Tart Misadventures of an Anonymous Chef

An Instant Sunday Times (London) Bestseller
A New York Times Best Nonfiction Book of Summer 2025
A Vogue Best Book of 2025 So Far
A Service95 Must-Read Book of 2025

A “sexy, frank, delectable memoir” (The New York Times) about coming of age in and out of the kitchen, from the anonymous chef and columnist, Slutty Cheff.

“If a twenty-something, British Carrie Bradshaw narrated a London-set Kitchen Confidential, it might read something like Tart.” —Shelf Awareness

When Slutty Cheff finds herself bored and fed-up with her 9–5 job in corporate marketing, she turns to the only thing that she really likes to do: cooking. So she quits her job, swaps emails for emulsions, and sets off to pursue her dreams of becoming a chef.

The world of London’s fine dining restaurants is so much more than she imagined: it’s more challenging, and more exciting too. There are the exhausting lows of sixty-hour work weeks in windowless kitchens, and the shock of stepping into the changing room as the only woman. There are the thrilling highs of a busy night, when service is running smoothly; electrifying run-ins with hot bartenders and even hotter chefs; and, always, the exhilaration of cycling hands-free through a city that is still sleeping, on a morning where anything can happen.

This is a story about searching for your purpose, and experiencing and embracing life to the fullest along the way. The pleasure and the chaos too…

An exquisite mix of raw Anthony Bourdain-style honesty with the sharp wit of Lena Dunham’s Girls, Tart is THE book for those who like to eat and f**k.

Slutty Cheff writes anonymously about sex, food, and being a woman in the restaurant world. She first started writing on her @SluttyCheff Instagram account where she posted stories anonymously while cooking full time in London restaurants. She now has her own column in British Vogue, has also written for The Sunday Times (London), and has been interviewed by the Financial Times, the Evening Standard (London), and Interview magazine.