The Ex-Boyfriend’s Favorite Recipe Funeral Committee by Saki Kawashiro: Book Review

The Ex-Boyfriend’s Favorite Recipe Funeral Committee is the debut novel by Japanese author Saki Kawashiro. Initially released in Japan in December 2023, it was released in English in October 2025. Momoko was dumped unexpectedly. Unable to understand what had happened, she found herself drunk and in a small cafe. Will making her boyfriend’s favorite recipe heal her broken heart?

I want to thank Crown Publishing and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of The Ex-Boyfriend’s Favorite Recipe Funeral Committee. All opinions presented here are solely mine.

Synopsis from Goodreads

Twenty-nine-year-old Momoko has been tragically dumped. She thought she and her boyfriend were soulmates. He even took her to a love hotel, where she believed he was going to propose. Instead, he left her after four years.

So Momoko does what many broken-hearted people do—she gets incredibly drunk. So drunk that she passes out in an empty cafe. When she awakens, she’s eager to tell her story to anyone who will listen, and pours her heart out to a curious manager and the sole other customer in the cafe, a monk who trains at a temple nearby. When she starts to describe how she doted on her boyfriend, how he loved her cooking, the manager decides to indulge her and allows her to slip into the kitchen and cook up her ex’s favorite, a warm, delightful butter chicken curry. As Momoko finishes telling her story, she realizes this combination of cooking and sharing has healed her heart in a way nothing else can.

The cafe is failing—subpar curry and a remote location has led to months of financial troubles. But as he devours Momoko’s dish, the manager gets an idea about how to save the cafe: what if they started doing this regularly, inviting in patrons to share stories about breakups, heartbreaks, and tragic endings, cooking dishes that meant something to the relationship? Like an unconventional therapy group, the “Ex-Boyfriend’s Favorite Recipe Funeral Committee” is born, with Momoko leading the Friday night sessions, and the monk-in-training offering blessings.

My Opinions

The Ex-Boyfriend’s Favorite Recipe Funeral Committee is based on Saki Kawashiro’s actual experiences. While working in a cafe, her story came to the attention of Toshikazu Kawaguchi, the author of Before the Coffee Gets Cold.

The book is around 300 pages long and contains only eight chapters. As there are so few chapters, each one is over 30 pages in length. While that may feel long, the chapters are all quick and easy reads. Even better, each chapter concludes with a recipe.

Each chapter focuses on a different character trying to find closure or healing with a particular relationship. Not all of the relationships are romance-based. In the end, each chapter discusses the focal character and untying their emotional knots.

Overall, if you’ve enjoyed reading other cozy Japanese fiction, including The Full Moon Coffee Shop by Mai Mochizuki, you will enjoy reading The Ex-Boyfriend’s Favorite Recipe Funeral Committee.

Are you looking for some more books to read? Check out my bookish lists, book reviews, and monthly reading wrap-ups.