Ratatouille meets the Bear meets Masterchef in an Indian cuisine inspired futuristic cooking saga

The moment I chanced upon the blurb of this book on NetGalley, I wanted to read it and thanks to the author and the awesome folks at NetGalley, I got an ARC of this book. Interstellar Megachef is like a veritable wholesome serving of rasam rice but the slightly spicy kind – underneath the immediate warmth and coziness of the rasam, there are layers of spice and tanginess that make this book far more nuanced, thoughtful, and poignant than you would expect

On the surface, Interstellar Megachef is about an intergalactic cooking competition featuring an underdog, Saraswati Kaveri from Earth traveling to Uru, now the political, cultural, and gastronomical centre of the universe. Earth is now considered a backward planet that cooks with open flame whereas the prevailing gastronomical culture leans towards infusions and “flowmetal”. The other PoV is that of a Serenity Ko, a sim creator of experiences, leading a messy chaotic, and debauched existence, who hones in on food for her next sim venture following a rude shock at her workplace. Circumstances bring our leads together even as the titular Megachef contest unfolds

There is this fabulous sequence in the movie Ratatouille (Spoilers for the movie obviously – duh), wherein the jaded food critic picks at his food with apparent disinterest only to be so moved by the taste of the food that he is transported to his childhood and the emotions that it evokes. To a great extent, that’s what this book is all about – the emotions and feelings connected with food. Food is a universal language and while everyone’s experiences and emotions are different, the underlying theme of food being a uniter fuels this book.

“Flavor. Texture. Visual. That’s all you need to make a meal an experience”

That said this is a layered book and the author uses food as an allegory to bring about some fascinating commentary. The author remarks on how food is often used as a soft power of conquest – a dominant civilization often finds ways to impose their food as part of the cultural domination to suppress and mark their superiority. The author also tries to draw attention to the pretentiousness related to food – the heart (and the stomach) wants what it wants. A person can enjoy a full Andhra meal (ala Nagarjuna) as much as they can savor a 9-course fine dine degustation.  That shouldn’t be a forum to justify what is better and more civilized – the book put this point across rather well. Finally, there is the AI element that the book wants to really expand about but saves ammo for the next book. AI is entrenching its roots everywhere and food is no exception. But Food has a personal human element to it that AI cannot fully replace or explain. In this age where AI in writing specifically genre writing is a ticking time bomb, the author’s commentary on foods might as well extend to books and writing

“Human history teaches us that humans pick convenience over commitment every single time”

The central mystery and journey that drives Saraswati Kaveri is one of the key elements of the book and there is just enough in it that keeps you engaged even as the story proceeds. I do think some of the elements of her journey and the mechanics were kind of hand-wavy but she remains an entirely compelling character with enough of a mystery that you are invested in her journey. Serenity Ko on the other hand starts as a character that one wouldn’t like, almost deliberately so. She is rather unpleasant and self-centered to say the least but the author teases out elements of Ko’s personality and her family to make you accept her as the co-lead of this book

“All cooking came down to combining flavors in different proportions, to creating visually rich, stimulating, texturally complete edible experiences”

For a book titled Interstellar Megachef, the focus on the actual competition itself is rather muted and limited – which was a bit of a disappointment. Instead, we spend a fair amount of time in what is possibly a crash course in app development and product management. Also, I did feel some of the food-related impact kind of rushed and not delivering the full experience. There is also the third PoV that we see that comes across as a bit ominous but has a very limited role to play in this book – it however does expound a bit on how civilizations try to reign supreme. The more things change, the more some people want it to remain the same.

Finally, on a personal note, I loved the concept of Indian culture specifically the cuisine element in a SF setting. It’s pretty rare to come across these and I love how the author has woven it as a key theme of the story. It elevated my experience of reading this book making it wholesome. To make it even more special, the book is also kind of South Indian to an extent – the sprinkling of Tam words added a wonderful garnish to this dish of a book. KB Wager’s the Indranan War series featuring an Indian culture and gods-inspired matriarchal society in space was one of the books that I can recommend to get more of these kinds in the SFF genre – the book featured female warriors comfortably wielding weapons dressed in saris while invoking Ganesha for starters

Fun, thoughtful, poignant, and questioning, Interstellar Megachef is an Indian-cuisine & culture-based space novel that revels in subverting your expectations of what the book is all about while serving a grand story that sets itself up for interesting things ahead. Come for the cooking contest, stay for the app development and the role of AI in our precious labor of love activities.

Rating – 4 Medu Vadais on 5

Interstellar Megachef is out 7th November  – you can order your copy on Bookshop.org