Burnt Ends: A Novel

"Andrew Calderone is a talented writer and this deft, entertaining novel has much to say about Canadian food, identity, and coming of age.”—Alix Ohlin, author of Dual Citizens and Inside

Like many passionate cooks, Luca Russo learned to love food at his mother’s elbow. But Luca’s mother is no ordinary cook: she’s a talented sous-chef at their renowned Toronto restaurant, and Luca finds himself daydreaming less about the dishes he’ll conjure up than about winning a Michelin Star.

When Luca’s mother finally tires of Canadian frigidness and takes her talents back to her hometown in Sicily, Russo is sure his prospects are obliterated, until a journalist suggests his long-lost father, once a renowned cook in his own right, may be alive and living on the West Coast—not lost, as he once thought, to the fire that destroyed his parents’ first restaurant.

Without cash or company, Luca sets out to find his father, a quest that brings the young cook face-to-face with drug-running tree-planters, wild bears, treacherous waves, forest fires, mouth-watering recipes, and the harrowing secrets that split his family. Burnt Ends takes the reader on a culinary adventure across Canada, following one cook’s journey to discover the land he comes from and the land he was raised on, and to understand what that means when he rolls up his sleeves to get cooking.