Monica ali writing style

Interview

Monica Ali discusses her third novel, In The Kitchen, which is set in the frenetic, almost pirate-ship-like world of the kitchen in a major urban restaurant (Q&A contains potential plot spoilers).

In the Kitchen vividly thrusts the reader into the sweaty, frenetic, almost pirate-ship-like world of the kitchen in a major urban restaurant. Did you rely upon any first-hand experience to bring the kitchen scenes to life?

I spent a year researching the novel and several years before that thinking about it and reading around it. Part of my year of intensive research was in the north of England where sections of the novel are set but most of it was in London where I spent time in restaurant kitchens and in five big hotels, always on the understanding that I would never identify them. That gave me great access and once I had entered the world of hotels I knew that a hotel would be my main setting. Hotels are like microcosms of society. You get everything from the penthouse suite at the top to the porter in the basement compacting rubbish. But it was always the kitchens that I was particularly drawn to. Those places are like UN assemblies. You get every different nationality down there, so they are a very rich source of diverse stories.


What inspired you to write about the life of a chef?

In the UK, and perhaps in the USA as well, we've become quite obsessed with chefs. And even though we see...

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