Chapter 6

It took Ally a while to get over her bewilderment after Eric left. She couldn’t wrap her mind around his demeanour or the way he looked. His hair was a mess and his tie hung loose. His eyes were red with emotion. Ally still feels unsettled thinking about it.

She came to work earlier and she spent most of the morning making sure everything is ready for the day. Today will not be as busy as other days. There is a sport gathering nearby. The streets will be too busy and most people who come into the restaurant will only come for something to drink. The dress code of the restaurant will not let anyone enter either. If supporters come to the door with their supporter wear, they will be shown away. It is the same thing every year.

Ally remembers the woman who showed her the finer art of cooking, fondly. A smile tugs around her lips when she thinks of her. She snuck into her kitchen for years, while growing up. By the time Ally finished school she was already very good in the kitchen. Eunice was special. She didn’t talk much but she showed her techniques most people only learn in Chef School.  

Ally walks through the kitchen, gathering ingredients she would not usually use. The dish she wants to prepare, is not available in the restaurant. It is a recipe Eunice taught her when she was still very young. The recipe is very difficult and it took Ally years before she was able to complete it successfully.

She puts a skillet on the gas stove, and light the burner. She adds a bit of water to the skillet and watch as it heats up. She busies herself with chopping some of the other ingredients. She knows the recipe by heart, but she is still nervous that she would make a mistake while preparing it.

Eunice made Ally promise that she would never share the recipe and she would never write it down. That way, it would never be able to land in the wrong hands. Ally swore she would never share this recipe.

Ally was right about her prediction that the kitchen would not be overwhelmed today. While Ally steadily went about preparing the intricate recipe, Meg stood next to her, chatting away as if she had no care in the world.

“I thought it was going to be the most boring event ever. I am not very fond of charity events. Most of the time it looks like people are only competing at giving the most money so others can see how rich they are. At least the charity benefits from their rivalries.” Meg takes a deep breath. Ally wasn’t really paying attention. She tries to quickly figure out what charity event Meg is talking about.

“After the auction we were introduced to a world renowned chef. It was the most exciting part of the evening. Her husband on the other hand looked as bored as I was the entire evening. In fact, he is a bit scary.” Meg widens her eyes when she tells Ally about the husband.

“The chef invited us to lunch tomorrow. Can you imagine that? Not only is she the greatest chef to ever walk the earth, but her son is one of the city’s most eligible bachelors. Did I mention they are extremely rich?” Meg widens her eyes again, she is talking with the most excitement Ally has ever heard in her voice. “Well, they are, extremely rich.” Meg takes another much needed breath. Ally smiles at the thought of Meg being able to talk so long without breathing.

Meg seems to pause a moment and Ally feels she needs to say something or Meg would feel she has been talking to a wall.

“Have you decided what you are going to wear to the lunch?” Ally asks Meg, knowing that this would set Meg off again and allow Ally not to participate in the conversation at all for the next few minutes.

Meg widens her eyes before she starts talking again.

“I wanted to ask you if I can borrow that black dress of yours. I know it is a bit dark for lunch but it is very elegant and I can always pair it with summer coloured accessories.” Meg looks at Ally as she nods in agreement. “Thank you. I also thought that maybe I should take something with to the lunch. I would feel awkward to show up empty handed. Do you think you can prepare a dish that I could take along?” Meg looks at Ally with a mock pleading expression.

“Don’t you think, if you want to impress her with a dish you prepared, that you actually have to prepare the dish yourself?” Ally asks Meg jokingly.

“Yes, yes. We both know that anything I prepare will not be nearly as impressive as whatever you prepare.” Meg smiles sweetly. “You can prepare anything you want.”

A waiter comes into the kitchen and signals for Meg to come into the restaurant. Meg quickly excuses herself before making her way to the restaurant door. Ally focuses on her doings again. The recipe she is preparing has a lot of elements that take time to prepare. It takes a whole day to make the dish and then it needs to set overnight in the fridge. While she is still preparing another key element, she starts to think about what she could prepare for Meg. It is already a lunch engagement; it would be a slap in the face to the host if Meg shows up with a main course dish.

Ally decides to make Petit Fours that Meg can present after lunch with tea. Ally sets about baking and perfectly preparing a variety of Petit Fours. It takes Ally a few hours to completely finish the platter she prepared for Meg. She takes the platter to the large walk in fridge and places it on one of the open shelves before covering it with a dome to keep them from drying out. She then quickly completes the dish she has been working on all day, plating it exactly as she was taught before carrying it to the fridge and placing it on the open shelf next to Meg’s platter. Ally places another see through dome over the dish.

When Ally closes the large fridge door, she thinks about Eric for the first time again since that morning. By now anger has started to take over her bewilderment. Why does he think he has the right to talk to her in that manner? He could easily just have sent her a text to tell her not to come to his restaurant again. Why did he have to scare her like that to break into her apartment? Ally can feel the deep frown on her forehead when she exits the restaurant kitchen to go home.

The next morning when she gets up, she feels even more annoyed with Eric. It is not difficult to treat the people around you with respect. It is actually very easy. Ending a call when someone calls you, is enough of a message. Ally is quite sure now, that, had Eric not shown up at her apartment, she would not have ever gone back to his restaurant, anyway. Ally gathers her things and storms out of the apartment. She noticed that Meg’s door was open and gathered that she already left before Ally woke up.

Ally makes her way into the kitchen where she works and is glad to see that most of her team is already busy preparing for the day. Yesterday was quiet. Today is going to be busy again. Ally looks around to find Meg when she suddenly remembers that Meg put in a day’s leave to go to the lunch with the chef she met. It doesn’t take long for others to notice that Ally arrived at work. There is a different buzz in the kitchen when the head chef arrives. It use to bother Ally that others treated her differently but then she realised that it is because she is more qualified then they are. It is most certainly not because she mistreats them. Ally quickly makes her way to the walk-in fridge to check on the platter and the dish she made.  

The kitchen manager, Ralph, Ally’s right hand in the restaurant, greets Ally as she opens the large fridge door. He immediately start to bring Ally up to date with everything that happened before she walked in this morning. As Ally’s eyes fall on the shelves where she put the platter the previous day, her heart sinks and everything Ralph is saying suddenly sounds distant before it completely drains out.

The shelf where the Petit Four platter was stored, is still occupied with the platter Ally prepared for Meg. The shelf next to it with the dish Ally spent the whole day preparing, is gone. Meg took the wrong dish!