A Light Novel Recommendation: "Upstart Pastry Chef ~Territory Management of a Genius Pâtisserie~"

Synopsis

Once, a young man was a genius pastry chef in Japan. Now he has been reborn in a new world as boy named Kurt, the son of a poor Baronetcy of Arnold. While increasing the wealth of his fief as the feudal lord, he aims for his past unfulfilled dream, to become the greatest pastry chef in the world. From building orchards with elves to gathering ingredients for pastries, Kurt continues to aim for his dream in this sweet tale of pastries and being surrounded by kind people.

Thoughts on the Story and Characters

Initially, this writer believed that this would be a light-hearted work involving the protagonists bringing in never before seen or tried sweets. From what this reader has read so far, there is cooking and baking involved in the story with a good amount of details to help the reader visualize. They’re simple dishes but the way they are described, it makes the viewer feel like they are enjoying the treat with the characters.

However, while baking and pastries are the main theme of the series, the author clearly added other elements to the series in order to bring more to the plot and develop the characters in different ways. For the first volume, it was interesting on how the character had to go through the struggle of keeping the fief he has cared for by training to defeat his brother. And then it went into the cliches of him having mysterious abilities and then the cliches for this tale became abundantly clear.

Actually, the cliches for the series was already hinted with the way that Tina fawned over Kurt in the first chapters. And it was even more clear with how the story pushed his younger brother into the villain role to show his abilities. What’s more, Kurt also ends up in all kinds of situations which end up benefiting him and raising his figure. Basically, he’s the typical OP figure of the reincarnation story.

The only saving grace he has as a character is that he is not the typical character of this tale in terms of personality. In addition, he doesn’t react in the same way as characters in similar situations to him do, though it is rather minor.

Should you Read it?

While there is a bundle of cliches to be found with the series, the cooking and baking aspect of the series is rather promising. In addition, there are realistic aspects to Kurt in how he handles certain situations and deals with what ingredients are available and the potential they’d bring for possible pastries or the fief. Overall, it’s a food series that has cute moments but is pretty riddled with cliches.

Score: C –