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Title: Chef

Author: Jaspreet Singh

Narrator: Sunil Malhotra

Format: Unabridged

Length: 7 hrs and 20 mins

Language: English

Release date: 03-05-13

Publisher: Audible Studios for Bloomsbury

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 5 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

Kirpal Singh is riding the slow train to Kashmir. With India passing by his window, he reflects on his destination, which is also his past: a military camp to which he has not returned for 14 years. Kirpal, called Kip, is shy and not yet 20 when he arrives for the first time at General Kumars camp, nestled in the shadow of the Siachen Glacier. At 20,000 feet, the glacier makes a forbidding battlefield; its crevasses claimed the body of Kips father. Kip becomes an apprentice under the camps chef, Kishen, a fiery mentor who guides him toward the heady spheres of food and women.

In this place of contradictions, erratic violence, and extreme temperatures, Kip learns to prepare local dishes and delicacies from around the globe. Even as months pass, Kip, a Sikh, feels secure in his allegiance to India, firmly on the right side of this interminable conflict. Then, one muggy day, a Pakistani "terrorist" with long, flowing hair is swept up on the banks of the river and changes everything.

Mesmeric, mournful, and intensely lyrical, Chef is a brave and compassionate debut about hope, love, and memory set against the devastatingly beautiful, war-scarred backdrop of occupied Kashmir.

Members Reviews:

Unrequited Love

This is the reason we readers read, for books such as this. There seems to be a trend for inward books recently and this falls into that category. There is plot but mostly to hang thoughts and feelings on. Kip, is a Sikh working in Srinagar as an Army Chef attached to a powerful General's house. The world outside their house is at war. Kip is a quiet, contemplative man and the attention he receives is second hand, mostly associated with the heroic deeds of his soldier father. When people meet Kip they seem to not see him. They talk at him about his dad's exploits. Even his name has been modified by the General from Kirpal to Kip. By the way if you're a foody this is only peripherally about cooking and food though the sights, sounds, smells of Indian cuisine are interwoven throughout the book as you follow Kip around the kitchen but more as metaphor or as a description of place and mood. Sometimes the list of dishes or ingredients almost sound like poetry.

Mostly this book is about political issues that plague India, Pakistan and the pivot is Kashmir. Kashmir is where the best and the worst play out. Another theme is unrequited love both on a personal level and the unrequited love for one's country and countrymen. Both these loves almost break Kip and it does break some of the other characters. I don't want to give the impression this is a philosophy book though that's here. Singh shows the human rights offenses with a deft touch. Bombs don't go off in your face; the prose builds up layer upon layer until there's a slow implosion. I kept thinking, "he doesn't mean that, surely not", and then, with dread, "he does mean that". It makes the horror more real but without having to wipe blood off your face. The relationships have a push pull that read frighteningly close to real life. An example of this is the story of a woman, Irem, who is Muslim and living in Pakistan with her husband. She's so desperately unhappy in her marriage she throws herself into the Ganges and winds up on the Hindu side. She's scooped out of the water and taken prisoner for being an illegal alien and a possible terrorist.