Land of Milk and Honey: A Novel

Land of Milk and Honey: A Novel by C Pam Zhang

Start with a post-apocalyptic climate change scenario. Add a bit of Jurassic Park and Elon Musk. Then center it around the life of an aspiring chef and you have this novel.

The protagonist is a washed out young adult who embelishes her experience to get a cook position in the mountains of Italy. She had picked a good time to be in Europe. A natural disaster wrecked havoc on the the Americas. There was still some time before the conditions spread to Europe. Luckily, were up in the mountains were things were not as bad. 

The compound was led by a visionary. Not only did they want to preserve the flora and fauna of earth, they wanted to bring back other extinct species. They would bring in various dignitaries to sample some of their delicacies. (How about a Mammoth burger?)

Our protagonist has adventures in cooking as well as relationships. Eventually, the wrong party comes to power, and they are forced to leave. She doesn't want to go along, so makes her way back to a normal life. They part ways. 

The book then rushes to a quick end. We later hear that group didn't follow sufficient safety protocols and they were all killed on an attempted rocket launch. The world also comes back to a better state. This ending feels fairly contrived. The author appeared more interested in exploring the relationships and seems to have given up on the rest of the story.