Chop Chop | Fiction - www.zzdbook.com

Chop Chop

Sep 13, 2025 5:59 PM

Author:Simon Wroe

Chop Chop

* * * SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2014 COSTA FIRST NOVEL AWARD * * *

Outrageously funny and completely original, Chop Chop by Simon Wroe is the story of a hapless young chef in the crazed world of the professional kitchen, featuring lust, revenge, neurosis and haute cuisine.

'A greasy, hilarious tale of loyalty, revenge and dark appetites. A gripping look behind the kitchen wall' Shortlist

Two months behind on his rent, young graduate Monocle swallows his dreams and takes the only job he can find: the lowest-rung chef in a gastropub in Camden. Here he finds himself surrounded by a group of deranged hoodlums (his co-workers) and at the mercy of an ingenious sadist (the head chef, Bob). What follows is a furiously-paced, ribald, raucous and unexpectedly touching tale of loyalty and revenge, dark appetites and fading dreams, and a young man finding his way in the world as he is plunged into the fat and the frying pan and everything else besides.

'Perfectly baked [with] a rich, gooey pool of dark comedy hiding beneath the surface' Independent

'Lively, amusing and alarmingly informative' Daily Mail

'Arch comedy ... Dave Eggers channels Anthony Bourdain' Kirkus

'A brutally funny look at the world of professional cooking' Gary Shteyngart

Reviews

Brace yourself for this lively, amusing and alarmingly informative novel

—— Daily Mail

A greasy, hilarious tale of loyalty, revenge and dark appetites

—— Shortlist

Confirms all your worst fears about professional kitchens in a debut novel that is dark, pungent, twisted, surprising and above all genuinely funny. If you enjoy eating out, don't read this book

—— William Sutcliffe, author of Are You Experienced?

Raucous and inventive, peopled with technicolour characters and savagely funny, Chop Chop announces Simon Wroe as both an heir to Martin Amis and an oven-fresh talent unto himself

—— A D Miller, author of Snowdrops

A complete page-turner. Reminiscent of Kitchen Confidential but with an entirely fresh voice that is a pleasure to read

—— Thomasina Miers, founder of Wahaca

Perfectly baked [with] a rich, gooey pool of dark comedy hiding beneath the surface. Despite straying into the realm of sabotage, blackmail and secret dinner parties serving stomach-churning illegal fare, Wroe's novel makes for fresh, appetising reading

—— Independent

A brutally funny look at the world of professional cooking. Sometimes the truth is so strange it needs to be sautéed in a pan of fiction

—— Gary Shteyngart, author of Super Sad True Love Story

Furiously funny, fast, surreal. The heat and the profanity feel painfully real; the prose, masterfully stylized, definitely the stuff of fiction

—— Anya von Bremzen, author of Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking

Arch comedy ... Dave Eggers channels Anthony Bourdain

—— Kirkus

Depicts the literal underworld of a restaurant kitchen with wit, vigor, and gleeful, necessary profanity

—— New York Times Book Review

[Vann is] such a fine craftsman.

—— Observer

Strange and sad and desperately readable

—— We Love This Book

A kind of modern fairy tale, one laced with treachery and trials and the greatest demon of all to battle, the past ... Vann’s novels are striking, uncompromising portraits of American life; here is another exceptional example.

—— Booklist starred review

By pulling no punches in this explicit exploration of family, forgiveness, duty, acceptance, parent-child relationships, and what constitutes abuse, Vann has outdone himself.

—— Kirkus starred review

A 12-year-old’s fragile world, mesmerizing innocence, and emerging adolescence are the heart of this alluring novel … Her fresh voice rings true … Since electrifying the literary world five years ago with his debut novel, Legend of a Suicide, Vann has racked up an astonishing number of international awards. This lovely, wrenching novel should add to that list.

—— Library Journal, starred review

Genuinely thought-provoking.

—— CultureFly

Vann’s deceptively simple style conceals the story’s raw emotional power.

—— Mail on Sunday

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