Lessons In Fusion

September 1, 2021
A cooking competition show gets Sarah to more fully explore her cultural heritage. Sixteen-year-old Sarah Dayan-Abad is a Winnipeg girl of Ashkenazi Jewish and Filipinx descent. She attends a Hebrew immersion school and maintains a fusion cooking blog, highlighting the Jewish recipes her late Baba taught her. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Cyber Chef, a virtual cooking show for food bloggers, has become one of her favorites, inspiring her own cooking. When Sarah is offered the chance to be a last-minute sub on the show, she is told she needs to present more Filipinx recipes on her blog, forcing her to quickly dive into her mother's Filipinx culture. As she learns more, she confronts her mother about abandoning her Filipinx heritage. Looking within herself and at her family's histories, Sarah must learn the true meaning of fusion if she hopes to get far in the competition. The central theme in the book around discovering and accepting your own racial and cultural identities--while recognizing that other people's perceptions may be very different and not reflect the whole story--is presented very well. The novel also depicts problematic ways that race, diversity, and equity are handled in a predominately White society, especially within the entertainment industry. Unfortunately, the writing feels scattered, with many changing viewpoints, locations, and times. Each chapter opens with a fusion recipe from Sarah's blog, spotlighting Filipinx and Jewish cuisines. A solid fusion of food, heritage, and social issues. (Fiction. 13-18)

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November 1, 2021

Gr 7 Up-Sarah Dayan-Abed is a 16-year-old multiracial, Ashkenazi Jewish and Filipinx teen who loves cooking, writing for her fusion cooking blog, and watching her favorite reality show, Cyber Chef, created during the pandemic. Cyber Chef has virtual contestants create recipes that must be easily reproduced by judges. When an opportunity to star in Cyber Chef: Next Gen arises, Sarah jumps at it, thinking about all of the recipes she created with her Jewish paternal grandmother, Baba. However, it becomes clear that the show is in search of someone Filipinx. Sarah identifies more with her Jewish heritage, so her backstory is rewritten to fit the program's demographic desire. Her blog is suddenly filled with Filipinx recipes she has only recently learned, her name is constantly mispronounced on the show (Seh-rah instead of Sah-rah), and her memories of cooking with Baba are attributed to Lola, her maternal grandmother, whom she doesn't know well. The book superbly tackles issues of identity, both in the ways we see ourselves and the ways the world perceives us. Though this is Sarah's story, an array of character perspectives dive deeper into issues of diversity, culture, family, and identity. Some sections feel unnecessary, confusing, and take away from the main story, but others, like Sarah's mother's, give fuller insight into Sarah's cultural and racial identity formation. Each chapter opens with a detailed recipe that ties into what is ahead. Taking place during the pandemic, with references to mask wearing, social distancing, and Zoom, this book feels highly relevant. VERDICT Highlighting family, food, multiracial identities, and cultural competency, this book is recommended for general collections.-Kristyn Dorfman, Friends Academy, Locust Valley, NY

Copyright 2021 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 5, 2021
Grades 8-12 Sixteen-year-old Sarah (SAH-rah) Dayan-Abad of Winnipeg has her own cooking blog where she showcases her own fusion recipes and those her late, paternal grandmother taught her. While Sarah's in touch with her Ashkenazi Jewish side, she knows very little of her Filipinx heritage from her mother's side. When she's tapped to be a contestant on Cyber Chef, an online cooking competition for food bloggers, she's pushed to concentrate on her Filipinx background. Instead of consulting her mother, Sarah leans on her aunt Cher, who owns an Asian-fusion tapas restaurant in town. The more she works with Aunt Cher and connects to the Filipinx part of her heritage, Sarah begins to question why her mother left her culture behind, and to learn the nuances of true fusion cooking. Told by Sarah with a variety of flashbacks and backstage machinations, the story feels disjointed at times. Nevertheless, family support and solid friendships provide the soft landing Sarah needs to navigate a variety of social, cultural, and pandemic pressures, all while the complexity of understanding one's mixed cultural identities remains front and center.

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