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New Middle Grade Books About Food

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When I was younger I loved to bake and I had a favorite cookie recipe I made over and over again. I felt so grown up when I would bake something all by myself.  Recently, I have read some delicious books about kids who enjoy cooking as much as I do. They feature a main character who either loves cooking or loves food and experimenting in the kitchen. These morsels of entertainment might just inspire you to whip something up today.


The Last Super Chef
By Chris Negron
HarperCollins Publishers, 2021. Fiction.

Curtis Pitch has always wanted to become a chef like the famous Lucas Taylor, the host of his favorite TV show, Super Chef. So when he learns that Super Chef is going to have a kids only season, Curtis knows this is his chance to show just what he can do in the kitchen. He wins a spot in the competition and heads off to New York to film the show. But Curtis also has a secret, he wants to be acknowledged by his father, the famous chef, as well as help his mother and sister. 



Chef Yasmina and the Potato Panic
By Wauter Mannaert
First Second, 2021. Graphic Novel.

Yasmina lives in an apartment in the city where money is tight but they eat like kings. Yasmina likes to use her favorite cookbook and fresh vegetables from the community garden to make yummy meals for her family. But the garden is demolished and replaced by some special scientifically enhanced potatoes that end up being addictive. Now, Yasmina must find a way to cure all the people who have been affected by the potatoes and she must do it quickly.


All You Knead is Love
By Tanya Guerrero
Farrar Straus Giroux Books for Young Readers, 2021. Fiction.

Alba has been sent across the ocean to live with her grandmother in Barcelona. As she and her grandmother start spending time together baking, Alba discovers she enjoys baking bread. The more time she spends with her grandmother, the more she begins to learn about her mother and her life when she was younger. She slowly begins to accept her new life, makes friends, and learns to bake bread for the local bakery. But everything comes to a stop when an unexpected visitor comes to Barcelona and Alba finds out her favorite bakery could be closed.


Measuring Up
Written by Lily LaMotte
Illustrated by Ann Xu
HarperAlley, 2020. Graphic Novel

Cici has just moved to Seattle from Taiwan. She is settling in and making friends but she misses her grandmother. When Cici learns about a cooking contest that has a grand prize that is enough to pay for a ticket to fly her grandmother to Seattle, she decides to enter. Cici knows how to cook Taiwanese food and she loves cooking so she is sure she can find a winning recipe. But when her competition partner dismisses Cici's recipes, she decides she must learn to make new recipes that she has never made before. With some help, Cici begins to channel her inner Julia Child, but will this be enough to help her win the contest? 
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