The magic system here is food based and only available to the elite. The way it is cooked supplies the magic.
Our hero, Paprick is a butcher, slicing slabs of meat from humongous beasts (you get the idea of size from the cover art) but what he really wants is to be a chef (oh, and to free his people from under a tyrannical yoke).
Montage time . . . finds new ingredient, cooks/creates something not seen before, gains fame/notoriety, arrested by the high ups as a threat, convinces them to train him as a master chef . . .
and we're back
Paprick, now ensconced in chef school finds all is not as he expected and espionage and the likes soon follow - and a possibility of rebellion (remember that tyrannical yoke?).
I think it's safe to say Ryan Rose has created something rather spectacular here with great world building and characterisation with a story split between then and now - and this is only the first course 😀
A definite 5/5 (michelin) *
