Oliver, a Bravo TV executive, has worked on his share of reality shows, and know how they tick- particularly, where real-life ends, and producing begins. Also, for all its archetypal reality-show contestant characters, it does want us to care about what happens to the cast of National Dish-aster (season 5). The novel manages to be both cynical and naïve at the same time- on the one hand, it presents the Palestinian-Israeli conflict as a violent quagmire (it is), but then emphasizes that the things that bring us together may be stronger than that which divides us… like a good meal. Nobody is who they seem, and the stakes (steaks? The book inspires food puns) change constantly. The book moves at a breakneck pace, with so many plot threads and characters it’s more comparable of Game of Thrones than Cutthroat Kitchen, and there are zigs and zags all along the way.
If you think you know how the story will shake out, or the agenda of its author, you definitely, absolutely do not. The only problem is, a group of Palestinians, accused by Israeli authorities of a deadly terrorist attack, quickly crash the set, and hold everyone hostage for real. They’re filming in Israel, and someone at the network thinks it would be a great plot-twist to bring in fake terrorists to up the stakes. The story begins simply enough- Sara Sinek is a showrunner at an American cooking competition program called National Dish-aster. Think of it as a thriller/satire/culinary guide/behind-the-scenes of reality TV.
If you’re looking for a mouthful, try the title-or the contents of- The Two-Plate Solution: A Novel of Culinary Mayhem in the Middle East, by Jeff Oliver (Bancroft Press).
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