Fourteen-year-old chef and budding detective Neil Flambé helps the police in their investigation of the murders of some of the best chefs in town, a puzzle that seems to have something to do with a mysterious smell and Marco Polo.
When Neil arrives in Mexico City to partake in the Battle of the Chefs, he learns that Isabella has been kidnapped and it will take a dose of Aztec history and knowledge of buried ruins to find her before time runs out.
The sudden disappearance of fifteen-year-old Neil Flambé's skills as a world-class chef leads to the closing of his restaurant, a cook-off to save his reputation, and the discovery of a dark curse that has plagued Flambé cooks for centuries.
Celebrity teenaged chef Neil Flambé heads to Japan to solve his next mystery when news arrives that his cousin Larry, a manga comic book writer visiting Tokyo, has died in a boating accident.