[Knight's Rest Inn] Three Little Words

[Faith Augustin]

20th Ashan 717

"No." Faith looked at Walt without any doubt in her mind. "I can not do that. I am not saying I will not, I am saying I can not." Walt looked right back at her and beamed in delight. He knew that she was going to do it, Faith knew that she was too and the young woman sighed. "You are an unfair man, Walt. It is most unreasonable of you." Walt chuckled.
"You are the best person for the job, you know that. Also I don't want to do it and I pay you!" Walt was unashamed in his determinedly cheerful attitude.

In order to promote the restaurant, Walt had decided to hold a competition. This would be a competition with a difference, he had declared in his usual loud and jovial manner and Faith had felt her heart sink at those words. Things had not improved after them. Aspiring chefs from around Scalvoris were going to come and they would be given a box of ingredients, chosen by Faith, and an amount of time to cook something with them. There would be twelve places in that round, he explained. Faith had said nothing, simply raised an eyebrow and waited to hear all of it.

Walt was happy to oblige.

Once they had identified the three winners, who would be decided when he and Faith ate the food, those winners would each win the chance to cook in the kitchens with Faith supervising. It was going to be a special charity evening, Walt assured her, in order to raise money for the Order of the Adunih in Scalvoris. Faith could not argue with that, being a member of the Order herself and very keen to see them continue to grow.

So, the three chefs, Walt continued, would work under her in the kitchens, devising their own menus and then, they would serve them to the guests on the charity night. It would be a nine-course extravagance, with each chef producing three courses, along the lines of a tasting menu basically. The guests would chose which starter, which main and which dessert they preferred and the person with the most votes won.

"What if it's a three way tie and what's the prize?" Faith asked. Walt explained that at the bottom of the voting card was a question asking, in the event of a tie what chef the customer would vote for. As for the prize, he waved a hand and explained that it would be work experience here in the restaurant, a hamper of luxury food, that kind of thing.

"So, to summarize." Faith looked at Walt and she could not help the slight smile. "I taste the food, I run the kitchen, I deal with the stress, I provide work experience and I cook the hamper of luxury food?"
"Yes, exactly!" Walt grinned at her and Faith rolled her eyes, but her expression was amused. It was a good idea, she would comply

Which he had known, of course, from the beginning.

[Faith Augustin]

20th Ashan 717

The box of ingredients had been something she considered and in the end Faith had put quite a variety in there. Walt wanted some unusual ingredients, some Scalvoris specific ones. Faith was more than happy to oblige in terms of that, putting in some Halfrein meat, some snekvine and the strange little chrythiam fish. A range of herbs, a sunburst fruit, lemons and cocolime were offset with more staple ingredients like flour and sugar, butter and oil.

The twelve contestants were coming the next trial, so Faith and Walt set up the restaurant for them. They would cook in groups of four. Walt was going to have them all starting together, but Faith pointed out that some people's food would be cold, or might have dried up by the time that they got to taste it, that being the case. She suggested that the way to do this, therefore, was to have the twelve contestants cook in a staggered manner with four people cooking at any one time. Anything else would lead to indigestion for the judges or unfair advantages for some contestants, she explained to Walt who laughed and let her get on with it. She was the organiser, he said, she should organise it how she wanted. Faith glared at him but did so in a good natured way.

It was important, Faith knew, that they minimised the amount of disruption for the customers. There was going to be some but it made good sense to keep it as little as possible. After all, the customers were paying and for all that this was good advertising, it would be quickly offset by complaints. Therefore, it was important that the schedule was worked out around opening times. So, she did that and worked out the logistics of it all, ensuring that the business could still run. "I am going to have to work overtime." Walt sighed dramatically and Faith looked at him with a smile. "I would like my wage from that to be given to the Order of the Adunih, please." Walt sighed dramatically and nodded.

She had the boxes prepared, she told Walt, had the schedule drawn up and she was as prepared as she could be. The cooking equipment had been checked and each contestant had access to the same things. There was sufficient time between each contestant for the stations to be prepared for the next one. Faith had run a mock up of the trial in her mind three or four times and she was convinced that it was going to work.

Therefore, she told Walt, they were ready and the next morning, the contestants could be let in at the agreed time and then presented with the schedule. She simply hoped that it would work, she told Walt with her usual earnest expression and he smiled and shook his head. It would be fine, he was quite sure.

[Faith Augustin]

25th Ashan 717

"You may begin"

That had been how her trial started and Faith considered that the whole concept of 'three little words' applied to so much more than 'I love you'. Frankly, declarations of love were easy in comparison to this and she glanced at Walt with a slight smile. He was not any happier than her because they had spent a lot of money on ingredients, a lot of time on getting things ready and, thusfar, they had eaten a fair amount of really poor food and nothing else. They had eaten four dishes and they ranged from awful to bloody awful, in Faith's mind.

What she really had not liked was the need to give feedback. Paprika and lemon with an overpowering aftertaste of mint was just gnarly and Faith had smiled and talked about balance and how it had nearly been there but, whilst enthusiasm was a wonderful thing, sometimes in cookery less was more. It was a fine line, Faith was discovering, between her usual complete honesty and her overwhelming need to see the positive. As a slave she had not ever criticized her owners and really, the only times that she had eaten food which she did not cook either Padraig had cooked it and so, by definition and default, it was wonderful or he had taken her to a restaurant which meant that it had the same accolade.

Then, there was this. Totally out of her comfort zone, Faith had just done the best that she could. In order to be useful to the aspiring chefs, she made sure to give the sort of feedback which she found most useful in her own studies, giving them something to focus on next time, but always making sure that she found some positive.

For one of them, that had been very tricky.

However, this dish was the fifth and it was nice. It was better than nice, in fact, it was bordering on good. There was a delicate lemon mousse with a rich honey tulle biscuit and Faith had to admit, it was well prepared, well presented and well cooked. There were things which could be improved, certainly. "I like it." She said to the slightly nervous looking Biqaj woman. "It's tasty individually and together." Faith smiled at her, "and it would have been easy to let the lemon overpower this. You did well. Next time, try to focus on making the biscuit thinner, which will help with the texture contrast." That would really help and Faith considered that she would put small honey meringue dots in the mousse, too, to give more texture to it, but she was picking tiny details. Of all of them so far, it was by far and away the best.

But still. Four truly abysmal and one good dish down, seven unknowns to go.

[Faith Augustin]

26th Ashan 717

Twelve dishes down and Faith and Walt got to make their judgement on who were the three winners. That was relatively straightforward for the top two, but the third was more tricky. There were four good chefs, as it turned out and Faith really didn't want to turn one of them away but Walt was firm; there were three places. Just three. So they had to choose, and choose they did. She didn't like it but they had three people who were coming in the morning of the 26th to serve the dinner service that night.

So, that morning Faith was there and ready to greet them. Three people, a human, a Sev'ryn and a mixed race, two men one woman. There was no doubting to Faith's mind that this was going to be tricky, but she taught them everything she could about how to approach service. Sitting with the three of them, she discussed their menus; each of them had come with a menu ready and none of them were reasonable. The trick, she explained, was not to think about how long it took to cook a dish, but to consider how long it took to cook a dish whilst cooking another five of the same course, three of the course before and four of the one after. It was a logistical consideration and those dishes which meant you could prepare them early were the best.

It was best, in truth, for the business. She explained to the three of them ~ a business ran on the weakest link. "If I fall sick and my menu is both immediate-cook and complex, the chance of being able to find a replacement is lessened. But if I have a clear menu, precise instructions and my dish is half prepared in advance, then I am much more replaceable. I am also much more likely to finish a service." After all, if each dish took ten minutes and fifty people ordered it, they were completely stuffed.

So, that evening, it came down to service. Faith and Walt both knew that in the next season it was Faith's plan that she would fund her own social enterprise restaurant. Yet that evening she had to wonder. What was she thinking and why? Was it something which she could do? The realities of a busy service were such that the three contestants floundered, started making silly mistakes and generally not managing the stress of it. It was a stressful job, there was no doubt. Faith never shouted when she ran her kitchen, there was no need - however she came close to it this trial. The three of them were cooking, three small tasting dishes each. Having spent the trial preparing and preparing them again, Faith did not know what more she could do until service started and all three of them seemed to fall apart.

However, with support from her, service went and the three of them put out their dishes. The reality of it was, as she had suspected it would be, that she was busier than ever she usually was and had to try and be in three places at once. Yet, it was good for the chefs and she knew that they were learning, but the need to clean plates, to plate correctly and to always, always keep at the forefront of one's mind that the customer must look at their plate and be pleased that they received it, that was key.

When it came to the end of the night, Faith had learned a lot about running a kitchen. It wasn't that she didn't do it every trial but these three did not know her ways, her routines and her processes. That was what was key. When she ran her own business, she determined, the induction and ongoing training of staff was going to be the most important thing to focus on at first; it was only when they were all working to the same goal that they would be able to work together seamlessly. It was a good lesson learned and, as she heard the cheers from out in the restaurant as Walt announced the winner (the mixed race male) and the celebrations from out there, Faith contented herself with cleaning up and considering that "you may begin" were three little words she would be very happy not to have to utter again.

[Yndira]

Here you are, dears

Faith

Knowledge:
Business Management: Promoting a business through contests and prizes
Business Management: Working around customers
Business Management: Making sure everything is stocked and working well
Business Management: Working with inexperienced trainees
Business Management: Always please the customer
Business Management: How to run a restaurant
Detection: Initial flavoring of a dish
Detection: The aftertaste of mint
Detection: Texture of a mousse
Discipline: Not shouting at trainees
Endurance: The abuse of tastebuds while tasting terrible dishes
Linguistics: “Three little words” can apply to a number of phrases
Logistics: Planning a cooking contest
Logistics: Dealing with three way ties
Logistics: Dividing workers into teams
Logistics: Running a contest during business hours
Logistics: Working out a schedule for an event
Logistics: Planning a menu
Logistics: Prioritizing tasks for employees

Loot:
Injuries:
Fame: + 5 ( Host an event ), + 3 ( Helping out the contest winners in the kitchen )
Devotion:

Story: 5/5
Collaboration: 0/5
Structure: 5/5
Magic: These points may not be used for magic

Comments: I feel like I read a version of that Cooking Mama game. Or no - Diner Dash. I greatly enjoyed this thread, though I would have liked a bit more detail for the cooking portion of it. I can see Faith was under some pressure, though haha.

Please PM me if you feel I’ve missed anything