T.E.S.T. Kitchen is a monthly Infinity Comics webcomic from Marvel Comics, centred around the misadventures of chef Anna Ameyama. It's written by Paul Eschbach and illustrated by E.J. Su.
Set in the shared Marvel Universe, it follows Anna as her food truck and career are flattened by a superhero battle - and then Tony Stark apologises for the damage and offers her a job.
As with Marvel's other Infinity Comic webcomics, it's a single-column vertically scrolling comic that's designed to be readable on a phone screen, rather than using a traditional comic book approach to panels and pages.
Each issue also includes a full recipe for one of Anna's dishes.
As an Infinity Comic, the series is (at least initially) only available via the Marvel Unlimited app.
As well as the main series, a one-off Halloween Special, a Thanksgiving Special and a Christmas Special were released in 2022.
The first issue was released August 8, 2022.
T.E.S.T. Kitchen contains examples of:
- A.I.-cronym: M.I.K.A., the Mechanical Interactive Kitchen Assistant that Tony Stark builds for Anna.
- Alliterative Name: The protagonist is Anna Ameyama. Called out in-universe during the 2022 Halloween special.Peter Parker: Don't you just love alliterative names?!
- Battle Discretion Shot: We don't get to see the battle with Fin Fang Foom that sends Iron Man crashing into Anna's food truck. For that matter, we don't get to see Fin Fang Foom at all.
- Birthday Episode: Two instances: Issue 3 has Anna cooking for Janet’s birthday, and in Issue 4 she’s summoned to Asgard to cook succotash for Freyja’s birthday banquet.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: The recipe sections at the end of each issue have Anna directly talking to the readers.
- Car Cushion: Iron Man falls from the sky, bouncing between two tall buildings, before flattening Anna's food truck when he hits ground level.
- Christmas Episode: The holiday special has Tony gifting Anna a new truck and an infinite choice of ingredients to pick.
- Comical Coffee Cup: Anna and M'Betu's coffee mugs feature "Michelin Scarred" (a reference to the famous awards for fine-dining restaurants), and "I'd rather be eating Dim Sum".
- Connected All Along: Anna's uncle is the Avengers' butler Jarvis.
- Cooking Stories: Although the background is the Marvel Universe and Iron Man plays a key role, the focus is very much on Anna's cookery. The superhero battles are almost entirely offstage.
- Continuity Nod: The series is firmly set in the Marvel Universe, with several different heroes and villains mentioned in passing (and some directly appearing).
- The bystanders in the first issue are speculating as to who the Avengers are actually fighting. Guesses include Thanos and the Wrecking Crew. It’s actually Fin Fang Foom.
- Anna wonders who Tony's mystery guest might be, with Janet Van Dyne one possibility she considers (alongside two real-life chefs).
- Emma Frost mentions Tony’s behaviour at her last gala.
- Tony Stark's Iron Waffle Maker 3000, seen at the very start of the A.X.E. Judgment Day event, returns in the 2022 Halloween special.
- The organisation hosting the meal for the needy in the Halloween special is F.E.A.S.T., a charity that's previously featured in Spider-Man.
- M'Bentu's Wakandan coffee beans come from Mount Kanda, where the Black Panther's heart-shaped herb grows.
- In the Thanksgiving special, Anna and M'Bentu consider visiting the Baxter crater, which was revealed at the end of the first issue of the 2022 Fantastic Four series.
- Creative Closing Credits: The credits are at the very end of each issue, after the recipe, and are often themed to match the story or written using one of the ingredients (e.g. the second issue's credits are written in pasta).
- For Halloween, I Am Going as Myself: The Halloween volunteers at the F.E.A.S.T. soup kitchen are all dressed up in costume. Peter Parker takes the opportunity to wear a black Spider-Man suit.
- Grandma's Recipe: For Janet van Dyne's birthday barbecue, Anna gets hold of a BBQ glaze recipe from Edwin Jarvis, the Avengers's old butler. Who's her uncle. Could he have gotten it from Luke Cage's Momma?
- Halloween Episode: Technically a Halloween special, as it's not numbered as part of the main series. Tony Stark is planning pumpkin spiced waffles for a F.E.A.S.T. charity dinner at Halloween. Anna has a different idea...
- Infinite Canvas: As with Marvel's other Infinity Comics, it’s presented in the vertical scrolling variant. Each issue is a single long page, with one column of panels.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: Discussed. After Emma Frost telepathically takes Anna's pasta recipe without asking, Anna comments that at least she copied it rather than wiping it from memory.
- Merchandise-Driven: A downplayed and inverted variant. Marvel's Editor-in-Chief C.B. Cebulski has stated that Anna was created to act as the new face of Marvel's themed food brands.
- Mind over Manners: Subverted. Rather than asking for the pasta recipe, Emma Frost telepathically takes it from Anna's mind. Anna comments that at least Emma didn't wipe it from her memory. Tony promises to get her psi-shields so that this never happens again.
- Moving the Goalposts: Tony Stark equips Anna with a state-of-the-art kitchen stocked with the finest ingredients and challenges her to cook a "meal to remember". And then he turns up several hours early.Tony Stark: What kind of test would this be if I didn't throw in a few curveballs? The life of a superhero... and his chef... is being ready for any and every eventuality at any time.
- Mythology Gag: Iron Man's unsuccessfully seeking shawarma after the battle with Fin Fang Foom, echoing the post-battle shawarma scene in the Marvel Cinematic Universe's original Avengers film.
- Odd-Shaped Panel: In the first issue, the panels preceding Iron Man's crash into the food truck are shaped as letters, doubling as the huge BOOM when he's knocked out of the sky.
- Psychic Block Defence: Discussed. After Emma Frost uses her telepathy to take Anna's pasta recipe without even asking, Tony promises to get her some psychic shields.
- Secret Ingredient: Once the assembled Avengers smell the BBQ glazed chicken and decide it's very familiar, they start trying to work out at the secret ingredient. Guesses include salt from Wundagore, herbs from Alfheim and sacred wines from Wakanda's Jabari-lands.
- Shout-Out: There are plenty of references to famous chefs and their restaurants.
- Anna's worked at Jean-Georges in New York, Mume in Taiwan, L'Imbuto in Italy, Den in Tokyo and Quintonil in Mexico City. All of which are real (and highly acclaimed) restaurants.
- When Tony Stark mentions a female mystery guest in the second issue, Anna wonders if it's Helene Darroze (who held six Michelin stars when the story was published, including three for London's Helene Darroze at the Connaught) or Dominique Crenn (who had three Michelin stars for San Francisco's Atelier Crenn).
- When Tony asks Anna to arrange a barbecue for Janet van Dyne's birthday, she's surprised that he's not just booking Noma (Rene Redzepi's restaurant in Copenhagen) or The French Laundry (Thomas Keller's restaurant in Yountville, California). Each held three Michelin stars when the story was published.
- After Thanksgiving, Anna wonders whether she can get a table at Kaiseki restaurant Kappo Sono on her day off. Its chef, Chikara Sono, later appears as a Special Guest in the Christmas Special.
- Special Guest: The Real Life chef Chikara Sono, of Kappa Sono, appears in the Christmas Special, chatting to Tony Stark and guiding Anna through the creation of a Japanese osechi box.
- Speech Bubble: M.I.K.A.'s speech uses a different font to represent its robotic voice.
- Thanksgiving Episode: Technically a Thanksgiving special, as it's not numbered as part of the main series. The story's set the day after Thanksgiving, as chef Anna's spent a week preparing Thanksgiving dinners for Tony Stark, and she's exhausted.
- Written Sound Effect: Used in typical comics style, but also combined with Odd Shaped Panels to portray the very big BOOM when Iron Man is knocked out of the sky in the first issue, just before he hits Anna's truck. Each letter of the BOOM gets its own letter-shaped panel.
