Chef Extraordinaire!

Started by Blythe, November 08, 2018, 10:08:26 PM

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Blythe




Genre:
Light-hearted culinary comedy
with some cheffy action elements

Blythe

His name was Ryusei, but like many individuals of Japanese descent who hailed from Japan, he preferred going by his last name of Sato, particularly if he didn't know someone very well. He'd never really taken to the American 'Mr' title, and no one was about to put the -san suffix behind his name, so he was just...Sato. He was eighteen and enjoying his first real stint away from home, originally being from Sapporo in Japan. Of reasonable height and slightly thin weight, he looked a bit more like the sort of person who ought to be eating good cooking rather than being a chef himself.

It wasn't his first day at the Culinary Collegia--it was his second. The dorms there were huge and co-ed. They were fancier than anything he'd ever really experienced before--kept in brand-new condition. He noticed the walls and flooring tended towards white colors...was that so sloppy students who spilled food would be caught? It felt like it. But the second day was for meet and greets, and the sweet scent of freshly cooked food was wafting from the west-end stairs of the five-story dormitory.

A blue poster near the wall read "Food and Fun with the RAs! Come test your skills, Freshmen! Welcome to the Collegia!" The poster had a picture of two crossed knives and a cowskull, evoking a pirate look. He couldn't tell if it was meant to be funny or intimidating...but he loved competing and loved challenged, so he hurtled upstairs. He had gotten a room on the first floor--room 11-A, which was pretty close to the entrance.

Excited, he hurtled upstairs and saw, as he got up to the second floor, it didn't have what he was smelling. What was so good?!

Up another floor, then another, his steps falling heavy and making loud thump noises--until he got up to floor five. Yes, that was it! Their dorm kitchen--the state of the art one advertised to new students--was up there, and it was huge and amazing. The glint of stainless steel and the wafting steam of food wobbled in his vision--but he wasn't the only one up there eyeballing the kitchen area from the 5th floor hall. No, there were a myriad of freshmen.

The scent? A thick and herbacious fried chicken that made Sato's mouth water just thinking about it. Then he saw an RA lift up a plate of it.

"You probably think we're cooking this for all of you! And you'd almost be right! So here's the deal--time to test your skills!" The RA speaking was plump girl with glasses, blond hair, and a mischievous glint in her eyes. Her cheeks were rosy, and she was caucasian--she had that 'Southern USA' vibe.

"Team up in groups of three! If you can make a dish that an RA will eat, we'll feed you some of our cooking and show you what the Collegia has to offer you over the years! I'm Amanda Jameson, by the way--I'm a 3rd year here, and this is my second year as an RA! You'll have a tough time impressing me!" Her voice was a thick Southern drawl--she was in jeans and a fluffy white apron, and she wore a hairnet.

Sato looked around for teammates. By god, he would have fried chicken.

Levi

Eve had already been in the US for a few days before the start of school. Her grandmama had left her a fair amount of money along with an even larger sum from her parents. Eve was sensible with it, the majority had gone back into savings but a little bit had gone on the trip out to America and her first stop had been the status of Liberty which of course had been tres magnifique!! She had also found several second hand book shops before traveling up to Maine by stagecoach. Eve had loved the journey up through states, the US was beautiful and vibrant.

She along with the rest of the first years at the Culinary Collegia had arrived yesterday and had spent most of the remainder of that day unpacking and settling in, and even though there had been many other students arrive before her she still managed to secure a room on the first floor. It appeared that most people wanted the higher up rooms but as Eve tended to get up early she figured it would be better if she didn't wake up five floors of students rattling around at dawn.

The second day was filled with excitement, it was time to make some Friends! Eve noticed the blue posters that had appeared overnight and went up to one. "Food and Fun with the RAs! Come test your skills, Freshmen!" Curious Eve followed the stream of students up to the fifth floor and arrived just in time to hear the announcement. From a blond haired female  " You probably think we're cooking this for all of you! And you'd almost be right! So here's the deal--time to test your skills! Taeam up in groups of three! If you can make a dish that an RA will eat, we'll feed you some of our cooking and show you what the Collegia has to offer you over the years! I'm Amanda Jameson, by the way--I'm a 3rd year here, and this is my second year as an RA! You'll have a tough time impressing me!"

Team up? On their first day! This was going to be fun!! Glancing around Eve wondered who would be a good idea to team up with. Suddenly she caught sight of a young man with dark features and a very determined expression. The red haired female liked his features and quickly approached. "Bonjour! Hello! Would you like to team up?" Eve asked. Extremely grateful that she had now spent the weeks before arriving in the US brushing up on her English, her rich French accent coming accross clearly.
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Blythe

"Kon'nichiwa!" Sato said to her by way of greeting. He looked around and realized that there weren't enough people for everyone to have a team of three. He grabbed Eve's hand and held their hands aloft in the air, shouting, "There's not enough for everyone to have three people; we're going to be a duo!" The RA laughed dismissively and said in her thick Southern drawl, "Your loss! But go right ahead!"

He grinned at Eve and said, "I'm Sato--who are you? And more importantly, we have to make a dish an RA will eat. So I'm good with spices and anything with bold seasoning--I'm also good with savory dishes. What are you good at?"

He didn't want to admit his weakness was baking or desserts. Desserts tended to be the most impressive and require a lot of technical skill...and worse, the RAs were offering chicken. If Sato did a savory dish, it would have to be better than the chicken already on offer by the RAs...the judging for savory food was going to be really tough. Baking was a science and art; it was one he struggled with a lot.

He put his hands on his hips and said, "No matter what we make, we gotta earn that fried chicken!"

He was excited to be working with someone already. Would they be friends? Rivals? It was so hard to say this early, but at minimum they needed to impress. People that didn't impress early probably were the people that were going to get kicked out early in the semester...

Levi

"Kon'nichiwa" the male greeted her with an enthusiastic grin and then he looked around him, Eve copied him and realized also at the same time that they were the only two as a two. Just then her new buddy grabbed her hand and held it aloft declaring her thoughts outloud. The response they got from the RA pissed Eve of a little.We'll show you! she thought to herself.

"I'm Sato--who are you? And more importantly, we have to make a dish an RA will eat. So I'm good with spices and anything with bold seasoning--I'm also good with savory dishes. What are you good at?" Sato rambled excitedly and Eve felt her own enthusiasm building to meet him.

"It's nice to meet you Sato. You can call me Eve. Qui, I agree, that chicken is ours!, we must also show zat RA Amanda that two is more then enough to beat everyone here!" she declared "Moi? I am a  patisserie chef, so it sounds like we are going to complement each other well..yes?". Eve responded before quickly adding "Come on we best see what ingredients we have to work with!" pulling Sato along with her Eve made a beeline for the cupboards and fridge.
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Blythe

He agreed wholeheartedly; he always put his heart and soul into his cooking, and it looked like Eve was the same way. He charged into the cupboard and pantry--at first he didn't expect there to be too much to work with because, well, it was a dorm's pantry. But this was the Culinary Collegia! What culinary institute that had a focus on food battles would have a bad pantry?!

Sato wasn't disappointed.

All manner of fruits to use--some of them typical like apples, oranges, or bananas--some of them a bit less common, like jackfruit or starfruit. There was a whole array of vegetables--broccoli, cauliflower, asparagus, corn, carrots, all manner of peppers. There were extracts to add for flavor or scent--rose, lemon, chocolate, vanilla, rum, jasmine--the list went on and on. And the spice cabinet looked like a dream come true. There were all sorts of raw ingredients useful for pastry, too...

Oh! There were Japanese red beans...that gave him an idea.

"Eve, have you ever had dorayaki? It's a red bean paste between two delicate pancakes. I think we could riff on dorayaki and make a lot of filled pancake desserts. It's Japanese, so I'm familiar enough with it, but it's got the pancakes as the star--essentially a breakfast pastry. What do you think?" Sato asked her.

He had thought about dorayaki because it was quick to make and potentially had a lot of little ways it could be modified--additions to the flavoring of the pancake, changes in the filling--although at least one needed to be red-bean paste--and they could be all manner of sizes...

Would Eve want to do that, though? Her background was super different from his!

Levi

As Sato rifled through the the cabinets, Eve was checking out the fridge and freezer. The ice cream and the variety of fruits caught her eye.Sato called her name and the red haired female looked up. "Eve, have you ever had dorayaki? It's a red bean paste between two delicate pancakes. I think we could riff on dorayaki and make a lot of filled pancake desserts. It's Japanese, so I'm familiar enough with it, but it's got the pancakes as the star--essentially a breakfast pastry. What do you think?" Eve considered his suggestion. She had head of the traditionally red bean based pancake. Eve glanced at the colourful variety of fruits, she really wanted to use them.

"I have heard of it qui, do you think we could change ze recipe to include some of this fresh fruit? Perhaps do a selection of sweet and savory fillings? What about this idea cream? A simple vanilla would go with the desert ones? I could make ice cream from scratch but I don't think we have the time?"
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Blythe

He liked how she thought--ice cream? At breakfast? It could replace a filling or be a side dish that could compliment the main meal. "Let's be aggressive--I bet there's an ice cream maker here. I want to go for it! We'll have four dorayaki then--two sweet, two savory, and an ice cream side! Can we flavor the ice cream with the red bean paste so we keep the Japanese tone, since we're putting fresh fruit in the dorayaki filling? I can handle the savory--you want to handle the sweet and the ice cream? I can help with prep to offset the amount of cooking you'll do," Sato said.

He was grabbing his savory ingredients....the pancake would be sweet, but maybe he could try a mincemeat of sorts in one and perhaps an herb potato filling in the other? He also got the red bean paste.  He was grabbing what he needed for that! He also grabbed the basic ingredients for the batter--that would mean that Eve could get the sweet filling and ice cream ingredients.

He was already making a dash to a cooking station in the dorms to get set up once he had what he needed.

"Let's kick some butt!" he howled in excitement, getting the pans for the dorayaki started so they could heat up sufficiently.

Levi

"That's a great idea!" Eve cried excitedly. Grabbing the cream, fruits, eggs and milk she followed behind Sato as he made a dash for a work station. The excitement was palpable and Eve couldn't help but get caught up in it all. She returned to the prep area and looked in the cupboards for sugar and and ice cream maker. Once she found it she refunded to the work station. Making sure to keep her ingredients separate and out of Sato's way the first thing to do was prep the ice cream. Cracking eggs and separating them and then adding in the sugar, she picked up the bowl and began to disk.

"Sato, what do you think would work to get as most flavour from da bean? I waz thinking maybe, eizther grounding into a pulp or boiling into a syrup?" She asked while she whisked and watched the other chef begin his prep work. Once the eggs and sugar where well whisked the female added a touch of corn flower, then gave the mixture another quick mix. Next the red haired pulled out a pan and measured in the cream and milk. Popping the lid on for now she waited patiently for her partner's advice so she could add the flavour to the ice cream.
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Ivory Dawn

"If it were me," a crisp British accent came from behind Eve, "I'd smash it with a knife and toss it in to brew while your base heats." The brunette behind her set down a handful of items on the counter and smiled at the two of them. She was medium height, dressed in a simple pair of jeans and a blue t-shirt with a white bird in flight on it under her apron. Her long, dark hair was pulled back in a braid, and her grey eyes shimmered with amusement.

"Sorry, right? I was trying to get your attention earlier, but I didn't have a group either and . . . well." She pointed a thumb over one shoulder. "The RAs said to join you all." The blond with the plate of chicken waggled her fingers at them, a little smile playing around her lips. "I'm Brooke, by the bye, and I have a suggestion?"

One lavender fingernail tapped the lid of a jar of espresso powder she'd set on the counter. "Add some of this to your base - coffee ice cream seems right for the Yankee palate, I'd wager. And maybe . . . well, have you ever had masala chai? Adding some chai spices, either to the ice cream or the fillings - I'd do the fillings, but it's a democracy here, innit? - might give it a warming, wake-you-up gentle thing."

Brooke looked at the other two, giving them a small nod. "Hope I'm not being too forward, of course. I'm shite with sweets for the most part, but I'll give it a shot if you need another set of hands on them. Otherwise, I'll throw myself at whatever you need done."

Blythe

Sato was completely surprised at Brooke's appearance into the team. But at the same time, it wasn't as if they could say no...could they? No, they couldn't! Besides, her suggestion sounded like a good one. It would probably make the meal very much a cultural fusion; the Japanese didn't do a lot with espresso, so Sato was interested in seeing how it might turn out with the red bean paste. The red bean was so sweet that it might need that kick of bitterness to balance it out on the palate...

"I'm all for it," he declared, giving a look to Eve to make sure she was, too. To Eve and her query about getting the most flavor from the bean, he said, "The best way for this might be to make it a syrup. It would play better with the espresso, too, in terms of texture. And it would incorporate better with the ice cream component."

The bean paste could be a little heavy; the syrup aspect would really lighten it, he suspected.

To Brooke, he said, "We're behind on prep. Want to jump in and help us keep our stations organized? If sweet isn't your thing, help me on the savory fillings? How are you with creating a mincemeat type filling? We want a couple of savory versions of this to balance out the ice cream and the couple of sweet versions we want to do."

Ivory Dawn

"Mincemeat?" Brooke looked at him with a little surprise. If they wanted something to balance the sweet, why . . . oh, duh. "Right, with actual meat. Right, I can make that happen."

She gave him a smile, tipping her head to one side as she glanced over his station. "I can peel and cut up the potatoes while you put together the rest of the stuff for them, then hit the mincemeat." She reached for one of the paring knives on the counter and a half-peeled potato. "Fastest knife in Shropshire, three years running," she said, starting to skim the coarse outer layer of the tuber away with quick, efficient movements.

Mincemeat, mincemeat . . . she was pondering her options while her hands worked busily taking the skin off the potatoes. Lamb, yeah. Lamb was a good choice, and pretty common around the world. "All right, so for the mincemeat, I'm thinking ground lamb and chopped walnuts, some preserved lemons," she'd seen a jar of them looking abandoned on a shelf, "and some oil-cured olives, harissa." She set down the peeled potato and grabbed another, her mind working as quickly as her hands. "Like a Moroccan mincemeat, do you think?" Maybe they could put down a thin layer of spiced, savory cheese to give it a little creaminess and help it hold together.

Levi

If it were me, I'd smash it with a knife and toss it in to brew while your base heats." Eve glanced up as a cultured voice interjected behind them. A brunette was standing on the far side of the table, a late arrival Eve wondered. "Je ne comprends pas, I'm sorry, wat do you mean by zis brew?" She questioned curious over the slang term Brook had used. While the three talked she flipped her blade and smashed up the beans as Brook suggested then popped the pulped beans into yet another pan with a little water and suger to make a syrup. She turned on the heat and allowed that mixture to simmer slowly while looking at the espresso that Brooke had suggested. "Coffee as well as ze red bean?" Eve shrugged unsure about the two flavour combinations but willing to give it a go.

All the while Sato was chatting away about the savory selection. The topic moved away from Eve's true comfort zone but she listened attentively and offered her thoughts when Brook stated talking about Moroccan meat. "Zat sounds charming! Perhaps some currants or raisins to offset the spices slightly?" She suggested.
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Blythe

Sato beamed at them both and gave a thumbs up, signalling that he was pretty open to their ideas. For him, this was a learning experience in team work. Hopefully their flavors all actually worked; he knew they were really branching out in terms of what they could make and how it might mesh together as a cohesive whole. There was a chance it might not impress those above them at all...how embarrassing would that be?

Sato's stomach gave a growl. He could still smell the delicious herbaceous fried chicken the RAs issuing the challenge had made. He desperately wanted to earn the right to taste it, but...

He kept up his own prep and handled his own ingredients.

Time was running low.

He let Eve and Brooke handle themselves and close to the last ten minutes, he checked in.

"Where are we at on things?" he asked. "We'll want to start plating soon!"

Ivory Dawn

Brooke looked up from the frying pan full of lamb. "Doing good here. This should be ready in a minute, and the cheese is ready."  She stirred the pan, releasing the aromas of savory lamb, spicy peppers, and sharp, salty lemon. This looked good. Not a juicy as she might have made it, but adding the currants was a great idea. Those little bombs of sweet would balance the spicy-salty-savory nicely, and give the palate a break.

Whisking the pan off the heat, she set it on a potholder to get cool enough to deal with. "I'll grab plates, right? Round, and large, since we'll have four dorayaki on each?" While she asked, she pulled out a large spoon and a spatula - the spoon would work well for getting the meat on to the pancakes, and the spatula would let her spread the dill-and-coriander seasoned cheese out nice and even, making sure each bite had some.

"I'm more or less done - do either of you need help?"

Levi

Eve's blade sliced at fruit in a blur of speed, she had several pans bubbling,  and the ice cream maker freezing.  She could almost feel the tick tock of the clock as Sato called out to them "Where are we at on things? We'll want to start plating soon!". Avoiding her fruit she whirled around and checked the timer on the ice cream. It still had nine minutes till set and she couldn't open the lid till the absolute last minute. It was gonna be tight.

"Brook, Paz me as plate, S'il vous plaƮt!" She called out. Grabbing the plate she began flipping out the empty shells of the dorayaki onto a plate. Grabbing the next plate she served up the final lot which were to hold her servings. Turning back to the work station the woman pulled a pan holding the red bean and coffee mixture syrup of the heat and pouted it into a squeeze bottle. Once that was done she set out her four bottoms and began painstakingly placing colourful fruit within it. Each slice a different colour until the inside shone like a rainbow.

Then a touch of syrup and the top with a dark of icing suger, she could now here the countdown behind her 10, 9, 8 - it was now or never carrying her finished repacked to the ice cream maker she sent a prayer to anyone listening and opened the machine. Pure glistening white perfection lay with in. Eve breathed a sigh of relief gabbing a ice cream scoop she place three perfect scoops between each dorayaki. Picking up the syrup she applied a liberal amount to ice cream as the PA's cried " Time is up!" Eve stepped back with a small grin.
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Blythe

Then came the time to test food! Sato had helped with various things in the meal, but he knew that too many people trying to plate was a disaster; he mentally viewed his role on the team for this challenge as being a little bit like an expediter; the person calling orders and giving directions at the pass. For him, it was a tiny bit disappointing but he hoped he'd be able to shine more in a future challenge. But at least a little bit of himself would be reflected in the fact it was dorayaki being served!

The RA with the Southern drawl and the chicken everyone wanted to taste started making her rounds.

One team didn't make it--their dish had been a chicken cacciatore, and Amanda Jameson made a face, saying, "Firstly, boring. Secondly, dry. How can you have made this dry? Lastly, too heavy handed on the garlic. The good points--the vegetables here are good, the capers are nice, and I think you got a good sauce to chicken ratio, though how the chicken was still dry is a mystery."

Onward to another team--this team had done their take on a Russian borscht--a beet soup. It was remarkably pretty with it's red colors. Amanda tasted it and smiled. "Nice. I see you kept cabbage in, but instead of potatoes, you substituted in leeks. And do I taste parsnip here? I think it works nicely. Nice kick from the dill weed, and I can really taste the peppercorns, too. It gives this a good bite. My only critique is that there's not enough sour cream."

Onwards to Sato, Eve, and Brooke....

"So what do we have here? Explain your dish. I can see you did multiple versions of whatever it is you've done, so I'm intrigued. That'll either go really well or really badly."

"Dorayaki with many different fillings. Eve and Brooke and tell you more about our process," Sato said confidently.

Ivory Dawn

Brooke nodded, taking Sato's cue. "We did two sweet and two savory, to give you a variety of options." She gestured toward the plate, indicating the two on the left. "These are savory. Sato and I each made one, largely because Eve has the strongest pastry background. We made a less-sweet batter than normally used for the pancakes to make sure the savory weren't off-putting."

One finger pointed down at the meat-filled dorayaki. "This was my primary responsibility, a play on mincemeat, with actual meat. Lamb, spiced with harissa, preserved lemons, and currants. There's also a layer of soft dill-and-coriander cheese to give you a bit of a break from the spice."

Her mouth curved in a grin. "My intent with it was to make you think you're having a lovely brunch in Marrakesh, at a clever fusian eatery." She glanced at Eve. "And I'm sure Eve wants to tell you about her amazing-looking ice cream and fruit filling."

Levi

Eve grinned "I could not resist ze sumptuous rainbow of colours the fruit presented. I finley sliced fruits from both France, England and Japan to represent the team I waz working with. Zen to add the traditional red bean flavour, we decided to pulvarise ze bean and make into into a syrup which has been liberally applied to the top of the dorayaki. Finally I whipped up a vanilla and coffee ice cream to cleanse as palate" she smiled at the Rate. "Bon appetit"
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Blythe

Amanda slowly sampled each dorayaki with a certain...critical...look in her eyes. This type of food wasn't the RA's specialty, but that didn't mean she didn't know how to judge it. On the contrary, she would have never been permitted to be an RA at a place like the Culinary Collegia if she couldn't be open-minded enough and willing enough to learn to judge things outside of her expertise.

The savory dorayaki hit her tongue; she'd taken a small bite. Then she tried a bite of another. There was a long pause...and without comment, she moved to the sweet ones. She seemed to really be giving it some thought until she declared, "This is one of the weirdest dishes I've ever tried, and that's sayin' something!" Her Southern accent bled out when feeling strongly it seemed! Uncomfortable, Sato asked, "Is weird....bad?"

Amanda looked at Eve, Brooke, and Sato, and for a moment everyone thought the RA was going to put them on blast.

But then it was like the clouds broke over the horizon.

"It's good! This is the sort of creativity I want to see and that I can guarantee the instructors here want to see. This shouldn't work. By all rights, it really shouldn't. You have too many disparate cultural fusions here, you have too many flavors, and the styles are baffling. But it's honestly one of the best things I've ever had! I think you three are going to have really bright futures here."

Sato hollered in triumph and pumped his fist in the air. Amanda shot him a glare and said, "Don't get cocky--there's others here who can take you down a peg. I'm one of them. How about you three try that chicken I made earlier and see what you're up against?"

Sato had the decency to look embarassed; he'd just accidentally made all three of them look kind of arrogant. But he didn't hesitate to go get some chicken. He could feel how the other students were glaring at him, Eve, and Brooke with envy. He whispered to the girls as he went to get chicken, "I'm not cocky and she only made fried chicken--"

He got a piece.

He took a bite.

The flavor! The herbs! The perfect crisp skin! The juice--it was so juicy! It had the perfect texture, too!

"AAAAAA THIS IS THE BEST CHICKEN I HAVE EVER HAD," he screamed in utter shock.

Sato had no idea how the girls would react to this, but for him it was a huge reality check.

Ivory Dawn

Brooke looked a bit doubtfully at the bird in front of them. It seemed silly that they'd worked that hard just to get some fried chicken. Sure, it smelled good, and looked great, but . . . it was just fried chicken!

She was glad they'd done well, but this seemed a poor reward for all the hard work they'd managed to do. Picking up one of the pieces of golden-brown, crispy bird, she smiled. The skin was crisp and smelled of herbs, salt, and delicious breading. Even though it was a bit grudging, she looked up at Amanda. "I should say thank you for cooking this, even if we did have to earn the right."

Then she took a bite. The crunch . . . perfect. The somehow-still-warm juice that flooded her mouth . . . perfect.

This might be the most perfect fried chicken she'd ever had, blowing the socks off her grandmother's, which had been the winner before that. She could never tell Nana.

Chewing, Brooke let out an involuntary "Mmmmm," which was swallowed by Sato's cry of surprise. How had they gotten this flavor? It was in every part of the chicken, making each bite a sensory explosion of taste. "Oma gah," she managed between bites, "'ish so good!"

Levi

Waiting for Amanda to decide if their dish was any good was possibly the scariest few moments of Eve's life. Her heart was pounding in her ears and she didn't realize until the woman declared it good that she was holding her breath. A massive whoosh of air left Eve's mouth as she breathed in relief a massive grin forming on her lips. A laugh bubbling over as Sato childishly whooped and then their prize awaited them both Sato and Brooke tucked in without much ado and within bites were exclaiming over the taste of the chicken.

Eve walked over and examined the bird, the golden tone to its crispy skin, the scent wafting from it was enough to make her mouth water. She carefully cut a piece of the bird and brought the morsel to her lips, she bit into it and an explosion of textures and taste bombarded her. It was so crisp and moist, perfectly seasoned Eve simply stated in wonder at the remainder of the chicken. It was so good she wanted to demolish the rest of the bird just by herself. There was a small part of her that did realize just how far the three of them had to go to make a dish even remotely as good as what lay before them!

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Blythe

Amanda gave a grin and wink--she moved on to judge other students. Sato looked dumbfounded at how good the food was, but now he at least had a chance--since the competition part seemed over for now--to get to know the two people he'd been suddenly paired with while Amanda was judging (and possibly ripping the hearts out of) other students.

Sato said happily to the two girls, "I guess better introductions are in order. We all sort of got through in together there. As you know, I go by Sato. Y'all want to head out of the dorms to talk...or do you want to watch the rest of judging?"

It was a good question. On the one hand, relaxing after that ordeal was important. On the other hand...seeing who else was going to get to try the RA's food and who was going to be competition for them could be important. It could give all three a competitive edge knowing their opponents better. But if they were all tired and hadn't relaxed...if another challenge appeared, they might not be ready for it!

Decisions, decisions!

Ivory Dawn

"Brooke Riardon, from Shropshire," she said giving Sato a nod. Would it be more proper to bow? Or would it make her look like a dork? She opted not to, the fear of looking stupid a high concern for the young woman. "I don't know, honestly. I'd like to check out the competition, see who might be worth having as a rival, myself."

She shrugged and started to untie the apron she wore, slipping it off and folding it neatly over one arm. "Relaxing sounds amazing, and I expect it'll be in short supply once things really get going." Her eyes flickered to the RAs, and she smiled a little. "But I also think they'll note it if we do. I'd rather make a good impression than rest, I think."