Jarrett Melendez is a GLAAD Media Award- and Eisner Award-nominated comic and graphic novel writer, cookbook author, and food journalist. He’s best known for the award-winning graphic novel Chef’s Kiss, a queer romance set in a restaurant, which he co-created with Danica Brine. The sequel, Chef’s Kiss Again, will be released in 2026. Jarrett has also contributed to award-winning and nominated anthologies, including Young Men in Love, All We Ever Wanted, and Young Men in Love 2: New Romances. Jarrett is currently working on Tales of the Fungo: The Legend of Cep, to be published by Andrews McMeel, Fujoshi Warriors, an action comedy comic miniseries, and love letter to both fujoshis and magical girl anime and manga, and a yet-to-be-announced (but currently in progress, I promise) licensed Webtoon.
As a cookbook author and food journalist, Jarrett has written countless articles and developed hundreds of original recipes that have appeared on Bon Appetit, Epicurious, Saveur and Food52. He’s written a total of seven cookbooks to date, including My Pokémon Baking Book, RuneScape: The Official Cookbook, Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Official Cookbook, The Official Wednesday Cookbook, The Official Borderlands Cookbook, and two completed but unannounced cookbooks slated for release in 2025.
Jarrett grew up on the mean, deer-infested streets of Bucksport, Maine, but currently resides in Somerville, Massachusetts, with his collection of Monokuro Boo plush pigs.