Whitefish

This is a grotesque, satirical, erotic horror novel about fine dining, patronage, wealth, exploitation, Asian American ambition, family dependence, and the way appetite turns people into monsters. Its central figure is Jun Li, a young Chinese American chef in New York whose restaurant, À La Belle Étoile, has one Michelin star and dreams of more. The restaurant is elegant, expensive, technically brilliant, and deliberately more French-Japanese than Chinese, though Jun’s childhood in Queens and his father’s Cantonese barbecue shop remain the buried source of his cooking.

Jun owes his career to the Winslow family. Margot Ellery-Winslow paid for his culinary education, and her husband Graham Winslow financed his restaurant and owns the building where it sits. Because of this, Jun is not only their chef but almost a dependent family member: admired, dressed, flirted with, summoned, and owned. The Winslows always have a reserved marble table at Étoile, and Jun keeps Fridays open for their private dinners. Margot treats him as a treasured discovery, half son, half pet, half fantasy. Graham treats him as a useful asset. The children — Preston, Izzy, and Eden, still called Mai by Margot — each attach to him in different ways.

The novel begins when Graham’s new assistant asks Jun to cook a last-minute dinner for Singaporean investors, Darren Jie and Cheryl Xuan. Graham needs their money because his private equity firm, Winslow & Arnold, is struggling. Its old model of turning underused buildings into luxury rentals is failing, fundraising is drying up, and Graham’s aura of invincibility is cracking.