2020-06-16
The toque-topped star of a series of online miniepisodes makes the shift to print with a culinary conundrum.
Billed as “the world’s tiniest cooking show,” the original stop-motion featurettes are set in an elaborately laid-out hollow tree-stump kitchen furnished with miniature cookware and bric-a-brac—all on display here in a set of digitally tweaked photos that effectively steal the show from both the rudimentary storyline and its felted green protagonist. Tiny Chef, who writes and speaks in language resembling baby talk with a speech impediment, is all set to make “Blegaful Mie” (vegetable pie)…but his prized “weshipee blook” has gone missing amid the clutter! Following a fruitless search and a bit of calming meditation, he gathers sprigs of fresh herbs and veggies, chops them all on the countertop, and just before finally dishing up an improvised “Blegaful Shew” (stew), finds his blook. “The Chef can’t believe it! / His little heart bursts. / It was there all along— / Did you see it first?” (Of course you did.) Replete with extra syllables and switches in rhyme scheme, the overworked narrative concludes with the nutritious observation that “the very best recipes… / come straight from the heart” and a full recipe for that likewise nutritious “Shew.” (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at 70% of actual size.)
The movies were better. (Picture book. 6-8)
