Celestial Banquet
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- Pre-Order
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- Expected Jun 3, 2025
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- $10.99
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- Pre-Order
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
Iron Chef meets The Hunger Games in Roselle Lim’s dazzling YA fantasy debut, following a young noodle chef who competes in a cutthroat cooking competition for the gods.
“Celestial Banquet is a magical and delectable adventure through a culinary landscape rich in East Asian tradition. It is also a very real look at family, home, and how food ties into both, with an empowered and resilient teen girl at the center. Equal parts action-packed and heartfelt, I cannot wait for readers to devour it.” —Ayesha Curry, Sweet July Books
Once every generation, the Major Gods hold a Celestial Banquet, inviting chefs from all over the Continent to prepare mouthwatering fantastical feasts. The winner is awarded the fabled Peaches of Immortality, along with a lifetime of fame and fortune. The losers perish per the whims of the fickle gods.
Hot-headed noodle chef Cai enters the competition with dreams of owning her own restaurant and supporting her impoverished Peninsula town. Along with the drunken Minor God Kama, her childhood crush-turned-friend Bo, and dreamy noble Seon, Cai must now compete against the Continent’s finest culinary masters in trials that range from hunting and serving up mystical sea serpents to preparing a magical omurice from the eggs of the legendary Jian bird.
Battling impossible odds and inconvenient feelings for both Bo and Seon, Cai is determined to prepare a feast fit for the gods—even if she loses her life. Set in a spectacular world inspired by Chinese and Southeast Asian folklore, Celestial Banquet is an ode to food, home, and family, wrapped in an epic and thrilling adventure.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Every 10 years, the three major gods of the Continent host the Celestial Banquet, a competition in which five teams, each sponsored by a minor god, risk everything for a priceless reward. Determined to honor her deceased father's memory, 16-year-old noodle chef Cai convinces the local god, Kama, to assemble a team for the first time in a century. Joined by wealthy playboy Seon and wandering warrior Tala, Cai competes against the best chefs on the Continent in a tournament designed to test her like never before, as the gods are capricious and cruel and the losers of the contest rarely leave in one piece, if at all. As each round claims new victims, Cai must reexamine the role of cooking in her life and contend with competing affections for Seon and her childhood friend Bo. In this dazzling East Asian–influenced fantasy, Lim (Night for Day, for adults) weaves together deadly magic, deliciously described dishes, and intensely personal stakes to deliver a tale that satisfies all the senses. The inclusion of a love triangle sometimes detracts from the heightened atmosphere of the banquet; nevertheless, the story's ingredients blend seamlessly. Ages 12–up.
