They say that chefs are the maddest of us all, that the high pressure of the kitchen, the high degree of endless perfection sought after and expected, plus the constant demand for orders – well, it should be pretty apparent why they are so batty! Enter ‘Sex, Knives & Bouillabaise’, the debut novel from South Australian writer Teri Louise Kelly. This relentless, break-neck novel is a head first tailspin into the mad, mad world of hotel kitchens, one fuelled with sensory explosions, sadistic chefs and very sharp knives.

Kelly, who has only recently come to writing, made headlines last year when she won the Adelaide Feast Festival Short Story Competition with her transgender work of fiction, ‘Anatomy Girl and Her Love of Bits’. Now she’s set to entice and delight a wider audience with this, her bawdy debut through Wakefield Press. The true charm of this book, however, is that it is the first in a three-part memoir, which starts here with Kelly’s early days as a successful young male cook with later instalments set to explore her whirlwind adventure through gender reassignment.

- Advertisement -

‘I want readers, my readers, to associate with me in both my guises – Luiz the boy, Teri the woman,’ Kelly explained of her choice to tell her story from the beginning with the first book told entirely from the perspective of Luiz. ‘Essentially, despite what other transgenders might say, the two guises are one and the same. Readers can expect a total candidness. I feel as a writer, any writer, to disguise too heavily what you are (were) or what you feel about anything, is cheating book buyers. When people read a Teri Louise Kelly book, and then at some later date get to see or interact with Teri Louise Kelly, my aim is to ensure that both experiences congeal.’

For Kelly, the call to writing came naturally. ‘As a trans* person in Australia you are totally excluded from the great ‘family orientated’ ethic that prevails. Other than pole-dancing or prostitution, my only other viable option was to write – which I might add is the lowest paying of the three!’

Her book is marked with rich description, vivid experiences and a gunshot narration. There are no-holds barred in a world where the heinous fate of the chef is ‘forever at the fickle whims of pencil-pusher, dope fiends and wayward women.’ So is Terri Louise Kelly just as bawdy as the books she writes?

‘Yes unfortunately,’ she laughed. ‘Take me to a party or a gathering of any sort and after three or four wines I’ll be up on the coffee table doing the Monster Mash. I’m not sure where this inhibition came from seeing as how my family are very middle-class English, but, as I’m one third gypsy perhaps it came from that boisterous bloodline!

‘Generally, I’ve always been unafraid to speak my mind or get involved – like now I’m just starting spoken word which for me will be totally ad-libbed, and if you thought Henry Rollins was risqué, well hell, you ain’t seen nothing yet!’

Sex, Knives & Bouillabaise is out now through Wakefield Press – visit www.wakefieldpress.com.au for more information and stockists. Alternatively, register to win a giveaway copy from OUTinPerth.