American chef Nell Valenti will have to serve up more than good eats if she
wants to establish a successful cooking school in this charming first installment
in a new cozy mystery series set in Italy.

When Nell is offered a chance to move to Tuscany to help transform an aging villa
into a farm-to-table culinary school, she eagerly accepts. After all, both her job and her
love life in America have been feeling stale. Plus, she’ll get the chance to work under
the acclaimed Italian chef Claudio Orlandini.

But Nell gets more than she bargained for when she arrives. With only a day to go
until the launch dinner for the cooking school, the villa is in shambles, and Chef O is
blissfully oblivious to the work that needs to be done before a group of local dignitaries
arrives, along with a filmmaker sent to showcase and advertise the new school. The
situation only sours when Nell discovers that the filmmaker is an ex-boyfriend—who’s
then found murdered later that night. Even worse, Chef O has disappeared, and
accusations of murder could shut the school down for good.

As tensions reach a boiling point, Nell must throw her chef’s hat into the ring and
investigate the murder herself. Because if she fails to solve the case, her career, or even
her life, could be next on the chopping block.