Official Review: Onward Kitchen Soldiers by Rob Chirico

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JessiAnne26
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Official Review: Onward Kitchen Soldiers by Rob Chirico

Post by JessiAnne26 »

[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Onward Kitchen Soldiers" by Rob Chirico.]
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What a wonderful creation! Such dedication and passion went into this book and I commend the author for such a wonderful piece of work. I really can only hope this book does not get classified with other general cooking books, as it is a story of adventure and excitement and there is no one particular audience that I believe it's attempts to approach but is instead written for the masses to enjoy. I do hope that I see this particular book in the up-and coming authors section and then moved to the best seller list in my time as it really is truly a wonderful piece of work. Chirico’s work is funny, animated, exciting and enticing and anyone can enjoy this book. I would give it a 4 out of 4 rating !

The book kicks off with the story Charlie, (or as his friends will later call him Chollie, or Carlito, Mitello. Charlie dreams of becoming an extraordinary chef and given his Italian back ground and great admiration of food that stems from having real old world Italian grandparents, his ambition has him on the short train to success. Sadly, however, Charlie is confronted by different plans orchestrated by the universe and finds he is allergic to certain foods and can no longer be of use as a chef to the restaurant he works for, or any restaurant for that matter. So what is a young aspiring chef to do, take up a job in public relations for cookbook authors, of course. And so Charlie’s adventure begins. Faced with monstrous clients, a terrible boss (with whom I feel every working citizen who reads this book has had at least one to relate this character to), and challenges no one would envy Charlie must strike a balance of keeping his clients happy and keeping his job since his dream of becoming a chef has completely dissipated. Eventually Charlie comes to the ultimate challenge of keeping one of his clients happy and must face several seemingly impossible obstacles to keep his client in the limelight, but throughout he and his client learn valuable lessons about cooking and camaraderie and the ridiculousness of not being able to fully live up to ones dreams.

This book was an extraordinarily appetizing (excuse my pun) read and the elements I cared most for were the development of the characters. I found each character relatable and I find that to be rare in a lot of books. I loved that each chapter had some mention of food relating to a character and at the end of each chapter the author put a recipe for that particular foodstuff. I thoroughly enjoyed reading about Charles backstory and family and friends and found myself smiling fondly at each experience imagining that I was there. It’s truly delightful to be able to be so deeply immersed in a story that's fun and witty and dare I say even inspiring.

The only conflict I had with this particular novel was that I often found I had to use the dictionary feature on my Kindle. Of the few chefs I know I find it to be a common attribute of them to use language that is not for the commonplace reader. Even this minor hindrance however assisted in the development of my love for this story, because I cannot imagine a person could write such a wonderful thing without being a wonderful chef in his own right. If Chirico is to pen another novel I do hope there will be less homework involved or at least inference on my part, but this does nothing to take away my appreciation for his work.

In conclusion, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. If the books I am to read and review are all of this caliber I should only be too thrilled and my enthusiasm will be difficult to contain. I certainly wish the best for Chirico and hope to see his book on the best seller list, even for a short while, in the near future. If I were the type to re-read books I could see myself coming back to this one often. Bravo Mr. Chirico, and thank you for this wonderful piece of work.

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