Mouth-watering, charming, and full of flavour 🍽️✨. Off Menu serves up a delicious mix of food, romance, and self-discovery. Amy Rosen crafts a delightful, feel-good story that had me laughing, swooning, and seriously craving great food. I adored the quirky characters, culinary adventures, and the heartfelt journey of finding love—and yourself—off the beaten path. Perfect for fans of foodie fiction, romance, and uplifting stories sprinkled with humour.

Hilarious most of the time, Ruthie pines for Dean whom she had a fling with in Thailand. She can’t get him out of her head but also thinks of looking at her future as a chef and registers for culinary school courtesy of grandma’s legacy.

Interspersed with wonderful cooking lessons and mouth watering food is another romance, someone who breaks Ruthie’s heart, scams her out of her money and disappears. Ruthie has to concentrate very hard to get her priorities right and focus on what is important.

Lots of young fun, delicious food and a simple story which caught my interest.

Thank you to NetGalley for this e-copy of Off Menu in exchange for an honest review.This is a heart -warming story about Ruthie Cohen who is at a crossroads in her life-not sure about what path to take but with the help of an inheritance decides to enroll in a culinary school in her native Toronto.Faced with many challenges including loving 2 men at the same time, dealing with her close friends ,Lily and Trish and their complicated lives and trying to find her way this is a book that offers a great plot and also great recipes.

I received an arc of this title from NetGalley for an honest review. I tried to get into this book, but it was a DNF for me.

I enjoyed reading Off Menu by Amy Rosen. You will fall in love with all the characters. I received an ARC of this book courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher. All opinions expressed in this review are my own and given freely. Happy Reading!

Ruthie Cohen, 27, is fed up with her job and has decided to do what she has wanting to do for a long time. Her beloved grandmother, Bubbe Bobby Grace, has passed away and left her an inheritance of $62,873.47. Ruthie has always loved to cook and has enrolled in the cooking school l’Ecole de la Cuisine Francaise in Toronto. She is geared up and ends up teaming up with a handsome man named Jeff. He is quite talented and together they work well. After spending its of days with him, she finds herself with a crush on him but knows he has a girlfriend. However, their closeness ends up wit him breaking up with his girlfriend and moving in with Ruthie.

Ruthie has begun writing daily in a diary and records her experiences and the book is told through her diary.

Ruthie has two very good friends, Trish and Lilly. They have been close for many years and have comforted and supported one another through many broken relationships. So, when something devastating breaks up Ruthie and Jeff, they all group together and again, take care of one another.

Ruthie finally graduates from her cooking school. Her French cuisine is her best forte however, her pastry cuisine is not her best. But she is quite happy. But an old flame comes into her life and she wonders if they can make it together.

I am a solid foodie and having lived in Paris for many years, French food is my favorite. So, I drooled as Ruthie prepared many of her dishes. There are some really funny things in this story and some sad ones as well. However, I did enjoy the book and hope others will as well.

Copy provided by NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I received an advance copy of this book thanks to NetGalley, and I enjoyed reading it. I did find the book to move a bit slowly, but appreciated the character development and the way Ruthie and her friends were constants for each other. I did find this book to be a slow burn. It was worth finishing, but it took me longer to read than it should have. And the end came up quickly. Ultimately, I would recommend it, but I think it would be more appealing for a bit of a younger age group than mine (45-50).

Imagine Bridget Jones meets a cooking show with a splash of prosecco, and that’s Off Menu for you!🍾📚 Ruthie Cohen is the kind of chaotic, hilarious, heart-full heroine you root for from page one. Between her movie app day job, dreamy vacation-fling Dean😮‍💨,and a sexy-but-taken cooking partner Jeff 👨‍🍳, Ruthie’s life is a delightful mess served with a side of garlic butter 🧈.

Losing her beloved Grandmother 💔 turns into a bittersweet blessing...cue the inheritance and life advice that sends Ruthie spiraling (in the best way!) into French culinary school 🥖✨ From burnt pastries to emotional plot twists, it’s a rollercoaster of laughs, late-night cravings, and so much heart.

The banter? On point.
The food scenes? Drool-worthy. 🤤
The emotions? Surprisingly deep.

This isn’t just about romance...it’s about self-discovery, friendship, chasing dreams, and realizing that your perfect pairing might not be a person, but a purpose 💫

Off Menu a charming rom com in diary form. This was a light fun read & I really enjoyed it.# NetGalley # ecw

An interesting book, there are some fun moments and some sad moments. I would have enjoyed it more if the characters were a tiny bit more likable. Now don't get me wrong, I love and dunlikeable characters or an unreliable narrator, but this book lacked a bit of depth to the characters that makes you interested in them even though you don't like them, 3 stars

This is the journal of Ruthie's year at culinary school. I liked the conceit but to be honest, Ruthie not so much. Rosen tries a bit too hard. That said it is funny in spots and sad in others. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. Over to others.

I was really excited to read Off Menu as it sounded like a light hearted easy read. However Ruthie might be one of my least favourite fictional characters to date which made for a frustrating read unfortunately!

This was fun -- almost like a retelling of Bridget Jones Diary set in culinary school! I love all things food and chef so I loved that part of it. Ruthie is definitely a bit over the top but the journal style in which this was told made it a fun, easy read. And lots of delicious food to read about, too! Plus it's set in Canada, which was fun. Give it a try!

Off Menu comes out next week on June 17, 2025 and you can purchase HERE.
This is the second saddest I've ever been in my entire life. The first saddest was when Bubbe Bobby Grace died (obviously). I hate that this is all happening in the same year. Not cool, universe.
When I was crying at her funeral, I thought of the advice she gave me when I was around ten years old. My first childhood pet had died and I was wearing my bravest face as I lowered the shoebox into a hole in the ground that I had dug in the backyard of our old house. Lucy had led a good life, a happy life, a long life for a hamster (a solid four years), though at the time it didn't feel like nearly enough.
At Lucy's graveside ceremony, Bubbe said, "Let the tears flow, dollface," as she dumped a shovel of earth over Lucy's Adidas box casket. "Pain needs an outlet and tears help us heal. Lucy deserves your tears, so let 'em rip."

Those are just a few of my tears. (Can still kind of see the stains.)

This is a delightfully witty book about Ruthie who inherits a large sum of money from her late grandmother. After traveling to exotic locations and tasting amazing food, she decides to use the funds to enroll in culinary school. The story is told over the span of a year through diary entries. I love books told through journal entries. We read about Ruthie’s hilarious journey through culinary school while navigating some significant bumps along the way. Two of those bumps being relationships. Ruthie has to decide between herself and her relationships. This book was fun, witty, and enjoyable. If you love embarrassing moments described in diary entries, and books about food creation-this is the perfect book. I laughed out loud during many moments and appreciated the different perspectives regarding food preparation. Plus, the recipes in the back of the book were great!

As a food and book lover I wanted to love it. I just couldn't get past the FMC and her decisions.

Spolier alert:
I was rooting for her to pursue her dreams and loved the relationship with her girlfriends, but the whole being the other woman while not thinking she was just because they hadn't been intimate rubbed me the wrong way. The way she thought even when she saw her friend just got cheated on and the effect it had on her didn't sit well with me. Plus the drugs in the food and money issue was just like OMG seriously??? This is over the top. I thought about stopping but was curious about the other guy and I try really hard not to DNF, but the way that conversation went was also quite sudden in both moving to the same place after a short few dates and the not talking to each other about big decisions. It just all felt quite immature which maybe they are in their 20s?

Overall, I liked aspects of it, and hope others love it, it just wasn't for me.

Ruthie has had enough.

Work wise, she isn't where she wanted to be; her data entry job isn't satisfactory enough. Love wise, she isn't any better either, still pining after a man she met on her holidays. But as fate would have it, she inherits a considerable sum from her favourite grandma, and so she decides to ditch her current job and pursue a career on what she does best: cooking.

The culinary school she enrolls to brings a new set of pleasures and challenges, and on top of it all, a new chance at love, in the face of her classmate Jeff. The tumultuous, whimsical adventures of Ruthie in food and in love are narrated to her friends and also jotted down in the young woman's diary. She goes through all sorts of challenges and red-flag situations, until she realises one very crucial thing: the only one responsible for her happiness is herself.

This book somehow reminds me of Bridget Jones Diaries. But make it a red flag EVERYWHERE. Ruthie is a rollercoaster of a character; at first, I smiled at her naiveté, and then, I realised she is also a glaring red flag (because no, Ruthie, you can't fix him, no one can). But the end of the story kinda redeemed Ruthie in my eyes. The descriptions of her shenanigans at culinary school was also lovely to read, to the point I did get a bit hungry. As for Jeff, I liked him when he was Ruthie's friend. (And don't get me started about Dean, UGH.) The only ones NOT a red flag (kinda?) were Lilly and Trish, Ruthie's best friends, who throughout the book maintained a beautiful friendship with her. That really was the book’s most pleasurable point, and it's worth a read just to see those three goofballs standing up for each other through heartbreaks and career changes.

All in all, it was okay. Makes for a light read, if you get past the sea of red flag characters.

I received this ARC from Netgalley and the opinion expressed is my own. My thanks to Netgalley, ECW Press and Amy Rosen for providing me with my copy.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book.I wanted to really like this book.
I have worked through so many heavy books, this light and romantic one should have been on par for me. But, it was just meh.
It’s an easy read with lots of character, but quite predictable and simple in its plot line.
At times I appreciated the menu items, other times I had enough of the food descriptions.

I have a bottomless amount of mixed feelings about this book! It goes without saying that this is by far one of the funniest romance fiction books I've ever read. Every few pages, this book has me smiling and giggling like an absolute fool. But there was such slow sections of momentum throughout and at points it almost felt like a stream of consciousness rather than a set story. But let's get into it.

I always like to start with the positives so I want to outline some of the funny moments that I simply adored:
1) When the office is described as 'the architectural equivalent of a slap in the face' - brilliant wording
2) 'I'm fairly certain that Greg over there, the one with his finger up his nose, only watches movies of the pornographic variety' - HA-LARIOUS omg
3) Ian's character description ('Ian has straight dark hair that looks exactly how you would draw a man's hair with a brown crayon if you were in grade one' ... the character descriptions were beyond excellent and still characteristically witty.
4) When Ruthie resigns by crawling past Keith's desk and slipping her resignation under the cubical wall ('probably not the most professional way to quit, but I've never been accused of being professional' - brilliant!!)
5) '...died while fighting in the Korean War...of gonorrhoea' - Rosen's deadpan humour is endlessly fun to read.
6) 'I left Julia Child's tome Mastering the Art of French Cooking at home because I'm a burgeoning chef, not a professional weightlifter' - this might be my favourite quote, I really love the one liners!

Also, my heart absolutely melted for Bubbe. Ruthie's memory of her is remarkably heartwarming and she is such a phenomenal character that graces the pages.It's also such a great snapshot of life as a 20/30 something year old, and captures modern dating almost too well - I just wish there was more of a plot driving the whole thing. There were some really slow moving moments where I'll be honest I got a little bored. And I'll never forget at the beginning when Ruthie confesses they've never even sent themselves a voice note...who sends themselves voice notes...?

Overall, absolutely full of personality, humour and sweet moments of warmth but just not fast paced enough for me personally!

I must confess that I initially requested this book thinking the author was Ali Rosen-- who I've reviewed before.

As I started reading this book, I noticed that the tone and structure were very off for her books. I looked and realized it was Amy Rosen. The premise was still up my alley, so I went with it.

This book is told through the journal of Ruthie Cohen. She's coming off a break-up, a bad job, and a sudden inheritance. We're with her as she dives into her dream of cooking school and her love life heats up.

She's pining for a vacation fling and infatuated with her taken cooking partner.

Her journey is told in a series of journal entries that illustrate her hilarious adventures in cooking school, online dating and finding true self.

It's a fun book, at times Ruthie got a little annoying and neither of the romantic interests really wowed me. But it's made for a nice afternoon of reading.

I am a food show girly! I love Gordon Ramsay for sure. This book was cute, however, I just felt like about halfway through it started to fall a bit flat and I was losing interest. A true foodie will probably eat this up but it wasn’t for me.