174: Stolen

I looked back at the two meals, trying to see if I could spot something I had forgotten, but everything was there. I remembered to season everything. Perhaps I could have tried the sauce a couple of times during cooking to make sure the seasoning was right, but that’s all I could think of.

Crisplet just sent me a feeling of confusion.

Turning back to Auguste, I had only one suspicion. “Is it because I didn’t use the correct stock in the sauce?”

A small smile broke across the man’s face. “No, that’s fine. It’s important to use up leftovers, although it is rather unconventional. What you failed to do, and what should always be done with steaks, especially with fillet, is to rest them.”

I don’t think I had rested a single piece of meat since I started cooking. Actually, for that matter, no one had even mentioned it to me until now…

Auguste laughed. “Okay, your confused look says all I need to know. Let’s start from the top. I think you have an over-reliance on using Crisplet to do your actual cooking, and it’s fine to have your companion assist you, amazing even. I would love to have my own personal fire elemental chef. However, it’s still important that you know the basics and how to cook yourself as well.”

“We should try the food before it goes cold. I am curious to see what he can do,” Julia said.

The others nodded as they stepped forward to try it.

I was confident that the meal would taste good. This was one I had done several times before, and the sauce, although it was a recent addition, was still fresh in my mind, so I waited as all three tried the steak. Crisplet was hovering close by, clearly eager for their instruction as well.

Auguste was the first to speak. “It’s good; the steak is cooked perfectly, not as juicy as it could be. The sauce has a nice rounded flavour to it, the wine has been properly cooked off, and the onions add a sweetness. Your mash is smooth, but you’ve not worked the starch too much, so Crisplet, excellent job with cooking. Trevor, excellent job with the sau…”

“Woah! Shit, sorry Chef,” Torrel said, quickly going silent when he realised he interrupted his mentor.

However, Auguste just looked at him oddly for a moment. “What is it?”

“The buffs, Chef. I got a bunch of buffs from that meal,” Torrel added.

I had completely forgotten that the soup would add buffs to the food. I intentionally didn’t infuse the meal. I wasn’t going to hide it anymore, but I didn’t want to distract from learning about cooking with the buffs, but I still messed it up.

Julia’s eyes went wide as she clearly inspected them.

“Interesting, but we’re not here for the buffs. We’re here to teach you cooking, and before we can teach you any of the more advanced recipes, I think we need to teach you some basics. Crisplet, your cooking is perfect, so we’ll get you forming and using tools. Trevor, you’ve clearly practised your prepping skills, so we’ll have you practising your cooking,” he said.

While he explained, Auguste began pulling ingredients out onto the table, and what really surprised me was that he even had a metal chopping board for Crisplet so he didn’t have to worry about burning a wooden one.

“By lunch, I want you both to have powered through the aspects you’re lacking. Trevor, I noticed you using a storage ring, but the one on your finger doesn’t appear to be of good enough quality to halt time entirely, but bear that in mind when timing for meals,” Auguste explained.

“I don’t use the ring. I have an ability which is a full freeze on all kitchen and cooking-related items,” I said.

Deciding to follow up the demonstration, I brought out a barrel of salt.

“That’s useful and good to kno…” Auguste froze in his tracks as a familiar pressure fell on the kitchen.

“That’s Lily,” I explained, seeing her appear behind me, looking over the three chefs.

“I… I see. Well, working under pressure is certainly a challenge. This may be good practice for my apprentice as well,” he said with a chuckle.

Auguste and Julia were both handling the pressure of Lily fairly well. After faltering a small amount at the start, they went back to business as usual. Torrel, on the other hand, was not finding it so easy, as you could see the beads of sweat on his brow and he was struggling to function.

“Do you have to deal with high pressure like this often?” I asked curiously. While I did that, I passed what was left of both meals over to Lily, and they quickly vanished.

“No, it’s very rare. However, we occasionally get strong visitors from other continents, or have to deal with an angry royal who was in a bad mood, and in those situations the pressure can be heavy. So it’s quite the boon to be able to train under it constantly,” he explained, passing Crisplet a stack of vegetables.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

What I found especially amusing were the unconventional ways Crisplet found to prepare his vegetables. Rather than peel anything, I watched as the outer layer of the onion was just burnt away while the inside seemed untouched.

The knife Crisplet was using was clearly made out of charcoal, but it was so compacted, especially on the tip, it almost had a shine to it.

I, however, got to work on cooking items. Preparing several fillets, a roast, and decided to make a stock finally, so I pulled out yet more bones and started to roast them.

It was far more difficult than I had expected. While I cooked, Auguste was calling out how he’d like the steak cooked, and out of the nine I made, only two were cooked properly. The bones had not fared much better, as I completely forgot about them while working on the steaks. When I came back to it, the fat had burnt away, and the bottom of the pot was unusable.

Lily, however, had no issues with a pile of fillet steaks that I quickly infused, remembering the conversation about how she eats mana. Lily ate all the meat I had cooked. However, I needed to be careful about my mana, noticing I was dipping below one hundred.

Crisplet was doing better than I was, but you could clearly tell that cutting uniformly was not something Crisplet did well. I feel like he got too excited at the idea of cutting something and would go overboard, turning the items into mush.