After a stupid (but funny) mistake, impulsive news reporter Trudi Wells is reassigned to her struggling paper’s food desk, forced to write cuddly features about restaurants and recipes.

Smart-mouthed Trudi is definitely no foodie: she knows nothing about fine dining, surviving happily on peanut butter and breakfast cereal. But the murder of the most famous chef in town — killed with a cooking knife — presents an opportunity: if Trudi can prove her skills as a reporter and solve the case, she can return to the news desk where she belongs.

In a tight-knit California foothills community of cooks, caterers and wine snobs, can Trudi make her way through a new world of delicious food and drink? And can she track down the murderer — or will he find her first?