Chef Chronicle by Jim Ruch

Licio Gella is one of Rome’s top private chefs and he’s disappeared

For more than fifteen years he’s cooked for an elite group of Vatican officials and businessmen. His clients never suspected that over the course of hundreds of meals their trusted chef had been recording their dinner conversations. They should have never ripped off his father.

What they discover is their worst nightmare: Licio has compiled an historical document of corruption and deceit.

Operating a restaurant in central Missouri under an assumed name, Licio is suspicious when a freelance writer wants to conduct interviews with the restaurant’s crew on the pretext of researching a book on food. Now is the time for revenge.

Yacht Prospect Due,  second in the trilogy, details the daily life and times of a yacht crew working the Mediterranean on a boat with no budget – thanks to events that unfold in Chef Chronicle. The final book, The Prospect Theatre, tells the story of three German brothers who come to St. Louis as master cabinetmakers and build the Prospect Theatre in 1926. This building is the setting for Chef Chronicle.