on their own - I did enjoy them but I didn’t spend enough time with any of them for them to be that memorable.
Maybe it wasn’t the book, maybe it was just me, and I need to reread it to understand better but either I missed something or there are just too many hidden hints and convoluted explanations for the book as a whole to make a ton of sense, and work as anything more than a very fun and intriguing concept and atmosphere.
I loved how strange it was and the constant shifts in mood alongside the different plot twists. I loved the setting and I felt like it had a lot to say.
That aside, it also felt a little confused. The repeated snapshots of the different tables and customers lives took away attention from the main story while not really being long and deep enough to be that impactful on their own - I did enjoy them but I didn’t spend enough time with any of them for them to be that memorable.
Maybe it wasn’t the book, maybe it was just me, and I need to reread it to understand better but either I missed something or there are just too many hidden hints and convoluted explanations for the book as a whole to make a ton of sense, and work as anything more than a very fun and intriguing concept and atmosphere.
July 12, 2024
Wildly imaginative (and I do mean wildly), the fertile creativity shared in ‘Test Kitchen’ is a Big Dipper of a read. Exhilarated by the writing and laugh-aloud descriptions, the humour at times is more than dark – shocking, but perfectly captured. The glorious and original analogies will stay with you, as will the emotional pain that punctures the narration. There are a goodly number of characters with interesting stories, though at times, the unformatted and unidentified scene changes threw me off kilter, as did some of the headhopping. Overall, it was a terrific and exciting read , quite unlike anything I have read before, blended with craft, guile and originality.
April 1, 2024
I have never read anything quite like this before. I was so invested in the story, or stories, I could read another book with everyone in it. Thanks to Corsair and ‘all about the indies’ for the proof.
September 1, 2024
woah this was something else- in a bad way. i was totally catfished into thinking this would be an interesting book/perspective on working in the restaurant industry but it was literally a whole bunch of nonsense. i honestly have no idea what i just read- so many irrelevant characters, diverging plots, and questions raised for no reason or conclusions. really had to force myself to finish this one. annoyed at it!
July 28, 2024
Thoroughly enjoyed this one with its nods to the culinary world, intriguing characters and east London haunts. It reads with a good flow and is darkly humorous and inviting. I shall say no more, just give it a read even if a taster or sample first
May 20, 2024
This book! It’s just, chef’s kiss 👌
Every single time I thought I knew where this absolute feast of a novel was taking me, it would change direction or switch to another character and leave me reeling. It was incredible, Stewart teaches a masterclass on how to leave a trail of delectable breadcrumbs as he flawlessly interweaves the lives and dramas of the staff and diners with a mystery element surround a not-quite-but-also-very missing member of the waiting team.
Full review on my instagram @kellmcrae_reads
Every single time I thought I knew where this absolute feast of a novel was taking me, it would change direction or switch to another character and leave me reeling. It was incredible, Stewart teaches a masterclass on how to leave a trail of delectable breadcrumbs as he flawlessly interweaves the lives and dramas of the staff and diners with a mystery element surround a not-quite-but-also-very missing member of the waiting team.
Full review on my instagram @kellmcrae_reads
July 3, 2024
Welcome to a Tuesday night at London restaurant Midgard. The kitchen is buzzing. The tables are set. And the staff and guests take their place.
So begins a rather complex narrative where the story flits between the narrator, Marley; the restaurant's newest waitress and others (staff and diners alike). I found the food descriptions to be rather amazing. Interesting to see what the workings of a commercial kitchen in a Michelin star restaurant would be like. Somewhere it is necessary to be on a waiting list for months before you are able to dine there. The plot does certain take a rather macabre turn.
So begins a rather complex narrative where the story flits between the narrator, Marley; the restaurant's newest waitress and others (staff and diners alike). I found the food descriptions to be rather amazing. Interesting to see what the workings of a commercial kitchen in a Michelin star restaurant would be like. Somewhere it is necessary to be on a waiting list for months before you are able to dine there. The plot does certain take a rather macabre turn.
April 14, 2024
Thank you NetGalley and Little Brown Book for this ebook in exchange for an honest review.
I tried so hard to get into this but we just weren’t clicking. The premise was extremely interesting and I really was excited to read it, No doubt it is very well written, the various foods so deliciously described that I spent most of the book hungry. But the story just wasn’t for me. It was strange but not in a good way and I had so many questions that remained unanswered.
I tried so hard to get into this but we just weren’t clicking. The premise was extremely interesting and I really was excited to read it, No doubt it is very well written, the various foods so deliciously described that I spent most of the book hungry. But the story just wasn’t for me. It was strange but not in a good way and I had so many questions that remained unanswered.
July 6, 2024
I loved this and found from the first page I was hooked. One day in a busy high end kitchen is interesting, but I was hooked wanting to know more about the narrator. It was engrossing and entertaining and I found it a page turner. The details in the kitchen felt authentic, and were well described. This is a perfect beach read.
August 31, 2024
4.5*
I have never read anything quite like this before. The story (or better said the stories) are really complex and I loved the setting. The vibe was very threatening and there were some really fine twists.
However, the ending fell a bit flat for me and left me with a lot of questions. Maybe worth a re-read some time.
I have never read anything quite like this before. The story (or better said the stories) are really complex and I loved the setting. The vibe was very threatening and there were some really fine twists.
However, the ending fell a bit flat for me and left me with a lot of questions. Maybe worth a re-read some time.
August 7, 2024
A story told (mostly) through Marley, a waitress at the Michelin starred restaurant, Midgard. She is unable to move or speak and can only observe the evenings service. Each chapter begins with a different table and offers a story of the diners. Chapters then finish with happenings in the kitchen and Marley telling her story while trying to figure out what has happened to her.
This book was a bit strange and it took me a while to get into once I understood what was going on. Some of the diner’s stories were intriguing but others just left me confused and I thought they impeded the flow of the story. There were some funny bits and equally some dark bits to the narrative.
The descriptions of the food were mouthwatering and I think it all connected quite well to explain the events that led Marley to this night. The ending was a bit of a let down as it was so abrupt.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read this rather unique book.
This book was a bit strange and it took me a while to get into once I understood what was going on. Some of the diner’s stories were intriguing but others just left me confused and I thought they impeded the flow of the story. There were some funny bits and equally some dark bits to the narrative.
The descriptions of the food were mouthwatering and I think it all connected quite well to explain the events that led Marley to this night. The ending was a bit of a let down as it was so abrupt.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read this rather unique book.
July 24, 2024
I think I missed a lot of the intricacy here and a re-read would help with that but I loved the premise and the structure.
June 29, 2024
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.
This book started out really strong for me. I love when novels are in a different character's POV for each chapter, and the kitchen of a Michelin-star restaurant is such an interesting and fast-paced setting.
The build up throughout the novel was crazy, but the ending ultimately felt really disappointing. Part of me still wonders if maybe there was an error in my ARC, because it ended so incredibly abruptly, I seriously thought it was a mistake...
This book started out really strong for me. I love when novels are in a different character's POV for each chapter, and the kitchen of a Michelin-star restaurant is such an interesting and fast-paced setting.
The build up throughout the novel was crazy, but the ending ultimately felt really disappointing. Part of me still wonders if maybe there was an error in my ARC, because it ended so incredibly abruptly, I seriously thought it was a mistake...
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews