The January rain in San Francisco always makes me want to curl up with a blanket, a steaming mug, and a cozy book. After the rush of holidays, it’s nice to use the quiet space to rest my body and my spirit. So I have been looking especially forward to this next ARC of The Kamogawa Food Detectives. (Thanks to NetGalley and for the gift copy!)

The premise is simple: a father-daughter duo run a cute little café, which also serves that as the home of their “food detective agency”. They specialize in recreating recipes with the scarcest details – a type of food, a few hints as to its taste. It sounds charming, but can it stay entertaining for the full duration of the book?

The power of food

From the very first story, it’s clear that The Kamogawa Food Detectives has a Perspective on food. In these stories, meals are rituals and experiences worth savoring. Kashiwai and Kirkwood describe each item of food in mouthwatering detail, and it’s easy to understand why the cafe’s patrons keep coming back for more.

It’s about more than just the taste and diversity of the dishes, though. The Kamogawa Food Detectives demonstrates vividly how and why food can impact our memory and our spirit. While the stories range from the common (a widower wishing for one last taste of his late wife’s recipe) to the tricky (a patron trying to recreate a fond travel memory from decades past), they share a common, melancholy core. Each of the agency’s customers is in some phase of transition, and the food from the agency is almost permission from the universe to move forward. It’s about more than the food – it’s about how each dish ties to the memory of care and love.

Culinary puzzles

You could be forgiven for expecting that there’s not much actual detecting going on here. After all, how much work could recreating a dish truly be? But Kashiwa makes sure that the puzzles are difficult, both due to lapses in patrons’ memory and the challenge in perfectly recreating a flavor. Our protagonists battle both the ravages of time and the idiosyncrasies and personal nature of cooking in each solve.

The result are stories with immense attention to detail in each element of the food. Small hints about a customer’s origin can lead to long treks to hunt down specific ingredients, each sourced with love and care. Reading each solution has the feeling of a magic trick, of watching master at work. As a food lover myself, I couldn’t help but be awed at the creativity and attention to detail required to set up so many puzzles. It’s not exactly “fair play” – I’m not even close to having enough intuition for Japanese food ingredients to engage – it it’s so wonderfully constructed I didn’t really mind.

Nagare, our main detective, is no passive protagonist, either. He does extensive research, including traveling to relevant sites. Not only that, it’s clear that he practices his dishes until he can get them just perfect. “Pure” mysteries can sometimes valorize detachment, and it’s lovely to see a character who care so much for his clients.

Short stories, big flavor

I’m a pretty fast binge reader, and if I could change one thing about my reading experience of The Kamogawa Food Detectives, I would take it more slowly. While the stories within are related to each other by the protagonists, they’re otherwise relatively independent. And like any good slice of life style story, they follow the same structure, which can be both comforting and repetitive. I ate up all the stories like little potato chips, but now I find myself wishing I’d savored them more. They’re a perfect little end-of-night read, a little warm mental hug… and I wish I had extended that as long as I could.

Reader’s notes and rating (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)

I adored this book, and drank it up like a steaming cup of carrot-ginger soup. (In fact, it made me so hungry that I went and got Japanese food the next day…) Reading this is like reading the coziest mystery, with all the murder-y bits removed. If you’re looking for something to snuggle up with, you can do no better than this read. (And if you’re looking for a more interactive version – you can try playing Hungry Hearts Diner, possibly the cutest restaurant simulation game I found in 2023. My one caveat – it might be best read as a series of short stories rather than in a longer sitting… But for what it is – perfection. Four stars.

The Kamogawa Food Detectives will be published on February 13, 2024.

*This will meet “title starting with the letter K” for my 52 Book Club challenge this year!