1vN + lighthearted comedy + food + competing suitors + all male leads are chaste. 1975, a small county town in southern China.
When Michelin chef Shen Su opens her eyes, she has become a dirt-poor widow with a child.
Her mud-brick house leaks, the grain jar is empty, her three-year-old son is crying for food, and her in-laws show up every day trying to take her house.
Shen Su looks at the only two eggs she has and smiles.
If she could command a Michelin kitchen in her last life, she can turn the world upside down with a single iron wok in this one.
Braised eggs, egg-drop soup, beggar's chicken, spicy hot pot. The aroma wafts three streets away and makes half the county drool.
But she never expected that the men drawn in by the smell would be even more tempting than the food:
A refined, slender sent-down youth follows the scent of egg-drop soup. After eating, he says with red-rimmed eyes, “I'll chop wood for you.”
The impartial commune director comes to enforce the rules with a stern face, but one braised egg wins over his stomach.
A business official in gold-rimmed glasses comes to investigate, but after a bowl of plain noodles, he offers to help her get a business license.
And there's also an honest militia company commander, a gloomy pianist, a sharp-tongued overseas Chinese returnee…
The six most eligible men in town line up to become her son's stepfather.
With one hand working the wok and the other caring for her child, Shen Su calmly says, “We can take our time falling in love, but food must be eaten while it's hot.”
As for whom she'll choose?
Why the rush? Let the men compete first.
The hook in one sentence: A Michelin chef becomes a widowed mother in the 1970s and uses her iron wok to raise her child and build a fortune, while six chaste, powerful men line up to become his stepfather. The whole town is in an uproar, and the laughs never stop.
Tags: period fiction | food | 1v6 | all male leads are chaste | lighthearted comedy | building wealth | raising a child
