The Main Dish explores the bond of sisters and the pull of fame. It addresses what happens when the success of someone eclipses one's own success. Scarlet Williams is a sixteen-year-old violin prodigy on the verge of a major breakthrough, both in her musical career and in her social life. She wins a chair in the Summerset Festival orchestra and doesn't hesitate to tell the world. Even her crush, Finn O'Neal, finds out. But then her younger sister Sadie gets cast in Young Gourmet, a nationally televised kids cooking competition, and Scarlet is forced to give up her chair to go with her family for the taping. Scarlet moves from the spotlight to the shadows and must find a way to keep the attention of her new friends.
