(Hi I’m back with another chapter to this fun little story of mine, while I initially intended on making another chapter of the Harwell Homestead first I’ve found myself not liking the quality of what I was writing and just unhappy about how things were turning out so I figured I’d take a stab at continuing this story instead for the mean time, and while the harwell Homestead will be continued at some point I don’t really know when.)
Around morning time I was awoken by the smell of burning bacon coming from the nearby kitchen. After laughing to myself a bit I walked in to go see if I could help. As I figured Cleo was trying but not succeeding at cooking bacon in a fying pan. After she said good morning she shyly spoke up and said “umm uh want to try? I am uh not so great with bacon…” she said sounding said. With a smile I said back to her. "Sure I know how to cook bacon I said as I took over her position as the bacon cooker and I got to work. Honestly bacon was one of the first things I did ever learn to cook when I was roughly 9 or 10. After 5 or so minutes I had cooked all the bacon she wanted which seemed to mistify Cleo as she watched to which soon after she requested scrambled eggs which I was more than happy to help. After cleanup I sat down at the table with her and we began to eat and she seemed cheery to not have to eat cooked bacon. “So do you normally have your bacon burnt like that?” I ask as I dig into my portion of eggs which was only half as big as Cleos.
“Ah yeah… I am not to good at cooking myself you know, thank you for help I appreciate it!” She said as she took a big bite of bacon. After breakfast we both got dressed and ready to go down to drop off my application. As we headed through the twists and turns of the club I met a lot of beady or dangerous eyes but as Cleo had put her arm around my shoulder I felt semi safe. When we arrived at the office Cleo said for me to go in without her as she would wait outside.
As I walked in I was greeted by a man in a green suit who was peting a small but fat pink colored mare. “Well well well Cleo wasn’t lying about finding a new applicant, so what do I owe you the pleasure my dear?” He said in a smooth and buttery tone.
“I’d like to apply for your chef position sir” i said politely which seemed to catch the man off guard as I handed him my resume.
“Well I’ll be I didn’t take you for the cheffy type but I suppose that’ll have to do, so do you have any prior experience? And would you care to share your name or what you go by? You forgot it on your resume” He said with a smile.
“O-oh well um my name is Ashley, but I go by ash as well as for past experiences well uh none for working but I have cooked alot at home.” I said back shyly.
“Well alright Ashley would you be opposed to give me and a few others a demonstration of your skills? Maybe make a few items from our menu if possible?” He offered as he continued to look over my resume.
“Well sure as long as I can look at the recipes” I said with a nod.
“Well of course Ashely, we are a nightclub, not a fancy restaurant, we just wanna make sure you won’t burn the place down or burn the food for that matter.” He said with a hearty chuckle.
“Of course I mean hey Cleo didn’t eat burnt bacon this morning so I think I can do it.” I said back which made him laugh a little.
“Alright Ashely I’ll have Cleo take you to the kitchen and I’ll meet you there, that work for you dear?” He said as he held out his hand.
“Deal!” I said excited as I shook his hand.
With that being done I left the room and went back outside to ask Cleo to take me to the kitchen so I could demonstrate my abilities which made her smirk a bit. “Good job Jacob only let’s those who he finds favorable to even try and demonstrate their skills and those women are mostly servers or entertainainers” she said with a smile as we continued to walk towards the kitchen. When we arrived I was hit with an awful aura of a vomit inducing smell. “Jesus Christ is that the kitchen?” I said to Cleo who didn’t react as she’d been used to the smell.
“Yeah… Gustavo our old chef wasn’t ever the cleanest or best chef but he could occasionally not burn things…” she said with a shrug.
“Well ok I can cook but if I’m gonna work in there I’m probably going to need help cleaning.” I said to which she nodded back.
As I entered the room I was met with a semi clean kitchen area but it did reek of the smell of burned herbs and spices. After a bit of searching I found a cookbook which I figured was where the clubs recipes were stored so after taking a look at a few recipes I decided to pick the simple but delicious sounding Chicken and gravy recipe from scratch. Just as I put on a apron and was about to look around for some cooking utensils when Jacob walked in. “Well I’m happy to see you made yourself at home, have you decided what recipe or recipes you wish to try to make?” He said with a welcoming smile.
“Well I figured I’d try to make chicken and gravy with some veggies if that works with you” I said which perplexed him.
“That’s not on our menu or I didn’t think it was, where did you find the recipe?” He said sounding perplexed.
“Oh from that book I found in one of the cabinets I looked through it and figured that’s where the menu recipes were.” I said back nervously.
“By golly you found my grandmas old recipe book, are you sure you wanna try that recipe though? I will be a stickler for it, her cooking was legendary to say the least.” He said motioning to a wall of the kitchen that had picture frames hung on it that features many of the same 60 or 70 year old women with lots of prized or esteemed awards or trophies.
“Well I mean the menu seemed bland and tasteless to me, the food would be better tasting if you burnt it, so I do wanna try something that’d be actually good to eat.” I said confidently which made him grin widly.
“A girl who likes a challenge I like! And atleast your honest about the menu to be fair we’ve needed a change for years but that can be done later, anyway I’ll give you space feel free to ring the bell up there once it’s done and me and a few others will come on by to try it” he said as he left the kitchen leaving me to work on the food. After finding all the utensils and ingredients I’d need I got to work on it. While the recipe seemed easy, to get it just right was going to be very heard. However I did noticed something unique when I was holding the recipe book while I was cooking the chicken, if you held the corner of the pages near a bright light you could see a set of small extra notes for the recipes, for the one I was doing it said to add a small amount of pakrica, a dash of cinnamon, and cumin into the breading. After following those instructions to prepare the breading for the chicken I began to prepare the chicken and the gravy at the same time. I also saw a note saying to add a dash of sugar to the gravy before it got thick to add a hint of sweetness. After everything was said and done I had completed all the steps and I was left with 6 plates of wonderful look chicken and gravey, eat plate had a single chicken breast on it which was only lightly drizzled with gravy so it wouldn’t get soggy and a small cup of gravy was added along with each plate so more could be added if wanted. After ringing the bell, Jacob, Cleo and 2 others came in single file into the kitchen to give my food a taste test. After getting a look at the food Cleo looked incredibly happy and Jacob looked rather impressed. “My my it looks just how my grandma used to make but… does it taste like hers too?” He said as he grabbed a knife and fork to cut into it and then took a bite. As he slowly chewed it, his eyes began to widen and water. After he swallowed his bite he looked like he was about to burst into tears. “I-i… I cannot believe it…” he said as the others looked in aw.
“So how does it stack up to hers?” I said shyly hoping I didn’t upset him with my cooking.
“A direct equal… I haven’t had her cooking in over 30 years… but I’d never forget a taste like that. It’s got everything just right exactly how she used to make it. Your hired Immediately I don’t care if the others like it or not if you can make a recipe of my grandma and do it perfectly I believe your perfect for the job!” He said as he wiped his eyes and began to eat more of the meal on his plate as the others followed suit. One by one the rest of the bouncers and Cleo dug in and seemed to be loving it as well.
Jacob had practically inhaled the rest of the chicken breast almost instantly. The others also did the same after their first bites and they all seemed satisfied from the looks on their faces. “So Ms. Ashley do you have any requests for the kitchen or anything pertaining to it?” He said as he looked over at the wall of pictures.
After thinking for a bit I had a few ideas but I wanted to ask a question first.
“Why are the pictures hanging here and not out on display? She seems to mean a lot to you and her legacy speaks for itself in this pictures.” I said as he sighed.
“In recent years most of our chefs didn’t want to be over shadowed by a person of the past so they wanted the pictures gone entirely, honestly the pictures have only been hung recently since the last chef was fired.” Jacob said as he continued to look at wall.
“Well why not display them by the kitchen then? Or a place where customers would be as I’d rather use her recipes than whatever was on the menu currently, and while it might take a bit for me to get a good amount of them down I’m willing to learn them.” I said confidently.
“Absolutely I’d be happy to have some excellent food to go with our other excellent services so I’d be more than willing to accommodate you with all that you’d need. I was also told you were currently staying with Cleo which I’d be more than happy to get you your own place or let you stay with her if you wish.” He said with a smile before he leaned over and whispered something to me. “Just so you know if you keep Cleo and the other bouncers well fed you’ll be in for a great and safe time working here, they are food motivated just trust me people can get aggressive at the chef for dumb mistakes but the bouncers set them straight~” he said with a chuckle as he patted by back.
“But you seem to already know or where planning to do that already so it doesn’t matter either way good job hun your the first chef in a long time that I feel good about hiring, I know your gonna make her proud!”.
He said before he walked out leaving me alone with just like Cleo and the other bouncers. After Cleo had finished she walked over to me with a big smile. “Good job boss liked very much, haven’t seen him that happy in lont time. So you want to cook dinner tonight?” She said with pleading puppy eyes which made me giggle a bit.
“Of course Cleo I don’t want you eating more burnt bacon or whatever the last chef fed you guys.” I said still giggling that made her face glow with excitement.
“Ok after my shift we to grocery store for ingredients I buy, you cook!” She said excitedly before her and the others left leaving me the entire kitchen to experiment with cooking. Before I got started I took a look over at the pictures of Jacob’s Grandma and gave a bit of thanks for those good tips. I will definitely be using it more and maybe she has others lying around in here too…
(To be continued)
(Hey all I hoped you enjoyed this chapter of things tbh im still trying to get used to writing dialog in first person that isnt awkward or clunky looking and while rn the story isnt still super fluffyish rn I plan in the next few chapters to include them culinarilly as I say and it’ll explore a brand new fresh world of cooking exotic and potentially fluffy dishes wink wink. Anyway feel free to give me any feedback you want to and let me know if you have any ideas for the story.)
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