Where There’s a Whisk (by Sarah J. Schmitt)

A YA novel with a cute premise: a girl from the wrong side of the tracks in Florida joins a Top Chef-style competition show to win a scholarship to culinary school and hopefully change her life.  Unfortunately it's extremely underbaked (pun not intended).

The backstory is compelling but we never get any of it shown to us, it's all filled in in the same superficial way it would be in a clip package on American Idol. We have no idea how she applied or got there, we never see her relationships with anyone back home or her life there at all. So right away the stakes aren't there.

There are eight fellow contestants and the setup is good, but the characterization is often weak. I loved the detailed descriptions of the competitions (and some were really great and interesting) but there are a lot of places where Schmitt's main character Peyton is like "I cooked stuff, then I came in the middle."  All we see is that she is a mediocre cook and a good baker; somehow she stays in the competition because all the challenges start to involve baking.

The romance seems shoehorned in, it's cute but I was not invested in it at all. The rivalry with another contestant just fizzles. I don't know, there's some good stuff in here and great potential - great dialogue too - but another pass with a good editor would have made all the difference!