Chapter 67: Cooking Interview

Lus surveyed the ingredients he had pulled out of the basket: raw gervin steak marbled with lines of fat; small, round, green sprouts; and a small basket of nabra fruit.

"What am I going to do with this?" he whispered.

"Did you say something?" Fresa asked from the next station. She was already working on her meat with a large knife.

"Oh no, sorry," Lus answered in embarrassment. I need to keep my thoughts in my head, he made a quick mental note. Being so used to cooking all alone, he hadn't considered how hard it would be to adjust to having to cook around other people.

Shaking his head, he turned his attention back to the ingredients in front of him. He hadn't ever cooked a steak before, so he'd need to rely heavily on his [Chef's Intuition]. He just hoped it was enough to get him the job he needed.

Picking up his knife, Lus decided to cut up the steak and make a stir fry. It was an easy way to use meat and vegetables, but also something flavorful. He just had to make sure that the steak didn't come out tough and chewy.

Once he had the steak cut into small slices, he looked at the sprouts and the fruit. The sprouts were easy. He washed them in the sink and set them aside. Nabra fruit was a bit different. It was sweet and soft inside the thick, tough skin. He wasn't really sure how to use it in the stir fry, but perhaps it would make a good sauce?

Deciding to leave that for later, he glanced around, wondering if he could use other ingredients. He saw a couple other chefs heading towards a door in the back of the room and followed them into a large storage room full of other ingredients. 

He briefly wondered how much he was allowed to use as he admired shelves full of food, but the other chefs seemed to be helping themselves to everything they wanted, so he did the same.

He first pulled some fresh garoots and slerry sticks from the large interbox, then stopped in front of the spice shelves.

Lus had never had to make a sauce on his own, so he wasn't really sure what to put in with the fruit. His eyes caught on a dark liquid. He had only ever had Savory Sauce a couple times when he had been privileged enough to eat at restaurants.

It was a salty, incredibly flavorful liquid that was often put over rice or used as a dip to add flavor to foods. Now he wondered if it might make a good sauce.

[Savory Sauce is a common base]

He smiled at the familiar notification and grabbed the sauce. Hopefully it would go well with the sweetness of the nabra fruit to temper it. He also grabbed harvic powder and onnin powder because they were such common seasonings, he felt like they must go with everything.

Taking his stuff back to his station, he set it all out and took a deep breath to re-orient himself.

What should I do first? Lus wondered, looking over everything in front of him.

The obvious answer was to prep the vegetables. He grabbed a clean knife and a peeler from the well-stocked drawers under the counter.

He washed and peeled the garoots, then chopped them into small, fairly even slices. He lifted them, ready to slide them into the bowl with the sprouts when another notification popped up.

[Smaller-cut vegetables will cook at a different rate than whole sprouts]

He nodded to himself. That certainly made sense, so instead of dumping the garoot slices in with the sprouts, he got a new bowl for them.

Once he had washed and sliced the slerry, he dumped it in with the garoots. He was glad that he had started making the System recipes in single servings because otherwise, he wouldn't have known how to handle preparing such a small amount of food.

With the veggies cut, he glanced over his station again. Sauce first or cooking? he thought.

[Sauce first]

Lus breathed a sigh of relief and grabbed a clean knife and a small bowl. He first sliced up the nabra fruit, carefully cutting the fruit away from the small pit in the center before peeling off the thick, dark green skin. The flesh of the fruit was paler green and squishy.

Dumping the slices into the bowl, he took a smasher and mashed it up. Once he had gotten it as broken down as he could, he took the bottle of Savory Sauce and poured some of the dark liquid over the pulverized fruit.

With a metal whisk, he mixed it together quickly, trying to incorporate it. Instead of the smooth sauce he was hoping for, he found himself looking at Savory Sauce with unappetizing chunks of fruit floating in it.

[Strain out the fruit]

Strain it out? But wouldn't that remove the fruit completely? He shrugged and decided to do as the [Chef's Intuition] suggested. It wasn't as though he had any better ideas.

Lus had to dig through one of the cupboards, but he finally found a strainer made from fine mesh. He held it over the sink and grabbed the bowl.

[Place another bowl under the strainer]

"Right," he said aloud with an embarrassed glance around. Thankfully, everyone else was far too busy with their own dishes to have noticed his near misstep. He grabbed another bowl and held the strainer over it, then dumped the sauce in.

The mesh caught all the fruit pulp while the dark liquid streamed into the bowl underneath. Lus set aside the strainer of mush and grabbed a clean spoon to taste the sauce.

He had expected it to just taste like Savory Sauce, but he could taste the sweet undertones of the nabra fruit. He smiled. It was actually surprisingly tasty. 

He added some of the ground harvic and onnin powders, then tasted again. It was even better with the added depth of the extra seasonings. Hopefully it would go well with the meat and vegetables.

Now that he had the sauce ready, he needed to start cooking the other ingredients. Should I start with the meat or the veggies? He wondered, looking between them.

[Brown the meat first]

The System again came to the rescue, answering his question. With a small sigh of relief, Lus dumped the meat into a pan and set it on the stove.

[Heat oil in pan first]

Another notification interrupted before he could turn on the burner. He sighed and set aside the pan full of meat. Grabbing a clean pan, he set it on the stove and added some elsha oil, then turned up the heat.

After he'd given the oil a couple minutes to heat, he poured the raw meat chunks out of the other pan into the oil. They landed with a pleasant sizzle and he stirred them around until the outside of each chunk was browned.

Now it's time to add the vegetables! he thought. Right?

When no System notification popped up to correct him, he shrugged and dumped in the sprouts. Since they were so big, he assumed that they would need longer to cook than the smaller pieces of garoot and slerry.

The sprouts sizzled and smoked a little. Lus was already reaching for the elsha oil when a notification popped up.

[Add more oil]

He tried to just splash in a bit, but it came out more quickly than he had expected. He frowned at the puddle of oil and used his spatula to push it around. He then stirred the sprouts, letting them soak up the oil.

Hopefully this doesn't ruin them, he thought. He was trying hard not to let himself think about how badly he needed to succeed at this. If he failed, he wouldn't just be letting himself down, but the entire crew of the Argo.

Shaking off the weight of his crew's expectations, he focused on the pan before him. As soon as the outside of the sprouts began to change color, he dumped in the slerry and garoot slices. They soaked up the rest of the oil nicely and he breathed a soft sigh of relief.

He had only given the veggies a couple stirs before Chef Savannah called out that there were only five minutes left.

He almost swore aloud, but managed to hold it in as he reached for the bowl of sauce, quickly dumping it in and hoping it would have time to heat through.

Lus stirred the sauce around, trying to make sure all the meat and veggies were well-coated. There was more sauce than he probably needed and he decided he'd drain some off before serving up the dish.

The sauce started bubbling just as Chef Savannah called out the one minute mark. Lus grabbed a slotted spoon and used it to scoop generous helpings of meat and veggies into the bowls they had been given to serve in.

He glanced over the final product and frowned. It looked a little dry, so he picked up a non-slotted spoon and added a little of the sauce on top.

Just as he decided he was done, a notification popped up.

[Cooking Complete]

[XP Gained: 50]

[Level Up: Level 6 -> Level 7]

Lus felt a strong pull of temptation to check out his stats page and see what he'd gotten, but a quick glance around the kitchen showed the others rushing to move their plates to a table in the middle of all the stations. There were numbers corresponding to their stations, marking where each chef was supposed to set their finished dish.

Blinking away the screen, he grabbed his two bowls and carried them over. He reached the table at the same time as the Nemarian who had been such a jerk in line.

While Lusac felt a strong urge to race and set his bowls down first, he paused and let the Nemarian go first. He could just picture the dark orange bully intentionally bumping him and ruining his dishes before he could set them down and he couldn't risk that.

As if the bully could read Lus' thoughts, he smirked and spent an extra while adjusting his bowls on the table. Glancing up at the clock that was nearly out of time, Lus sighed and made his way to his spot on the table, giving the Nemarian a wide berth.

Once his bowls were set in their spot, he backed away. The others had returned to their stations, except the Nemarian, so Lus remained near the table, keeping a sharp eye on the bully to make sure he didn't do anything to sabotage anyone else.

Thankfully, the bully seemed to realize that Lus was keeping watch on him and he slunk back to his station. Breathing a sigh of relief, Lus headed back to his station, stepping behind the table just as the timer rang through the kitchen.

"Everyone, stop what you're doing!" Chef Savannah called out. Lus glanced around again and found all the chefs standing rigidly at attention, their eyes fixed on the chef. He blinked and did the same.

"You will now each present your dish to me for tasting and questions. I will be going in a random order that was selected by one of my assistants. I do not tolerate complaints about placement."

"Yes chef," everyone answered. Everyone except Lus, who hadn't realized that she expected a response. Thankfully, nobody seemed to notice his failure to respond.

"On my call, you will bring me one plate of your dish to taste. I will give my critique and ask any questions I might have. I expect you to be honest and respectful. There is no place in my kitchen for arguments."

Everyone answered in unison again, "Yes Chef." Lus managed to catch on just in time.