The Rise and Fall of Magic Wolf, by Timothy Taylor. Pub 2024

Timothy Taylor has long been a favourite author, one who I search for regularly in the hopes of a new book. This summer, my persistence was rewarded: a new book in September! I saved it up for a vacation read.

Taylor is a Vancouver-based writer whose stories are often set here. He’s also a food writer, and so his novels and stories often also involve the food business. This novel fully embraces both of those, while also borrowing heavily (as disclosed in the acknowledgements) from the early lives of his own parents.

Matthew (known as Teo or tranquille to his friends and family) Wolf moves to Paris from Canada at the tender age of 24 to become a chef. Through a set of small-world connections, he lands an entry level job at a Michelin Bib Gourmand restaurant, where the leader is one François “formidable” Coté, a fellow Canadian (Québecer, actually), supreme commander of the kitchen at Le Dauphin restaurant and of any room he is in. Over five years, Teo rises through the ranks and roles of the kitchen to the point that, when Frankie absconds from the restaurant and France, he is offered the job of executive chef. But he’s fallen in love and wants to return to Vancouver to start his own restaurant with a childhood friend, Magnus (or magic to Teo). There they start a restaurant group, Magic Wolf, and bring to life a series of restaurants based on Teo’s memories of his parents’ lives. Near the cusp of Teo’s own success, Frankie returns to his life, bringing with him both the rise and the fall.

The book is packed with sumptuous descriptions of delicious food and the exhausting, meticulous preparation of it, and the story is embedded in this setting such that the food and restaurants become characters. Teo’s absorption of recipes from a wide spectrum of cultures and experiences, as well as his visions for the restaurants, are magical and delightful to see, even as these also become part of the rise and fall.

One of Teo’s many lessons learned: restaurants are more than food and wine and experiences: people make them happen. In the best restaurants, there is an ineffable connection and harmony among the people – in the kitchen and house, the customers, and the owners – that create the environment where the magic happens. When it works, it looks and feels so easy and seamless one can lose sight of the delicate balance of it. It takes a lot of effort to make it all look easy, and not much to bring it all crashing down (a leadership lesson, too).

An important story thread is the experience of women in the culinary world. Teo’s wife, Stephanie, a former chef turned food writer, tries to make him understand the terrible and violent misogyny of that world, and while she’s somewhat successful, he is still blind to and then blind-sided by the full weight of it. He truly does try to create a different environment, but with Frankie in the kitchen, the wolf will always be in the henhouse.

At the novel’s climax, Teo is caught in a whirlwind of accusation and revelation, bringing the downfall of Frankie and of Magic Wolf. In the denouement, Teo’s reflections and conversations with others reveal doubts and other sides, bringing home the complexity of personalities and relationships within the chemistry of the kitchen. I was reminded of the play, Doubt, which shares the theme of the impact of rumour-as-fact, and how sometimes the truth ends up being less important than perception.

Taylor is also a professor of creative writing at UBC, where he was exposed to if not immersed in the UBC Accountable imbroglio. The guilt-by-accusations in the novel’s tragedies reflect lessons from that real situation. One could see the whole restaurant setting as a metaphor for academia, especially the arts where outputs can be ephemeral and subjective. Taylor’s background, as well as the safety of setting the story outside of his own workplace, make the food biz environment a natural fit, especially for the family elements he incorporates. But I do see the blend as creating an allegory for any environment where outsize personalities can overtake and disregard social norms, where stars burn bright and can crash brilliantly (taking others along with them) and where elements of delusion, revenge, and schadenfreude can change lives irrevocably.

This was an excellent book. I stayed up late to finish it, as the writing, characters, and story were gripping. As the end of the story is right there in the title, the mystery of the story is not if Teo will succeed, but when and how he will fail. The glimpse of downfall begins early and weaves through the story like a nemesis awaiting its chance for the big reveal. The climax is complex and staggering, while the ending brings hope of redemption for Teo. Wonderful.

I deliberately didn’t read anything about the book before starting it, to savour the experience of a favourite author. Immediately, it brought an additional delight – it allowed me to fulfill the final category in my booklist: a book about food.

Fate: This will be added to my full Taylor collection.

4 – published in 2023/24
24 – a book about food
28 – an old favourite author
33 – Canadian