“. . . [W]hat begins as a culinary hunt gradually transforms into a life-changing journey about holding onto the memories that define you.” —Comics Beat

A series debut based on the hit WEBTOON comic perfect for fans of cozy cooking, delectable romance, and emotional drama.

Readers of James Albon’s The Delicacy and Yeon-Sik Hong’s Umma’s Table will also love this culinary graphic novel, which follows Lucy on her search for the unforgettable chefs who shaped her childhood and passion for food.

Bright, bubbly, and with a passion for delicious food, Lucy is ecstatic to head down memory lane—and no one does gourmet better than Dimanche. Growing up with fond memories of the exquisite French restaurant, Lucy always knows where to get her favorite meal.

When she discovers that the magical flavor she fell in love with is missing, Lucy is determined to search for all the former chefs that helped shape her reverence for cooking—and her childhood.

With her refined taste and incredible sense of smell leading the way, she soon finds the help of two Dimanche chefs, Brie and Graham. Allies now by her side, Lucy sets off on a culinary mission to bring the kitchen crew back together.

Lucy’s hunt to restore a core childhood memory is the start of a life-changing emotional journey that reminds her to never give up on her dreams.

This volume collects episodes 1 to 36 of the delightful WEBTOON comic Gourmet Hound.

The comic opens with Lucy chopping onions to hide the fact that she’s crying. She and her best friends visited Dimanche, a top-notch, celebrated French restaurant that Lucy used to go to with her grandmother. Except this particular visit, Lucy realizes the food from growing up is gone, and everything tastes different.

Thus begins Lucy’s spectacular journey to find the chef that cooked the food she remembered, and reunited with them for another round of good food. The thing is, most of the staff of Dimanche has left, including its mysterious owner, Mr. Bartlett. While the reasons for the staff leaving are varied–professional jealousy, feeling lost, etc.–Mr. Bartlett leaving left everyone shocked and dismayed, with no answers as to why he left.

In the meantime, readers also meet Graham and Brie. Graham and Brie work together at Gourmet Hound, a restaurant Brie owns. Graham used to be a top chef at Dimanche, but he had a tragic accident where the bone that controls olfactory senses got damaged, and he lost his sense of smell…which also partially affects his sense of taste, too. Because of this, he rarely cooks, and does more behind-the-scenes work at Gourmet Hound.

Lucy meets Graham when he burns his egg on the stove and things accidentally catch fire–she breaks into his house to try to save him and his dog. Brie rushes to the apartment, too, and both she and Graham want Lucy to pay for the door she broke, but Lucy can’t afford it, so she offers to work the debt off at Gourmet Hound. In the meantime, this also leads her closer to her search for the mystery chef when she learns that both Brie and Graham used to work at Dimanche. She tries to get the two to fill in some of the blanks for her, but also get the names of the other chefs who left the restaurant.

This is a delightful comic with a propulsive mystery that seems a little on the preposterous side, to be honest, but the characters–including Lucy–openly acknowledge this. And you can’t help but root for Lucy. A lot of this pursuit of the food from childhood also ties in with Lucy keeping a connection to her grandmother, who passed away. She was incredibly close to her, and her grandmother was the one to take her to Dimanche.

There’s a large cast of characters, but everyone is unique in both their visual depiction (I find Clementine and Graham to be handsome, lol) but also their personalities. Lucy is a good pair to Graham because Graham lost his sense of smell, and Lucy has an incredible, otherworldly ability to sniff things out. I hope something romantic develops between the two, and I hope Graham is the chef Lucy has been looking for all along, although when they piece the timeline together of Graham leaving Dimanche, it doesn’t work out with Lucy’s experience–the chef who made the food she remembers was still at Dimanche after Graham left. But I want this sort of twist anyway!

This was an enjoyable comic. I’m no foodie but I like how each chapter is labeled for a food dish or cooking tool, and at the end of the chapter there’s a little ditty talking about them. All of the food looks great and I couldn’t help but crave the Italian food from the wedding scenes.

If you’re a food lover, or just a fan of childhood nostalgia and living out memories, this is a good comic to try. The characters and story are solid, and I want to know how the mystery is solved, and if Lucy will be reunited with her childhood tastes.

On Goodreads I’m giving this a 4.5; rounded up to a 5 on NetGalley. It really is a treat to read.

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I received a digital ARC of Gourmet Hound Vol. 1 from NetGalley via the publisher, WEBTOON Unscrolled. I am happy to leave an honest review. You can purchase the book from a variety of booksellers and retailers online, or view details directly from the publisher when it releases October 27.