Reese Camden is living her dream. When she was going through a particularly difficult time during her freshman year, her two best friends Natalie and Clara introduced her to Friends of Flavor, a popular cooking channel out of Seattle. They spent their evenings and weekends watching the videos of the cooking shows, and when they found out that Katherine, host of Fuss-Free Foodie also had a blog where she talked not just about recipes and cooking but about feminist issues, they all read it religiously.
So when Reese found out that they were hiring a marketing intern for the summer, she had to apply. She was already planning on leaving Virginia to head to the University of Washington in the fall. With this opportunity, she could move out there a few months sooner and see what it’s like behind the scenes of her favorite cooking shows.
Even when the job was mostly getting coffee and keeping an eye on the social media comments, Reese felt like she was living the dream. But one day, Aiden changed her world.
Aiden, one of the Friends of Flavor (FoF) chefs and the guy who managed the shooting schedule informed Reese’s boss that he had a problem. They were scheduled to shoot an episode of Piece of Cake, but the host of the show is heading out of town on a last-minute shoot that includes all the other talent of FoF. Who will they get to shoot the episode? Margie immediately points out the cooking intern in the kitchen, a dude with a backwards baseball cap and an easy grin. And when the bosses decide to add Reese to the shoot, the add Amateur Hour to the title of the show, and the idea is set.
Reese shows up for the shoot, not even knowing what they’re supposed to be making, but her co-star Benny is confident in the kitchen. He figures out that the ingredients are for macarons, and he helps Reese make the filling for the cookies while he makes the shells. They fall into an easy banter, and when Reese forgets to fasten the top of the food processor and gets covered in pulverized pistachios, they laugh at the mess and move forward anyway.
Amateur Hour turns out to be a success, and Reese and Benny find themselves filming more episodes. Outside of the kitchen, they find a certain compatibility as well, and they start spending time together, learning more about each other and finding a closeness that Reese wasn’t expecting. But then the CEO of the corporation decides that Benny and Reese should be competing for the one fall internship. And while the ratings for their show keep going up, it also brings out the haters and the trolls, and Reese finds the online comments difficult to deal with. But when she starts to think about bowing out quietly so the haters can’t reach her anymore, she finds that she has friends who may be even stronger than the internet trolls.
Love from Scratch is a sweet rom com that also faces the very real problem of sexism on the internet. The combination of the slow-burn romance between these two lovable characters and the honest look at what young women in the spotlight have to go through. With lots of witty banter and bad food puns, this delicious story sings with charm and flavor.
I really enjoyed the warm romance of Love from Scratch. I thought it was lovely how the friendship evolves between Reese and Benny, and it was smart how the feminist storyline played out. Some of the bro-culture sexism may have been a little heavy-handed for today’s environment, but I’m sure a lot of it rings true for today’s teens and young adults. But this was definitely a fun read, and I think any romance fan who loves cooking shows will devour this one.
Egalleys for Love from Scratch were provided by Random House Children's (Delacorte Press) through NetGalley, with many thanks.
