2.1. Where’s the salt?

"It's disgusting."

I looked at the man sitting at the table in front of me. He had platinum blond hair with almond-shaped green eyes —a bit like a wild cat or a white panther. He had a straight nose and full lips. He was wearing a black cook uniform with three stars at breast height.

On his left was a man in his late fifties with salt and pepper hair and a white cook uniform. On his right was a man in his mid-forties wearing a formal dark blue suit, a food critic. They all had the same plate in front of them and a disappointed expression on their face.

The man in the middle spoke again.

"I wish I could kick you out of the competition right now but unfortunately we'll have to taste your food again during the elimination challenge."

I bowed in silence and went back to my seat to watch the other participants presenting their dish to the judges. I waved my hand and received the world's information. Damn, I should really find another way to receive them because it's not discreet at all.

This Angel is a 21 years old cook and the son of the most renowned chef of the decade, Andrea Castillo. Cooking became his passion ever since his father brought him to his restaurant when he was seven years old.

Angel would come everyday after school to the restaurant and train his skills. His twin brother Dany was jealous of their relationship and decided to start cooking too. Their father taught everything he knew at the both of them but soon noticed the gap of talent between his two sons.

Dany noticed it too and his jealousy reached its peak. But what he didn't know is that Angel would work days and nights in the kitchen. Dany wanted to be the best but it wasn't because he liked it but because he wanted to be better than Angel in the field he wanted to succeed in. He was obsessed with Angel to the point where he wanted to become him.

Andrea knew about that but he still decided to give them the same chance. He decided that they would participate to the cooking show 'Cook'n Eat' and the one who goes the furthest in the competition would take over his restaurant.

Angel wanted to win to honour his father's name and he was sure he would win, especially against his brother. He couldn't understand why his father decided to do that since it was obvious his brother didn't like cooking and wasn't as good as him. But he still respected this decision and didn't say anything.

During the first challenge of the competition, Dany sabotaged Angels dish by putting too much salt in it and the judges gave him the worst mark among the competitors. Chef Nova, of whom Angel was a fan, insulted him and his dish. Angel started crying but because it was the first challenge, everybody thought that he was just a spoiled brat and a crybaby who wanted to participate even though he doesn't have any talent.

During the competition, the participants had to live in the same house. They already expressed some reservations about talking to Angel and the rumours Dany spread didn't help. Angel was always alone and when someone would talk to him, it was to insult him. Angel couldn't stand it and started to answer but of course only the parts where he would lash out were kept in the final version of the show.

The viewers, the participants and the judges began to hate him and wanted him out of the competition but Angel managed to stay until the beginning of the second week. The contestants had to make a recipe they had created themselves. There wasn't any theme or ingredient imposed, the candidate was completely free.

Angel was sure of himself for this challenge —he had been creating recipes since he started cooking fourteen years ago. But unfortunately, Dany had found the recipe Angel would do for the challenge in his room and took a picture of it. They did the same dish but as expected by everyone, Dany's was better.

They thought Angel tried to cheat and he was eliminated right away. Angel finally realised that the one sabotaging him was his own brother and snapped. He tried to hit him in front of the cameras and he was kicked out while Dany was crying like he was the victim.

At the end of the show, Dany won thanks to his skills on cheating. The chef Nova, who was reputed to have the most sensitive palate in the world, fell in love with his cooking and proposed him to become his personal cook. After a year, he fell in love with Dany and they married.

Angel couldn't come out of his house because of the journalists at his front door. Andrea didn't believe any of the things that appeared on TV and knew it was all Dany's doing. He decided to give his restaurant to Angel even if he lost.

Both Andrea and Angel died in a car accident before Angel could take over. It was, of course, Dany's doing —helped by Nova's connections. Dany became the new best chef but never opened a restaurant, pretexting a sickness that made him lose his sense of taste. People liked him even more, pitying him after everything that happened with his hateful brother.

I looked at Dany who was presenting his dish to the judges. He had light brown hair and purple eyes with long eyelashes. His nose was slightly upturned and he had pink pouty lips. The only difference between him and me is that he wears contacts when purple is my natural eye colour. He should really buy himself a personality.

The judges tasted the food. The first one to give his opinion was the food critic.

"The sauce is well seasoned and the texture isn't too liquid. I like it."

Chef Anthony was the next.

"Yes, I agree with my colleague. However the pastas aren't al'dente. We asked for an Italian dish so those kind of things can't be messed up."

Chef Nova, the one in the middle, played a bit with his food while thinking.

"Yeah, it's disappointing. But at least not as much as your brother's dish."

I laughed out loud. They all turned towards me with narrowed eyes. I got up and walked towards them.

"Chef, we asked you to mark the dishes individually. Not to compare them with other's."

Nova glared at me.

"Don't show off after what you presented to us."

Dany took the plate in his hands with a smile —happy that the chef the original respected the most seemed to hate me.

"Do you want to taste, brother? Maybe you can learn a few things from this."

I took a fork and tasted expressionlessly. I looked back at him and made a fake smile.

"You know what? I think it lacks of salt."

They all laughed. Oh god, how am I so funny?

"At least you're not lacking of humour, brother."

"I know. That's one of the numerous things I have and you don't."

His face became red in anger and his cocky smile faded.

"Fuck off, you… Hey, where are you going?!"

I walked to his work surface and started to search everywhere —I knew where was what I was looking for but it was just for the how.

"I'm just looking for the salt."

He blanked but soon became agitated, realising what I was about to reveal to the others. He almost ran to stop me but it was too late, I had already took out the empty salt cellar from the cupboard and showed it to the cameras.

"The salt cellars are refilled every time before a challenge. Am I right, chefs?"

The three judges nodded in agreement.

"Then, dear brother, why is yours empty? Unless you used it all for your dish?"

He stayed tight lipped. The whole surrounding was silent, figuring out slowly what I was trying to say.

"See? I have a lot of humour, brother."

I slammed the salt shaker on the work surface, startling everybody in the room.

"Maybe you should really have used it for yours since it was so bland."

He couldn't react —he was as white as a dead corpse.