The Chef - Tapa blanda

Martin Suter reaches a huge readership with his novels. He writes exciting, almost cinematic stories and grabs his readers with tight, refined plots * Der Spiegel * Martin Suter's take on the culinary is as full of mystery as a crime story, only more exotic and more erotic * Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung * Sex, spices and arms dealing: such is the recipe - perfectly executed - cooked up by Martin Suter * Le Monde *

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 a job 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 unsavoury business, plunging them deep into an underworld where murder and sex feed otherwise unquenchable thirsts...