The Chef — Martin Suter

A thriller and love story that has gripped readers across Europe, filled with culinary exploits and sexual adventures, and includes 16 recipes

As the financial crisis tightens its grip on Europe, the gilded world of Zurich's leading restaurant, Chez Huwyler, seems immune to plunging stock markets and collapsing banks. But behind the scenes, even the rarefied world of haute cuisine is feeling the bite and so Maravan, a Tamil dishwasher and undiscovered culinary genius, and Andrea, a stunningly beautiful waitress, find themselves out of work and needing to find another way to survive. After Maravan seduces Andrea by cooking her a dinner that fuses the aphrodisiac recipes of his ancestors with the necromancy of molecular gastronomy, Andrea hits upon a business idea: romantic catering for couples. But even culinary magic can't ward off recession and when their new company begins to struggle, they are forced to enter into a much more unsavory business, plunging them deep into an underworld where murder and sex feed otherwise unquenchable thirsts.