Where There's Smoke, There's Dinner: Confessions of a Cartoonist Cook

by Jennifer Hayden

Bursting with color, flavor, and messy emotions, this unprecedented graphic memoir and “anti-cookbook” blends comics with satirical recipes to explore the intersections of food, feminism, frustration, and family. Jennifer Hayden has never liked to cook. She’s not particularly good at it, either. But, like so many of us…she does it anyway. Why is that? Where did these expectations come from? What happens if you don’t live up to the ideal of the perfect wife/mother/chef? And would someone please open a window before the fire department comes? Where There's Smoke, There's Confessions of a Cartoonist Cook is an accidental memoir from a woman whose comics earn rave reviews around the world but whose meals earn shrugs around the dinner table. Marinating in an unconventional and aromatic blend of formats, Hayden traces the nuances of her complicated relationship to food. Anecdotal comics alternate with wryly ironic “recipes,” peppered with oven fires, explosions, prayers, and incantations. Along the way, all the salty judgments and bitter frustrations just might caramelize into some real wisdom and self-acceptance. In any case, it’s all hand-painted in mouth-watering color as a tribute to Hayden’s love of cookbooks…or at least the illustrations inside them.

Genres: Comics, Humor, Graphic Novels, Nonfiction

208 pages, Paperback

Published November 11, 2025

Reviews

[Joanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is basically an anti-cookbook: a hand-drawn memoir dotted with sarcastic “recipes” from someone who’s evidently sick and tired of cooking.

It’s also a funny and sharp eye-roll at the whole glossy Gwyneth/Meghan-adjacent fantasy of cooking as effortless lifestyle perfection. Beneath the humor, though, it’s also a smart, touching look at womanhood, family roles, and that unequal load of being the one expected to feed everyone.

And the art? Pure goop—so much nervous energy, like Roz Chast meets a box of Franzia. It’s a lot, and probably best to nibble on rather than eat whole hog. (See what I did there?)

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

My thanks to NetGalley and IDW Publishing Top Shelf Productions for an advance copy of this graphic biography, guide to how-not-to-cook, and a study on food, relationships, family and the roles we assign, and how these roles and rolls can be burned so easily.

Considering my portly physique I have never really cared about food that much. I have worked with people, had friends, knew neighbors whose lives revolved around food. Desserts, eating out, fine meals, bad meals, recipes, and lots more. I don't like eating out, the money to me is a waste. I have always liked to cook. Not cordon bleu, but good enough to make most meals, with a trust in recipes and not my own heart on what should go in something, or how to long to cook. I find it relaxing when I am doing it for myself. Involving others I get nervous about food poisoning, or bad taste. Many I know hate to cook. With a passion. Some I also know want to cook, but well can't afford the batteries that cooking would cause to keep their smoke detectors working. To them, this graphic novel is for you. Where There's Smoke, There's Dinner: Confessions of a Cartoonist Cook by Jennifer Hayden is a look at food, the role assigned to chefs, foraging, drinking, family and one filet mignon.

The book begins with a family event. When the smoke detectors are going, get the kids to start waving clothing to air out the house. This is the relationship our author has with food, and sets the scene for book. Following this is a recipe for musketballs instead of meatballs, one burned to crip on one side for flavor. There are gadgets galore, some of them exploding like a pizza stone in a hot oven meeting a frozen pizza. A little foraging in the back yard that leads to a wonderful meal cooked by friends. The buffet foods of the 60's and '70s at parents parties. Hayden looks at the roles assigned to women to cook and provide for their families, even if one is not much of cook or that interested. There are Wiccan rituals to make food better, or better yet less burned. All culminating in a filet mignon, that somehow, someway comes out perfect.

A funny book about cooking, the way people deal with food, and the importance of food to so many. The humor is good, a mix of burning down the house, and feeling guilty about nearly burning down the house. Having a wonderful deck to throw burned food right to the animals. Lots of little tricks that really make the points of the book hit home. The art is really good, a mix of New Yorker cartoon, a kind of realism, with a bit of cartoony mix, and some nice looking meals.

I enjoyed this book quite a bit. I have burned quite a bit, gotten distracted by a podcast or two while cooking and letting things go much longer, even a few times shorter than necessary, and probably safety. I don't know if I have gone all witch like on cooking, but it helps I will try it. A fun book, a nice mix of memoir and food humor. This is the first thing I have read by Jennifer Hayden, but really want to read more. I might skip on anything Hayden cooks, though.

[Candi Norwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

🍽️🔪🔥𝕭𝖔𝖔𝖐 𝕽𝖊𝖛𝖎𝖊𝖜🔥🔪🍽️
Where There’s Smoke, There’s Dinner by Jennifer Hayden is a hand-drawn memoir peppered with tongue-in-cheek (but potentially technically edible if you squint) recipes about how much she hates cooking. Every single night. In perpetuity.
I am a big fan of Hayden’s sketchbook style art, and this was a fun, funny read, but, like the best comics and graphic novels, serious issues are raised here such as societal expectations and the unbalanced mental load placed on women to be the primary cooks in a family. This isn’t a food memoir or a treatise about kitchen struggles, it is a memoir about being a daughter, a sister, a wife, a mother, and a woman using the language and metaphors of food, and it’s not just funny, it’s also charming, touching, and even sad in moments.
Also like the best comics, spending time with the art is rewarding so you don’t miss things like the bits of plastic film clinging to the pork chop or the horns and tails on the deviled eggs or the angry face of gloop on a spoon.
Stray Thoughts:
One of the first pages is a full panel with a knife and the words Anger, Impatience, Bitterness which made me laugh out loud as well as question how many raised eyebrows I would get if I had a print of that hanging in my cube at work.
“Enfierced” lol
Second book I’ve read in two days to mention Mikhail Baryshnikov. Is it time for a White Knights rewatch?
Review copy from IDW Publishing. Unbiased opinions mine.

[Oliver · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love food – I always have, it was love at first sight. But cooking? Yeah, I had to take a few more looks, and now we settle on “tolerating” one another.

From the opening panels about cooking with “love” (aka pain, resentment), I was hooked on this graphic novel about the author’s relationship with cooking. Only adulthood can bring the type of dread that is inspired on nights when the last thing you want to do is the only thing you need to do – cook.

This graphic novel is full of humor, family, and an adult’s tumultuous relationship with cooking. It raises the right questions, like why do people eat mushrooms anyway when they all look the same but one will taste like dirt and the other will taste like dirt but kill you? The art is funky and the story-telling is great, which made for a fun read!

3.5/5

[Crystal Bearden · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is not a book for people who love cooking; it is a love song to struggles in the kitchen as a metaphor for any and all of life's hurdles. The art style fits the mood, showcasing that Jennifer Hayden's true talents lie outside the kitchen. Each section reads like a visual essay, closed out with a "recipe" for a life lesson. As a person who loves to cook, I did not particularly relate to the "I hate cooking but I have to feed myself and the humans who depend on me" of it all, but the use of kitchen struggles as a metaphor hit me hard.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of this title.

[Relena_reads · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a fellow unwilling cook, I may have over-identified with this book. The humor here was incredibly relatable for me and the satirical recipes were hilarious. I appreciated that the art and the overall theme of chaos worked quite well. There were a few near-misses, like moving into the past for dinner parties, but the flow worked overall. The call-backs across vignettes and recipes were golden. And I was really happy for Hayden that she did have one win in here!

Massive thanks to NetGalley for this eARC.

[Adri Holt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some people have an intuitive nature in the kitchen and some people burn water. Whilst Jennifer desires to exhibit cooking prowess, often in these ventures, the smoke alarm wails. The author shares her exploits in the kitchen and peppers her adaptive recipes throughout. It is a constantly tedious endeavor trying to find something new and inventive for family meals. I completely understand her plight.

#ThxNetGalley #JenniferHayden #WhereTheresSmokeTheresDinnerConfessionsofaCartoonistCook

[Pam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Graphic NonFiction
I received an electronic ARC from IDW Books.
An amusing look at cooking. This mom takes readers through all the ways she has tried to make dinner over the years - most with no success. She adds recipes and advice throughout which raises the humor level. Readers will definitely connect to the challenges she faced and the final victory when she ignores her instincts and follows the directions exactly.

[Anne Shirley · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book stays true to its title and description. Some scenes were highly relatable—offering hilariously sharp takes on the daily chaos (misadventures) of cooking. The artwork, though vibrant, sometimes came across as too crowded, but nevertheless portrays the disorder. The concept is inventive and the running irony lands perfectly.

[Ryan Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun, funny, self-deprecating and wiser than the author-character realizes. This book is for all who think they should be better at something than they are, or who think that they SHOULD be able to be what they are not.

[Ryan · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is a DNF. The idea is interesting but the way the book is illustrated and the wording on the pages don’t go together. It gives me a headache to try and read.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

fantastic! relate-able!

[Jenn Marshall · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are recipes in each section which I loved. The art has a bit of a chaotic feel to it which goes really well with the story. It's so relatable.

4 stars

[Kristina Robbins · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a fun graphic novel "cookbook" of sorts. Jennifer Hayden is not an especially talented or confident cook, but she cooks anyway, as most of us do. Where There's Smoke, There's Dinner is a fun look at cooking, our relationship to food and how food/meals create community. The illustrations, like the subject matter, are chaotic but beautiful. While I don't set off the smoke detector, I did relate to the general feeling of unease in the kitchen and the desire to attempt to tackle it anyway.

Thank you to the author, IDW Publishing and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book!