Get Jiro!

Chef Jiro wants nothing more than to serve traditionally crafted sushi to humble and respectful diners. But his extraordinary skills eventually attract the wrong kind of attention when the heads of two cutthroat rival food empires, one that embodies the epicurean ideal and the other obsessed with all things local and homegrown, begin to vie for his services. What’s an ex-yakuza enforcer turned sushi chef to do, ask culinary expert and author Bourdain (Medium Raw) and co-writer Joel Rose (La Pacifica) in this boisterous lampooning of food culture, a pet project for Bourdain, who seems to revel in the unrestrained narrative allowed in a comic book. Their answer will be enjoyable to anyone versed in samurai revenge stories or the films of Sam Peckinpah, but may turn off readers looking for a less bloody and derivative outcome. The book’s saving grace is the wonderfully clean and detailed art by an all-star team of artists led by illustrator Foss, whose meticulously researched and composed visuals mirror Jiro’s precision with a knife and produce equally appetizing results. (July)