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Salty, Bitter, Sweet

Mayra Cuevas (Goodreads Author)

3.61 · Rating details · 23 ratings · 14 reviews

“Happiness, like love, arrives through the kitchen. At least that’s what my abuela Lala used to say. I may not know much about love, but I definitely got the kitchen part down.”

Seventeen-year-old aspiring chef Isabella Fields’ family life has fallen apart after the death of her Cuban abuela and the divorce of her parents. She moves in with her dad and his new wife in ...more

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Hardcover, 320 pages

Expected publication: March 3rd 2020 by Blink

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Dec 01, 2019 Carolina rated it it was ok

*sigh* i have a lot of thoughts and not many of them are good :'/

update: dropping down my rating to 2, cause the mere thought of this book makes me boil.

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Dec 20, 2019 Marina added it

Disclaimer: I got a free copy of the eArc of this book from NetGalley in return for an honest review.

Rating: it's okay, would suggest borrowing from the library.

While I enjoyed Salty, Bitter, Sweet overall, the book sends mixed messages that I personally did not agree with. I also did not enjoy the stepbrother / sister romance and would have passed this book by if the summary had been more clear about it.

The book explores the world of professional French kitchens, with a mixed-nationality main Disclaimer: I got a free copy of the eArc of this book from NetGalley in return for an honest review.

Rating: it's okay, would suggest borrowing from the library.

While I enjoyed Salty, Bitter, Sweet overall, the book sends mixed messages that I personally did not agree with. I also did not enjoy the stepbrother / sister romance and would have passed this book by if the summary had been more clear about it.

The book explores the world of professional French kitchens, with a mixed-nationality main character, and a dollop of a somewhat taboo romance.

I guess one thing I enjoyed about the book is that it's fairly realistic. Cuevas doesn't gloss over things and doesn't make things easy for the main character, but I feel like she didn't always address things she brought up properly.

(view spoiler)[ I liked the main character Isa - for the most part. She's smart, hard-working, and driven but she has a "I'm not like the other girls" personality even though she claims to be a die hard feminist. She shames her friend Lucia for her drunken and flirty behavior multiple times, which is certainly not feminist. Plus, other female characters often brought out a catty attitude, but towards each other - instead of their actual foes. Her step-mother ignores her and refuses to try any of her food - which is explained as a pregnancy thing - but the two women never really interact and it's never really fully explained. In fact, I don't think there was a single scene where the two actually interacted together. I would chuck it up to loyalty to her mother, except Isa makes a point to try to develop a relationship with her, only to be brushed off. Not to mention, the only scene we get with Isa's mother and her grandmother, is where the two act vaguely racist about Isa's dark skin and she calls them colorist. Their interaction is further spoiled by the fact that both older women just complain about Isa's cheating father (more on that later!). And that's it. Isa's mother and her grandmother are sort of forgotten after that, and only mentioned again in the passing. The scene that pissed me off the most however was Isa's interaction with her teacher Chef Troissant - who punishes Isa for a bad judgment call by forcing her to eat a dish that makes her shit herself, and there is an instance where she makes Isa drink alcohol and gets her drunk - even though she's underaged by American standards - but I can't imagine it would be okay for a teacher to get their student drunk by French standards either. This is never called out in text. Which is bad.

I mean, most of the adults in this book are complete and utter assholes. Her Dad is a cheater, poor Isa caught him having an affair, and it's heavily implied that he got his mistress pregnant which is what forced him to leave his wife and child, "because it was the right thing to do". Okay, asshole, for who? The wife you blindsided or your daughter who you abandoned? The book does deal with this a little bit, but since her dad isn't a bad father, Isa does end up forgiving him eventually (which makes me feel even worse for her mom who is not even mentioned at the end of the book). The only nice person in the book is Isa's paternal grandmother who was an angel... or is, since she died. I wouldn't say that's unrealistic, especially considering that the professional cooking scene is said to be chock full of abuse and high stakes stress, which gets me to the part of the review where I explain why I rated this book so lowly and ended up disliking for the most part.

Okay, this book seemed to scream "ambition is bad, huge success is bad, and being famous is going to make you evil, hate yourself, and betray your friends and family." What Isa wants most is to become a world famous, Michelin level Chef. Which is ambitious and honestly a fantastic goal to have. We need more women in the professional kitchen environment - which is unfortunately often dismissive and even abusive towards women. Isa works incredibly hard to perfect her cooking, wins a prestigious apprenticeship (which honestly was styled more like a competition) with a promise a position in the world famous Chef's kitchen. Which is why I found it really weird that instead of encouraging Isa towards her goals, the book sort of does the opposite. It shows her how ugly the world of professional cooking is, how unhappy these kitchens are, how awful these famous Chefs are, and there are multiple characters who are all "why would you ever want this? it's awful. You should want the simple things in life!" And I mean, it's not necessarily untrue... but the thing is... it's the same everywhere. This is sort of exemplified by her step-brother (or love interest), who quits the life plan that his father thought out for him, even though he loved it and was extremely successful at it, to discover what he really enjoys and wants to do with his life - which is actually great. So why does Isa, who loves cooking, wants to be a professional cook, and works so hard to reach her goals - on her own - gets the ugly side of things? To the point where she even sabotages her own test, so she can go work elsewhere. I mean... is she supposed to be more like paternal grandmother Lala, who got taken advantage off and acted like a doormat, and died because she contracted a disease from people she was trying to help?

I feel like the message that Cuevas was trying to send was "ambition and hard work is good, just don't lose your way and let success twist you into someone who hurts people to win". But honestly, what I got was "ambition is bad and success will turn you into a monster, so work hard, but not too hard, just do things you like and enjoy what you have and be nice to people." I mean, humility is good and all, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't be ambitious or want success.

The last thing to mention, I suppose is the romance in this book. I do not like step brother / sister romances. I think it's weird to fall in love with a person who is technically your sibling even if you're not related to them. The second it was discovered he was her step-brother, that's all I could focus on, that she was falling in love with her brother... which was ... icky... but like, Isa never thinks twice about it, and the relationship is mostly kept between themselves, so other characters don't get the chance to respond... so I wonder if Cuevas just didn't know how to handle it. I know some people like these kind of 'forbidden' romances, but I feel like it was really out of place. Though I should mention, that I didn't mind the actual relationship the two had, it was nicely paced and they had some chemistry.

My one wish for this book is that Isa was a little bit more inspired by her Cuban grandmother Lala in the kitchen. There was a huge emphasis on their relationship, and Lala was the person who got Isa interested in cooking, taught her most of what she knows, and passed down her recipes to her. However, besides apple pie (which isn't Cuban), Lala never really makes any of her grandmothers recipes or anything Cuban. Most of her cooking is inspired by her French heritage, and considering her main focus is French cuisine it makes sense. But I just wish there was a bit more Cuban kitchen inspiration as well.

So overall, I didn't hate reading the book, but I disliked it for the characters and the mixed messages it was sending. (hide spoiler)] ...more

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Jan 13, 2020 Rachel rated it really liked it

Shelves: young-adult

In Salty, Bitter, Sweet, seventeen-year-old Isabella Fields is trying to move forward after her abuela’s death and her parent’s divorce, particularly the part where her dad cheated on her mom, remarried, and has a new baby on the way. She’s spending the summer with her father, though, because of his proximity to a summer apprenticeship she’s attending. To make matters more complicated, her new stepmother’s former stepson shows up unannounced and moves in…and he is HOT.

This set-up would make for ...more

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Jan 02, 2020 Jessica rated it it was amazing

If you like With the Fire on High or ANY cooking show this book is for you. I am no chef (I barely make pasta and eggs) but the visual explanation of the prep and execution of meals literally had my mouth watering. It makes me want to learn how to cook!

I love the family dynamic it is just complex as real life but with a hint of hope. The divorce representation was good, I only wish to have seen the mother possibly find happiness as the father did.
As a Cuban/African-American having an Abuela ...more

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Jan 05, 2020 JustYourFriendlyReader rated it liked it

Sweet, warm and friendly, this book tells about a teenage girl striving for her dream of workingin a professional kitchen. For three weeks, she is part of an intensive course in the restaurant of a famous French chef. At the end of the course, one participant will win a coveted apprenticeship.
Alng the way, Isabella must deal with her new stepmother, her grief over her grandmother, her relationship with her father after his affair and subsequent divorce for Isabella's mother. And the infuriating ...more

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Dec 26, 2019 Rhiannon rated it really liked it

Isa is a chef. She can cook up a storm and she’s even won a spot at a prestigious restarurant for a special summer school.

All is not what it seems though, Isa’a life is far from perfect, her dads new girlfriend seems to hate her and now Diego has turned up and everything seems to be going wrong.

Salty, Bitter, Sweet follows Isa through her summer school as she learns what she wants from life and finally learns how to move on from the death of a loved one.

I found this book so sweet, it reminded ...more

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Jan 13, 2020 Melhara rated it really liked it

Shelves: poc, american, arc, ebook, netgalley

Anyone who loves reading YA novels and who also enjoys watching Top Chef, MasterChef, Chopped, Hell's Kitchen, or any kind of cooking show will like this book. I know I did!

Isabella loves to cook and dreams of becoming a Michelin-star chef. Her culinary skills scored her a spot in the prestigious summer cooking program with world renown Michelin-star Chef Grattard. The student who scores the highest marks in this program will win an apprenticeship with Chef Grattard and work alongside him at his Anyone who loves reading YA novels and who also enjoys watching Top Chef, MasterChef, Chopped, Hell's Kitchen, or any kind of cooking show will like this book. I know I did!

Isabella loves to cook and dreams of becoming a Michelin-star chef. Her culinary skills scored her a spot in the prestigious summer cooking program with world renown Michelin-star Chef Grattard. The student who scores the highest marks in this program will win an apprenticeship with Chef Grattard and work alongside him at his Michelin-star restaurant! This would be a dream-come-true for Isabella and she would stop at nothing to ensure her place at the top of the class.

There were so many things that I liked about this book. I loved the diversity - Isabella is Cuban-French-American who doesn't feel like she belongs anywhere. This is something I could completely relate to as a Chinese-Swiss-Canadian.
"...I come from divergent worlds while not wholly belonging to any of them. Never Cuban enough, or French enough, or American enough - that's me, a dissonant three-course meal."
Other diverse characters include her friends Pippa, an African-British girl, Lucia, a Catalan girl from Barcelona, and Diego the Spaniard from Barcelona.

Diversity aside, I also loved the character development. Isabella started off being kind of a loner with laser-like focus on achieving her dreams of one day becoming a Michelin-star chef. She has incredibly high standards and little patience for anything that might get in her way. To be honest, she wasn't very likable at first. But she eventually grew on me. Her passion for food and culinary arts was depicted very realistically (I would know, my entire family works for the restaurant industry!)

The only thing that really bugged me about this book was the romance. I didn't feel it was necessary and definitely not with Diego (it's a very strange family dynamic bordering on the taboo - he's her step-mother's step-son from a previous marriage). If anything, I think I would've preferred if a romance developed in the kitchen instead (perhaps with Snake Eyes?)

Overall, I really enjoyed this book with all of it's mouthwatering descriptions of food!

I received and eARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. ...more

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Jan 06, 2020 Maria Flaherty rated it liked it · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I have debated numerous times about the star rating for ‘Salty, Bitter, Sweet’ by Mayra Cuevas and after reminding myself that I am not the typical target audience, then perhaps, I should give the book the benefit of the doubt and opt for 3 stars.

The story is about a Cuban American girl, Isabella, who at the age of 17, desperately wishes to become a professional chef and is now embarking on a life changing training/internship at the famous Grattard restaurant in Paris. Isa is battling with her I have debated numerous times about the star rating for ‘Salty, Bitter, Sweet’ by Mayra Cuevas and after reminding myself that I am not the typical target audience, then perhaps, I should give the book the benefit of the doubt and opt for 3 stars.

The story is about a Cuban American girl, Isabella, who at the age of 17, desperately wishes to become a professional chef and is now embarking on a life changing training/internship at the famous Grattard restaurant in Paris. Isa is battling with her grief at the recent lost of her abuela Lala, and the startling breaking up of her family. And now, just when she needs to focus her attention is torn by the attractive Diego and the competitiveness of the competition.

After finishing this book, I stopped at our local French patisserie as I was absolutely starving for a delicious pastry and this is testament to the wonderful descriptive writing of Cuevas, when writing about the food and cuisine that she clearly loves.

On numerous occasions, I found myself becoming frustrated with Isa and her lack of comprehension for her new family situation – and this is where I had to remind myself that the book is aimed at a considerably younger audience. And in this way, I applaud Cuevas. Isa is not without her flaws and when she deliberately sabotages her competitor (and friend) Lucia, the author does not hesitate to point out this error to the protagonist via the reactions of other characters. The author reminds Isa of the importance for the female competitors to work together, rather than infighting. A good lesson in life for females of any age!

Towards the end of the novel, there is a considerable learning curve for Isa and while I have my doubts about her relationship with Diego (for me, their relationship is a little too obvious and the signpoints are there from their initial meeting), overall, this is an enjoyable story, which falls into the genre of ‘OwnVoices’ and provides the reader with some lessons about life when you are not the standard – Caucasian Irish/ American etc.

Disclaimer: I got a free copy of the eArc of this book from NetGalley in return for an honest review.
...more

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Jan 10, 2020 Abi rated it really liked it

Shelves: netgalley-arc-score, young-adult, 4-stars-means-i-like-you, contemporary, cool-heroine, best-sidekicks-and-or-best-friends, us-lit, stand-alone, surprisingly-good, realistic-fiction

This review is also found at The Rave Library.

Ah. My first read of this decade, and this is a one decadent read. I seriously have no expectations for this novel, but I'm glad I gave this one a shot. This indulging debut scored some points from me due to the following:

Isabella's journey to become a chef feels real to me. She's a multi-dimensional character who has flaws and mistakes but learns from them. And you know how it's not easy for her to deal with her new family. All the pain she suffered ...more

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Jan 14, 2020 Jessica rated it really liked it

Shelves: ya-fiction

This was well written and engaging for the foreign setting, diverse cast and mouth watering descriptions of food. Can't tell if it will appeal more to middle-aged women or teens though... ha ha. The character development was fine, although I feel like the father-daughter dynamic fell flat and wasn't addressed as much as the story initially set out to tackle it. Unlike some of the other reviewers, I wasn't bothered by the Diego-Isa romance. It didn't break any mold, and it certainly calls into ...more

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