The Constellation of Moon

Seven Recipes for Revolution by Ryan Rose

Rating:

Disclaimer: Receiving a review copy from the publisher does not affect my opinion of the book. If you think I review it highly it is due to me knowing my taste well and therefore not requesting books I won’t enjoy. And I am not obligated to review the book if I do not like it, so you may not see bad reviews due to me preferring not to hype down a particular book. I only do reviews of books I disagreed with if I think it is worth bringing a topic or warning to light.

I am a year behind almost with this book, but I had this feeling that I had to be ready to read it. And I am glad I waited to do so.

For context, so that if you ask yourself why I loved it, I am a big fan of the manga Food Wars (and when I heard of this being pitched as Attack On Titan my mind also pitched it against Food Wars), most of my TV watching is things like Iron Chef, Culinary Class Wars, Chef and my Fridge, and any show similar to them (I am not big on the ones that ridicule too much the cook, it is all about the food for me). I also read a lot of manga and used to watch a lot of anime (a lot less now).

Now with that as a context and backdrop to my review, I have to say that this was a superb read. Paprick is a young man that has the job of being a butcher in a society that has a huge class divide and that also has magical beasts that when you cook specific recipes can give you powers. So he is part of the lower class who are almost indentured to the higher class (defined as “Rares”). And our story is about Paprick telling his backstory to an archivist (who he knew and was partly in his own story) while he is about to be condemned to death for his “crimes” and becoming “The Butcher” a figurehead for the Revolution.

This to me was an interesting mode of telling the story, because you are not getting the here and now story but what got Paprick to be called “The Butcher” and “Chef King”, and how he a common being somehow was able to make recipes that granted powers beyond the ones known already by the Rares.

And boy does Paprick take you on a wild ride. And I enjoyed this ride. It was super interesting to see him go from butchering to being able to create a recipe on the go because he wanted to have someone “do something”. He is a “hero” not because he particularly wanted to, but rather because circumstances put him in the place “someone has to do this” and when no one did it, he realised that the only someone that could try and that was going to try was him. This trait of him will already put off some people from this book, those who have so much privilege that they do not understand Paprick’s stand at all or how there is a need for someone, because people like this will always have other people to do whatever they need due to privilege.

Then there is the food, Paprick loves and lives for food. All he wants is to be a chef, to be allowed to learn and cook, and not to stay as a butcher. He butchers because that’s his assigned job and is better than other potential jobs, not because it is his choice. And the way the food and cooking is described here makes you hungry.

One other thing that may split people is that this book questions identity. It questions what makes a certain type of culinary experience more refined or “better” than other (why is a lobster bisque better than tacos con nopales by the fire?), and it asks some interesting questions about what the conqueror does and how they tell history and define the “right” way and the “cheap” and bad way of things, when neither is inherently better or worse. As I read about this conversation throughout the book I kept thinking on how a lot of the diet advise and nutrition is based on a Western view of the “perfect diet” and it only opts items from other cultures to make them into Superfoods.

Like avocados (or ube or matcha). Avocado toast being the rage when many Latin American cultures already ate a version of that for breakfast or lunch and where shunned for years for it, and suddenly it is now “healthy” but as I have learned myself, most of the Western view of avocados doesn’t know how to eat them or even prepare them properly, and what they consider refined is unripe avocados that barely have a taste and lack a lot of the richness and delight of a ripe avocado. And don’t get me started on the definitions of tacos, or how eating with your hands is dirty until you’re having a burger and then it is perfectly fine but other cultures using hands and food (like tortillas, naan, chapati, roti, etc) to eat is seen as unclean or “poor” or bad.

And you can see this conversation happening for Paprick as he is exposed to the world of Rares, and the culinary classes and how it asks some very interesting questions not just about food but the setup of society.

And yes, there is a revolution happening and brewing, and there’s a lot more on going in this book, but I think it is worth the reading of it and avoid the spoilers.

Overall, it was superb and I am looking forward to the second book coming soon as this was an absolute treat to read (do be mindful that this is very violent and graphic, so find the trigger warnings for it since you also need to come to it prepared for everything that will be in it). And if you can read it, I hope it is as delightful for you as it was for me.