Review: Just Desserts by Scarlet Blackwell
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 08 26, 2010
All the calories that Luc Tessier, French chef and man-eater, doesn't put in his courses since he is a vegetarian cook, he for sure consumes during sex, most of the time seasoned with whipped cream and sweet fruits.Luc has an ego that is probably bigger than France, and it says a lot. He is tired of a English food critic, Daniel Sheridan, who always destroys his cooking tv show and so he decides to invite the man to dine in his Parisian restaurant. Even if Luc is gay and proud, better he doesn't give a damn of what the people think, he is planning to seduce Daniel only with his cuisine, since he doesn't know that Daniel is a model beautiful man.When he sees the pretty Englishman, Luc's plans immediately change, and a post-dinner visit to the kitchen when everyone is gone away is mandatory: after all there is a comfortable flat surface there. If after a very quick and very dirty (in every meaning of the word, remember the whipped cream of above) encounter Daniel would have not dismissed it as nothing more than a one night stand, maybe Luc would have not fixated on the man. In any case now, Luc's mission is changed: he doesn't want to conquer the food critic, he wants the man.Both men are not exactly fair players. Daniel has a crush on the handsome chef, and like the fox and the grapes, since he thought he couldn't have him, then he dismissed not only the man but also his work. On the other hand, Luc seems more interested in satisfy his sexual desires than actually doing a good job. He is not a bad man but he has for sure an egoistical core; not only in his relationship with various men, but also in his day-to-day life: when asked to cook for an humanitarian foundation in a cooking competition, he at first has no intention to accept until he doesn't find out that Daniel is in the jury, and that is the only reason why he accept.This is only a novella, and basically the characters meet at the beginning and at the end, with the middle full of funny, and sometime outrageous trick with which Luc is trying to conquer Daniel. Just Desserts is a funny romp, for sure not serious, not at all if you consider both characters: to me they seem more children at play than professional adult.