If You Love ‘Great British Bake Off’, Try These Comics Next

One of the best new debuts of 2016, Space Battle Lunchtime is the galaxy’s hottest cooking reality show and for the first time a contestant from Earth has been selected to participate. Lead character Peony must face the intense culture shock of aliens and outer space whilst fighting to prove that Earth’s recipes are the best against fierce competition and fellow contestants who will do anything to win.

Described by many as Mean Girls meets Breaking Bad, Nutmeg follows Poppy, a teenage girl in junior high in the ‘60s who teams up with transfer student Cassia to work together and bring down their arch-rival Saffron and her elite baking team known as The Lady Rangers. Billed as a coming-of-age crime comic, Nutmeg isn’t always as sweet on the inside as it looks on the outside, but it’s well worth checking out.

Lucy Knisley stands head and shoulders above her contemporaries as one of the best autobio comics artists working currently, and her look at her history and relationship with food through recipes and stories is one of her best works yet. Not only is Relish a moving and thoughtful look at her life growing up, framed around the food she was eating at the time, but you also walk away from it with a list of great new recipes to try out yourself.

Dirt Candy is one of the coolest vegetarian and vegan restaurants in New York City, and in this comic book cookbook, chef Amanda Cohen spills the secrets regarding some of her best recipes. The comic also serves as a biography and history of the restaurant, detailing how it was founded and became one of the most sought after spots in the city. Brilliantly illustrated by Ryan Dunlavey, if you loved his work on Action Philosophers or the Comic Book History Of Comics, this should be right up your street.

Over the past 15 years or more, we’ve seen novelists, actors, directors and all sorts of celebrities try their hands at writing a comic book, but a celebrity chef is another thing. Luckily, Anthony Bourdain’s Get Jiro is as excellent as his food. Set in the not too distant future, Los Angeles is run by the top chefs of the city and the fragile order of things is disturbed by a hotshot new sushi chef who arrives in town looking to make a name for himself. It might not be what you’d expect, but it and the sequel Get Jiro: Blood and Sushi are highly entertaining reads.