Making the Cut — Ian Thomas Healy

Making the Cut is a Young Adult/New Adult novel about two girls competing in a televised cooking competition. Midori comes from San Francisco, and grew up in a family that owns a restaurant. All she ever wanted to do was cook, but in Japanese culture, women are relegated to hostess and management roles. She enters the Making the Cut competition without her parents' knowledge. Nicole comes from Denver, the child of a broken home who's been forced to grow up way too soon to help her mother support her younger sister. She's been poor her entire life, and that prize package is impossibly valuable to her. These two girls become friends despite their cultural differences, and together with six more recent high school graduates, will be competing in front of the cameras. With a $10,000 prize and scholarship to a prestigious New York culinary school at stake, can their friendship survive the challenge?