Tart: Misadventures of an Anonymous Chef

by Slutty Cheff

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

A raw and real memoir about self-discovery, passion for cooking and the unfiltered pleasures of everyday life from a bold, sex-positive voice of London’s culinary world.

A hilarious, hot, and steamy account of coming of age in and out of the kitchen, from the anonymous chef and columnist, Slutty Cheff.

“It’s the two best things in the world: food and sex.”

When Slutty Cheff finds herself bored and fed-up with her 9–5 job in corporate marketing, she turns to the only thing that she really likes to do: cooking. So she quits her job, swaps emails for emulsions, and sets off to pursue her dreams of becoming a chef.

The world of London’s fine dining restaurants is so much more than she imagined: it’s more challenging, and more exciting too. There are the exhausting lows of sixty-hour work weeks in windowless kitchens, and the shock of stepping into the changing room as the only woman. There are the thrilling highs of a busy night, when service is running smoothly; electrifying run-ins with hot bartenders and even hotter chefs; and, always, the exhilaration of cycling hands-free through a city that is still sleeping, on a morning where anything can happen.

This is a story about searching for your purpose, and experiencing and embracing life to the fullest along the way. The pleasure and the chaos too...

An exquisite mix of raw Anthony Bourdain-style honesty with the sharp wit of Lena Dunham’s Girls, Tart is THE book for those who like to eat and f**k.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781668070222
Publisher:	S&S/ Marysue Rucci Books
Publication date:	08/05/2025
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Slutty Cheff is a cook and writer who writes anonymously about sex, food, and being a woman in the often male-dominated restaurant world. She is the creator of the growing @SluttyCheff Instagram account where she posts her stories anonymously. She has her own column in British Vogue and has also written for The Sunday Times (London) and has been interviewed by the Evening Standard (London) and Interview Magazine.

Editorial Reviews

I devoured this book like a ravenous customer and I love it wildly. It’s the most visceral food and sex writing out there – utterly delicious and utterly new.” —Lena Dunham

“A young Anthony Bourdain which we haven’t seen in female food writing before—visceral, hedonistic and gutsy.” —Dolly Alderton

"A tell-all detailing hot bartenders, endless emulsions and grueling work weeks offset by plenty of sex."—The New York Times

“Tart is Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential meets Lena Dunham’s Girls, steaming with sweaty double shifts (in the kitchen and bedroom), devouring the city of London with a belly-deep sense of hunger. To be inhaled in one sitting.” —Vogue

“A charming behind-the-scenes glimpse at the culinary world... Cheff turns a wry eye toward the hazards of life in the kitchen [and] serves up spicy musings on her love life. Lively prose and a devilish sense of humor make this a compulsively readable treat. It’s a refreshing forkful of food and sex.”—Publishers Weekly

“This saucy memoir delves into the author's uninhibited experiences with food, sexuality, and self-discovery... A vastly entertaining read.”—Library Journal

“I don’t know whether to be hungry or horny — I absolutely inhaled this book either way.”—Angela Hui, Journalist and author of Takeaway

“Essential reading on chef life and London's food scene from, I am sure, the new generation's Bourdain.”—Mandy Yin, Chef, author, and founder of Sambal Shiok

“Tart is perfect. It’s reminded me that, even though I’ve questioned my choice of working in kitchens after many tough shifts, I’ll never leave the industry because it’s where I feel at home.”—Max Rocha, Chef, author, and founder of Café Cecilia

“A book every young cook should read.”—Angela Hartnett, Chef, author, and founder of Murano

From the Publisher

2025-04-17
The anonymous kitchen maven, a minor celebrity in the U.K., recounts life in the service industry.

SC, let’s call her, opens her narrative by revisiting a tough time: depressed, jobless, living with her parents in her mid-20s, not having much luck in love or lust after having concluded a steamy office affair. (“Before I knew it, we were fucking on the photocopier like we were in a mainstream porn category.”) Then came an audition in a London kitchen, with hunky chefs and hormonally supercharged wait staff, and SC is in her element. The better parts of her book place her on the line, butterflying a mullet or firing a chop, where she’s actually cooking. The poorer parts are mostly charmless sexual encounters with partners such as a topknot-bedecked bartender who “reminded me of just how impactful a good shagathon can be on one’s sensibilities.” Sometimes SC’s narrative approaches literal food porn (“I can feel the imprint of his hands on my arse like I’m a Wagyu cow and he’s my keeper, massaging my body to relax my muscles”), but mostly it’s just tedious recitation. No demerits there, necessarily: Even Pauline Réage and Henry Miller grow tiresome after a while, but SC’s book doesn’t quite rise, beg pardon, to those literary heights. Moreover, SC, even more tediously, tends to preen in self-regard: “I’m the prize. He’s the piss on the pavement.” “I think only of myself and my wonderful body that works just fine, my nice mind and my fucking incredible hair.” And, with respect to that hand imprint, “Only I am of course a lot sexier than a cow; I’m more like a thoroughbred pony.” It’s enough to make a person go vegan, if not already.

If it’s sweaty sex you want, this has a few moments. If it’s sweaty chefs making wondrous grub, stick with Bourdain.

Kirkus Reviews