Chef Gerald in the galley of The Brazen Fork

Just Gerald — Books

GERALD THE
GALACTIC
GOURMET

A Just Gerald Magazine Original Novel

"If it's alien, chances are it's delicious."

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The Story

Chef Gerald wasn't born with a culinary empire in mind. He stumbled into it the way he stumbled into most things — high, hungry, and brimming with misplaced confidence.

He left Earth years ago, not so much seeking adventure as escaping the monotony of a life that felt too small. Cooking had been his one true passion, but even that had felt confined by the rules and ethics of his home planet. Now he commands The Brazen Fork — a battered, beloved starship that smells permanently of burnt coolant and alien spices — and cooks for whoever will pay him, which increasingly means warlords, dignitaries, and the morally ambiguous.

The first job: design a menu for the Sunshine Coast Golf Course's annual Galactic Invitational. Big names. Big appetites. And a main course request that sits right on the edge of what's technically legal. Chef Gerald has crossed moral lines before. He usually has. But every failure is a lesson, and every lesson is a step toward something — he's just not entirely sure what yet.

Gerald the Galactic Gourmet: Volume 1 — A New Chef in Town is a sci-fi comedy novel that asks the important questions: What do you do when the universe is vast, the ingredients are alien, and your pilot is drunk? You cook. You improvise. And you mutter "so it goes" and pour another glass of something distilled from a plant native to Qarnyx VII.

The Crew of The Brazen Fork

A collection of misfits, and he was no exception.

Meet the Crew

✦

CHEF GERALD

Captain · Head Chef

Brilliant, reckless, and perpetually underprepared. Chef Gerald is the moral centre of the crew — which says a great deal about the crew. He cooks with conviction, makes decisions with enthusiasm, and lives with the consequences at a pace that keeps everyone on their toes.

◆

DAVE

Pilot · Navigator

Dave is, technically, an excellent pilot. The qualifier is important. He is also the ship's primary consumer of a fermented Qarnyx VII spirit that smells of burnt caramel and regret. He has never missed a landing. He has, however, missed several scheduled ones.

◉

GALBRAITH

Engineer · Mechanic

A hamster-alien hybrid of indeterminate origin and extraordinary mechanical talent. Galbraith communicates in a series of clicks, squeaks, and the occasional wrench thrown with surgical precision. He keeps The Brazen Fork airborne through a combination of genius and spite.

⬡

THE CLONE

Sous Chef · Crew Member

A precise, methodical, and deeply unsettling replica of Chef Gerald — minus the personality, plus the efficiency. The Clone executes every recipe to the letter. This is both his greatest strength and his most alarming quality. He has never improvised. He has never needed to.

The Brazen Fork

She smelled of burnt coolant and alien spices. He loved her for it.

About the Novel

A JUST GERALD MAGAZINE ORIGINAL

Gerald the Galactic Gourmet is the debut novel from Just Gerald Magazine — the field guide to the finer things in life. It brings the magazine's signature voice to the cosmos: curious, irreverent, and deeply invested in a good meal.

The novel is a work of fiction. All characters, species, planets, and culinary disasters are the product of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to real-life species, chefs, or questionable moral decisions is purely coincidental.

Published by Just Gerald Magazine · Roberts Creek, BC · Sunshine Coast, Canada.

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