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1167 Words
Too tired to get mad, he scooped it all up and dropped it to the floor to deal with in the morning.
Really, Aster needed to learn to leave his bedroom alone. He didn’t care that it had better light for drawing after school, and that he had been spending more nights at Leah’s apartment, that didn’t mean it wasn’t his room still.
He also knew that breaking her colored pencils, intentional or not, would go over like a punch to the nose tomorrow.
Rolling over, he decided that was a problem for tomorrow Matt.
And screw that guy.
Matt ducked as Chef Abdul threw a pot across the kitchen.
“Carlos, if you ruin the scallions one more time tonight I swear by the emperor’s balls I will cut your fingers off. Test me!”
Matt looked to Eleanor Eskar, his good friend and sort of rival, and they both shared the same expression.
Chef Abdul wasn’t a bad man or boss. In fact, he was normally easy going and relaxed, but word had come in that there were Phoenix Hearth inspectors on the planet, and he was killing himself with stress.
And to be fair, it was a massive event for Chef Abdul.
It was the first time he was the owner and head chef of a restaurant that both rated a Red Feather and had the possibility of actually getting one. If he did succeed in getting his first Red Feather, he would be one of the youngest chefs to earn the honor, and it would catapult him into instant stardom.
That turned the normally easy going chef into a monster. Some people just didn’t handle stress well, and Chef Abdul was one of them.
Matt kept that thought to himself and kept his spoon moving as he stirred the sauce in front of him, pouring in his Talent in a slow but steady stream.
Right as the sauce started to turn golden, he pulled it off the fire and slid it down to Sous Chef Annabelle.
She scooped the pan up and carefully drizzled the sauce over the plate in front of her, before plating the fish in a careful pyramid.
She then slid that down to Chef Abdul, who inspected it and then put it on the tray and said to the waiter standing by, “Third course for table seventeen.”
At the same time, another waiter, Alex, came into the kitchen and said, “Order for two ladies at table fifteen. They would like the fish and duck combo, no pepper in the glaze, extra pepper in the fry. Two orders of duck with lard instead of butter, one for each.”
The fact that Alex had read the order out said two things. One, the guests were suspicious, and might be Phoenix Hearth inspectors, and two, they had done at least one test the inspector group was known for, such as putting a utensil on the floor or tipping over a mostly empty glass of wine to test the front end service.
Everyone froze for a moment, but not for long, as Chef Abdul read the ticket back out to them, and they all repeated their stations’ orders.
Personally, Matt was cursing inside, as one of those modifications was on his glaze.
The glaze wasn’t anything crazy, but with his Talent, he could bring the most out of the flavors, and freshly ground black pepper was one of those core ingredients.
Eleanor, his friend, was also panicking. As she was the chef rotisseur, she now needed to cook their duck in lard instead of butter, which would completely change the cooking temperature and time needed for the bird. That on its own would be hard, but when added with the fact that the guests were suspected to be Phoenix Hearth inspectors, it drove everyone’s nerves to eleven.
Everyone but Sous Chef Annabelle, who was cool as she had been last month, before the rumors of Phoenix Hearth inspectors drove everyone else mad. She had good reason at least, as she had worked for a two time Red Feather recipient and had worked through the inspection the second time.
Matt breathed out twice as he listened to Chef Abdul’s proposed modifications for the glaze to work without the black pepper and got to work.
He was finishing up and had a lull in his orders when Eleanor started to get overwhelmed, and he stepped in to take over her less important dishes.
Not that any order would leave without being perfect, but most of her attention was and needed to be on the two custom orders. And Matt, while not a chef rotisseur, had enough experience in the position to fill in during a pinch. He was just returning to his own station when his AI pinged half a dozen times from his sister.
Brushing the messages aside for the time being, he buckled down and focused on his work.
Phoenix Hearth inspectors didn’t just look at their own dishes. After all, their habits were known and well recorded, which meant they judged a restaurant by all the dishes that came out of the door through some stealthy uses of [Remote Taste]. More than one Phoenix Hearth inspectors had been served a perfect meal, only to deny the Red Feather because the other dishes that night came out subpar.
A Red Feather was a status symbol known across the Empire and wasn’t given out lightly. Helen of Helen’s Hearth had rescinded more than one Red Feather if the standards of the head chef or restaurant slipped from excellence.
Finally, Chef Abdul said the magic words. “The last ticket is closed. The kitchen is done for the night.” He took a breath before slowly letting it out as everyone else slumped or otherwise relaxed. “Thanks for all the hard work everyone. Whether we get the Red Feather or not, I’m proud of each and every one of the dishes that left our hands tonight.”
Matt slumped to the floor and was joined by Eleanor. “I’m so f*****g beat tonight. Carry me home Matt.”
Matt didn’t open his eyes and stretched out his legs. “You’re two Tiers higher than me. I’m going to have you carry me home tonight.”
Eleanor chuckled and slapped his arm. “Thanks for the cover earlier. I was going under there for a minute.”
“All good. All good.”
As he finally relaxed, Matt remembered the messages from his sister that had come through.
Jerking to his feet, he slammed his head onto the table and dropped to the ground, clutching his head.
That also had everyone’s attention firmly on him, and Marco, the entremetier, asked, “What’s the big commotion? I don’t have the energy to be that excited.”
Matt tried to wave him off, but he had already gathered everyone’s attention, and Sous Chef Annabelle said, “Well now you have to share.”
- Writer
