This is a cute book for middle school students. I didn't care for Zin's mom throughout the book, but Zin and Nacho were great to read about and the story flowed nicely. ( )

OK, fair warning, I'm well outside the age range for which this book is written. I'm sure that's why, at times, I found the book a little silly and/or had to suspend disbelief. I once read that kids books are usually written for a slightly younger age than that of the main character (that kids like to read about characters slightly older than themselves)--so I would guess this is written for 8-13 year old age group.

The story is told by Nacho, Zin's friend. Nacho relates stories from Zin's childhood on up through the time he met Zin (when Zin was 10) and they moved to California and opened Zin's restaurant when Zin was 13.

The big "mystery" seems to be where Zin's father came from--a secret held by Mrs. Pirogi whose memory is failing. We do get a peek into that at the end of this book.

I do think there are people who have innate talents even from a young age. I'm not sure that Zin's family could get away with not registering him for school or home school until he was age 10. I liked Zin's loyalty to his coworkers from his first job.

One wonders though:
*How did they not see through Cornelius sooner?
*Did they throw out the kitchen utensils Cornelius used in unsanitary ways? (Or at least, I hope, sterilize them as best they could before using them on food again?)
*What will happen with Smokie and the restaurant team? Will Smokie keep undermining them (especially in light of the snub on opening night)?
*How did they deal with the laxative Smokie laced his food with? (I guess the restaurant critic couldn't blame it on Zin since she didn't get in for opening night, but how about the rest of the guests? I mean if your entire guest list, less a homeless man, falls ill after eating in your restaurant, I would expect a visit from the health department.) I half suspected that Zin would have some plan for a way to counteract it using some ingredient(s). For that matter, how did the notoriously thrify/cheap Smokie come up with a laxative that strong? Is it sold on the streets? It sounds like it might be an expensive medication--did Smokie hate Zin so much that he'd part with hard earned cash just to do that? ( )