Londoner Chapman’s newest graphic novel, The Pass (Fantagraphics, Jan.), delves into the lives of Claudia, the chef-owner of an acclaimed restaurant called Alley, and a supporting cast including her best friend and sous chef, Lisa, and bartender Ben (confidante and crush). The ensemble navigate drama in and out of the kitchen. “The details of restaurant operations lend the proceedings an insider’s view…It adds up to a kinder, gentler—but no less probing—graphic novel riff on The Bear,” per PW’s review. Winner of the Broken Frontier award for “best ongoing series” for her self-published Katzine, Chapman’s a U.K. indie comics insider; her day job is marketing director at small press Avery Hill.
PW talked with Chapman about how she went about creating the world of a restaurant and the “creative and obsessive,” as she calls them, types who inhabit its front and back of house.
What personal experience did you bring to the story? Are you a foodie?
I worked in cafes when I was younger. Just casual summer jobs, never proper cooking: making sandwiches, washing up, and making coffee. Much later, my boyfriend, who’s Mexican and a brilliant cook, got me into cooking. So now I am a bit of a foodie! I credit my Avery Hill colleague, Ricky Miller, with giving me the idea for The Pass—he suggested I write about a chef. I know the chef type of personality. My work is character-driven, and I got interested in writing a driven person.
Did you figure that restaurants might be an inherently dramatic setting?
There's quite a range of what professional kitchens are like, but it's hard, intensive work and people work long hours, with lots of different personalities involved. I get inspired by the particular characteristics of a workplace. My last book, Breakwater, was set in a cinema.
Did you do research to prep?
I read all of Anthony Bourdain's books, and I was already watching shows like Chef's Table, and movies like Hiro Dreams of Sushi. They helped me shape the character of Claudia: creative and obsessive. I also found a documentary on Youtube called Day In The Life of A Michelin Star Chef, about Chef Jane of NYC's Jeju Noodle Bar, the first Michelin-starred noodle bar in America. That was brilliant for showing the daily life of the kitchen, what it’s like hour by hour, when deliveries come, the prep work, when they have their meals.
I like drawing food. But it is hard—unless you get it right, it can look a bit odd. One thing that I wasn't anticipating—I struggled with drawing so many plates, cups, and glasses, trying to get the right perspective on a table.
Did you intentionally make the difficulty of navigating relationships a theme?
Yes: The idea is high achievers and their opposites. Lisa's character a bit codependent with Claudia. She's putting a lot of herself aside to help build her friend's career. Some of those similar ideas of selfishness and selflessness come into it: what's the right balance of boundaries. Which comes into play with Ben's relationship to his family. In the book, Christmas comes around, and the three main characters go off to their respective families, and you get insight into what sort of home they’d grown up in. I like to leave details for people to ponder.
Did you base characters on anybody you knew?
There's quite a lot of me in Claudia, but other than that, I used my imagination. I wanted to create a group of three characters who were believably close within this working relationship, though each with different backgrounds and different lives, then recreate their excitement of building this business. What would each person be struggling with? What might be parallels or contrasts between them? For instance, Ben wishes for more from his parents and Claudia wishes for less with hers.
