Chapter 74: Cooking Fetterfish

Cooking in a new kitchen in a group would be hard enough on its own. Doing it when all the other people in the group hated you was a trial Lus wasn't prepared for.

Unlike their training, Chef Savannah didn't stay to oversee everything. Instead, she left Sous Chef Crrn to keep an eye on them.

"But don't let that make you complacent," she warned, sending a piercing look around the kitchen. "I will still be tasting your food and I will receive a full report from Chef Crrn. Anyone who fails to pull their weight or shows themselves unfit for this job will be replaced."

Lus answered in unison with the others, "Yes Chef."

Chef Crrn didn't assign them to stations, like with lunch. Instead, he told them to divide the tasks among themselves.

When Lus stepped up to the vegetable cutting station, he smiled. Even if his cuts weren't even, he enjoyed cutting. It was a good task to lose himself in and forget for just a bit about all the worries on his mind.

He had just pulled out a knife and started washing the first garoot when Majo called from across the kitchen, "Andrews! You ever cleaned Fefferfish before?"

Lus turned and looked at the Nemarian, who was wearing a malicious smile. "I haven't," he answered.

"Well, looks like today is your lucky day. Trade me."

Lus considered arguing that he'd gotten to the vegetable prep station first, but a glance at the others confirmed that he had no allies here. Knowing that causing trouble would only make him more likely to get fired, he nodded and set the garoot down.

The station with the Fefferfish was next to one of the sinks and he quickly figured out why. Unlike the fish he'd seen in kitchens before, which were only small fillets from the fish, these were whole fish.

Their lifeless eyes stared at him from the large box on the counter. He turned and began reading through the instructions, his eyes widening as he caught sight of the large, red text at the top.

[Fefferfish are incredibly toxic if prepared incorrectly. You must wear protective gloves while cleaning them and make sure to remove all toxins before they are served]

Lus blinked and looked around the kitchen once more, his eyes desperately seeking some kind of reassurance. Instead, he found the other chefs already busy at work. His eyes met Sous Chef Crrn's, who was watching him with an expression that seemed part sympathy and part expectation.

He wants to see how I'm going to handle this, Lus realized. And he needed to handle this well if he wanted to remain here.

Please let my [Chef's Intuition] be enough to get me through this, he thought. He turned his attention back to his station and quickly found the thick, rubber-lined gloves that would protect him as he cleaned the dangerous fish.

Once he had them on, he pulled out the first fish and set it on the cutting board, then looked back at the instructions. Thankfully, there was a diagram showing how to cut the fish properly and which parts needed to be removed.

Taking his knife, he breathed a deep, calming breath and focused on the fish in front of him. It was shaped oddly, more round on the sides than most fish. It rolled when he tried to set it on its side, like he would with most fish, so he set it on its stomach instead.

Glancing again at the diagram, he breathed in and took the knife. He positioned it behind the fish's head, about where the diagram showed, and prepared to cut.

[Feel for a bump first, then position the knife behind]

He paused, then moved the knife away and carefully felt the fish's head. He found the large bump and set his knife behind it. Just before he could slice down, another notification popped up.

[Don't cut all the way down. Stop when you hit resistance]

He nodded as though the System would recognize his response and slowly cut in. As soon as it became difficult to cut, he stopped and removed his knife.

Following the diagram instructions, he opened the fish and began pulling the back off. It came away from the bottom more smoothly than he expected, leaving him a filet of fish that had skin on top and a tail on the back, but was clean on the bottom.

Glancing at the instructions once more, he threw the head into a waste bucket at his feet and carefully peeled the skin off the filet. It came apart more easily than he might have guessed, though he had to use his knife to cut the tail part off when it just stretched and pulled at the meat without coming apart.

Lus reached to drop the finished filet into the waiting metal bin.

[Rinse first]

Changing directions, he ran the meat under cool water in the sink, then dropped it in the bin. With a smile, he set to work on the next fish.

The second, third, and fourth fish went as smoothly as the first and he was just starting to feel like he had the hang of it when he pulled out the fifth fish.

He had a hard time finding the bump, but he thought he'd found it when he cut down. Instead of the clean separation he'd had with the previous, he found his knife sinking into the nasty stuff behind the head. Unsure how to continue, he froze.

[Throw the fish away and get a new knife and board]

Breathing a sigh of relief at the help from his [Chef's Intuition], he tossed the whole ruined fish into the waste bin with the remnants of the other four fish. He then slid the knife and cutting board into the sink and washed off the gloves with the soap. He hadn't ever washed gloves before, but he felt it necessary this time since he didn't have an extra pair that would fit.

Once he had thoroughly scrubbed the gloves off, he got out a clean cutting board and knife, then moved on to the next fish.

He messed up on three more of the however-many-fish there were (he lost count after 23) and since he had limited knives and cutting boards, he had to wash dishes a few times. 

Just as he was rinsing the last filet, he felt eyes on him and turned to find Fresa and Doja both watching him with expressions of grudging respect.

Pltr was still finishing up at her station, so Lus turned his attention back to finishing up the last filet and adding it to the bin with the others. He disposed of the bad parts and slid the dishes into the sink, then put the gloves away.

Once his station was tidied up, he joined Fresa and Doja. The three chefs stood in awkward silence for a bit.

Thankfully, before Lus had to come up with a way to break it, Pltr joined them and Chef Crrn stepped forward.

"Now that you've finished the prep work, you may each choose a cooking station. You'll have to get the proper ingredients from the prep stations for whichever dish you're cooking. Unlike the training, you will each be cooking a separate part of the final dish from start to finish."

Lus glanced at his fellow chefs to find them all staring at each other uncertainly.

Crrn spoke again, snapping them into action. "What are you waiting for? Get going!"

Lus expected to be put in charge of cooking the Fefferfish, but Fresa claimed that station. Majo took the appetizer, some kind of fried vegetable, and Pltr took the dessert, leaving Lus on the side dish.

He shrugged and took his place at the final station: Korenta. Skimming down to the instructions, he quickly scanned over the ingredients he needed.

Ground Koren

Salt

Water

Butter

Efta Cheese

Elsha Oil

Diced red peppin

Diced white onnin

Sliced white Hushooms

Looking around the kitchen at the various prep stations, he caught sight of the veggies. He grabbed those first, then went into the food storage room for the rest of the ingredients.

Once he had everything assembled, he scrolled to the instructions and got started. Unlike cooking for the crew of the Argo, the recipe had all the measurements he needed, so he didn't have to try and figure out how many times to increase it.

He measured out the water into a pot and set it on the stove. Just as he reached to turn on the heat, he got a notification.

[Vegetables first]

Sighing, he stepped away from the pot and grabbed a pan. Pouring in the elsha oil, he turned on the heat. He waited just a minute before dumping the onnins in. They sizzled nicely and he stirred them around until the white pieces were starting to turn translucent.

He then poured in the peppins and hushooms. He continued to stir as it all cooked. Shortly before he might have called it done, another notification popped up.

[Turn heat to lowest setting and move on to the other part of the dish]

He did as directed and turned down the veggies, then turned on the heat under the pot of water. Once it was boiling, he added the salt, then poured in a little ground koren, stirring before he added more.

As soon as all the koren was in, he added the butter as well. He then had to stir the koren and butter mixture for 25 minutes to keep it from burning.

A few minutes into stirring, his mind had wandered back through the manor, trying to remember where he'd been and where else he needed to get to look for the artifact. He had completely forgotten that the vegetables were still on heat until a reminder popped up.

[Stir the vegetables]

He blinked in surprise and grabbed the spatula with his other hand. His stirring was clumsy, but it was enough to keep the veggies from burning. He set the spatula back down and turned his attention back to the koren. The butter had melted and the ground koren was getting thicker.

He remembered to stir the vegetables again a few minutes later. The koren was starting to smell delicious as it continued to get thicker. He checked the timer he had set to see if it was nearly done but he still had ten minutes left.

"The dessert is plated," Pltr called. "Does anyone else need help?"

"Can you set out plates for me?" Majo asked. Pltr hurried over to help the other chef.

"Andrews! Where is my side? I can't plate until it's down!" Fresa yelled.

"It's still got ten minutes left," he called back.

"Well put some speed on," she answered.

"I can't make it go any faster," he answered. "But if you want to bring me the plates, I can get it plated as soon as I'm done."

Unlike Pltr helping Majo, Fresa grumbled the entire time she spent gathering and carrying the plates to Lus. Just as she set down her last few plates, a notification popped up in front of Lus.

[The Korenta is done]

He nodded as though the system could see him and lifted the large pot of Korenta off the burner. Glancing over at the instructions, he checked the bottom for the plating directions. He was supposed to add a spoonful of Korenta just off from the center of the plate, then add a smaller scoop of the vegetables on top.

Doing his best to match the accompanying diagram, he grabbed the Korenta and began dropping careful spoonfuls on each plate.

Without being asked, Fresa followed after him, adding the smaller scoops of vegetables on top of the Korenta.

"Thank you," Lus said as they finished up the last plate.

She grunted in acknowledgement and looked over the plates. "It will be easier to bring the fish here," she decided.

"Can I help?" Lus asked.

She smiled mischievously. "Sure. You can carry the bin."

The bin of fried fish wasn't too heavy, but it was large and awkward to carry. Lus' arms started to ache from the odd position before they had finished adding a fried filet of fish on top of the plates of Korenta and vegetables.

Finally, all the plates were ready. He set the dishes aside and looked proudly over the delicious-smelling food he had helped make.

[Cooking Complete]

[XP Gained: 50]