The Ex-Boyfriend's Favorite Recipe Funeral Committee: A Novel

Based on the author's true story that went viral and was  discovered by the editor of the three-million copy bestseller Before the Coffee Gets Cold, a charming tale translated from Japanese about a woman who gets over a break up by cooking her ex's favorite recipes.

Twenty-nine year old Momoko has been tragically dumped. She thought she and her boyfriend were in love. He even took her to a love hotel, where she thought he was going to propose. Instead, he dumps her. 

Momoko does what many broken-hearted people do—she gets incredibly drunk. So drunk, that she passes out in an empty cafe. Eager to tell her story to anyone who will listen, she pours her heart out to a curious manager and the sole other customer in the cafe, a monk who trains at a temple nearby. When she starts to describe how she doted on her boyfriend, how he loved her cooking, the manager decides to indulge her, and allows her to slip into the kitchen, and cook up her ex’s favorite dish: a warm, delightful butter chicken curry. Soon, as Momoko finishes telling her story and as they all eat her dish, she realizes this combination of cooking and sharing has healed her heart in a way nothing else can.

The manager has an idea—what if they started doing this regularly, inviting in patrons to hear stories about breakups, heartbreaks, and tragic endings, and cook up dishes that meant something to the relationship? Like an unconventional therapy group, the “Ex-Boyfriend’s Favorite Recipe Funeral Committee” is formed, with Momoko at the helm.

Inspired by the author’s actual experience working at a café where she posted a recipe called "My Ex's Favorite Butter Chicken Curry," The Ex-Boyfriend’s Favorite Recipe Funeral Committee is a magical, soul-nourishing comfort read for anyone who has loved and lost and loved again. With eight recipes included!

Story Locale:southern Japan

About the Author

Saki Kawashiro was born in Tokyo, Japan. An avid reader, she worked as a bookseller in Fukuoka, in Southern Japan, after graduating from college. While managing the store’s cafe she created a dish for the café menu: “My Ex-Boyfriend’s Favorite Butter Chicken Curry,” which included a vignette about their breakup and quickly went viral. Toshikazu Kawaguchi, author of Before the Coffee Gets Cold, visited Saki’s bookstore with his editor. The editor encouraged Saki to write a novel about her experiences — which became The Ex-Boyfriend’s Favorite Recipe Funeral Committee, Saki’s first novel.

Author Residence: Fukuoka, Japan

Author Hometown: Tokyo, Japan