One of the faces Kit recognised instantly, it was the only person that was currently smiling at him. Kate gave Kit a wave in greeting, beside her was a man dressed neatly in formal clothes. His eyes were focused on Kit, a deep penetrating gaze looked him up and down.
Kit didn’t get a feeling of dislike from this man after he was done with his assessment, it was more of a neutral feel. The man quickly dismissed him and turned his gaze towards Chef Nutmeg. “Martin good to see you, where would you like me to sit?”
Chef Nutmeg waved a hand towards the table at the front of the dinning area. “Mayor, thank you for coming. Please take a seat this won’t take long.” Chef Nutmeg then turned to Kate and the other guest and greeted then politely.
The last of the three judges was called Lacey, she was a middle aged woman with long brown hair pulled tightly into a bun. She had a sharp gaze that was currently boring a hole in Kit’s head. He gave her a tight smile in greeting.
Butterflies started to flutter in his stomach. This was his first official competition with another chef, Kit hoped the pressure to succeed didn’t cause him to faulter in his cooking today. He had more riding on the outcome of this challenge than he was comfortable with.
Mayor Mushroom cleared his throat once all the judges were seated. His steady gaze roamed over everyone in the room. Silence rang clear and all the customers settled in the rows of seats at the back of the restaurant. All eyes in the room stared at the mayor waiting for him to speak. “Let’s not delay, we are all busy people. The rules of this challenge are simple, whoever gets the most votes wins.”
Mayor Mushroom then clapped his hands. “Begin.” Chef Nutmeg bowed then walked over to one of his staff members and whispered in their ear, he then left for his kitchen. The employee stared at Kit with a smirk.
Kit stood there with a dazed expression. What was he supposed to do now? He had a feeling if he left the store he would be accused of cheating. If he took out his camping kitchen everyone would be able to see how he created his meal and what was put into it.
His gaze wondered as he was thinking, a white tablecloth caught his attention. He could use that as a screen! Kit quickly turned to Peaches and Pretzel. “Could you two please give me a hand?” Kit relayed his idea to them, they quickly agreed. He pulled out his camping kitchen while they removed the tablecloth.
Once the sheet was blocking everyone’s view Kit quickly got to work on making his Wallowing blue poison recipe. He had dismissed the idea of the Red velvet lake pasta, pulling fresh sea food from his bag might give away how special his pouch was. At least the mud wallower meat kept for 10 days in a normal space bag before going off so this wouldn’t seem out of the ordinary for him to use it.
He had tried his ingredients out previously in a normal space bag to gage the time frame of each ingredient. His bag was too important to make a silly mistake and get caught over making a meal. He was already worried about how many people knew about it’s large holding space. Luckily, they didn’t know exactly how large it was.
The meat was sizzling on his stove top, Kit became immersed in his task. All the tension left his body and a soft hum emerged from his mouth. No matter how he was feeling prior to starting to cook, it all disappeared as soon as he focused on a recipe.
Three plates of Wallowing blue poison rested on the side counter of his camping kitchen. A tantalising smell filled the restaurant. He gazed at his recipe with a feeling of pride, he knew it taste good. He just hoped the judges agreed with him.
Kit motioned for Peaches and Pretzel to lower the tablecloth. Three pairs of eyes from the judges settled on the plates with looks of anticipation. Kit picked up the plates and placed them on the table one in front of each waiting person. He then retrieved cutlery from his camping kitchen, as soon as he handed the cutlery over the judges tucked into the meal.
Murmurs of appreciation left all three of their mouths. Kit watched their expressions closely to catch any form of disappointment. From beginning to end only pleasure could be seen, Kit felt a swelling of hope fill his chest. As long as none of them gave favouritism to Chef Nutmeg, he should have this contest in the bag.
Empty plates sat waiting for him to collect. As Kit walked over to grab them, Lacey swiped her finger across the plate. Juice from the meat coated her finger, Kit watched as she brought the finger to her mouth then placed it inside to suck the juice off. A smile bloomed on his face, he could at least count one definite vote from her.
Foot steps sounded and Chef Nutmeg soon appeared with three plates of his meat and vegetable dish. The confidence radiated from his pores as he placed the plates in front of the judges. Kit hyper focused on the judges once again looking for the differences in the facial expressions. Lacey frowned at one point while consuming her meal.
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Kit took this as a very good sign. When all plates were clean Kit and Chef Nutmeg stood in front of the judges waiting for their verdict. The crowd behind him was chatting happily, every now and then Kit caught a derogatory sentence directed at him.
A heavy sigh left his lips, he hoped that this challenge could clear up all the discredit Chef Nutmeg had heaped towards him. Kit no longer feel confident in squashing all rumours, even if he won he had a feeling stories would still spread about his incompetence as a chef.
Before he could come up with a counter measure, he needed to find out the outcome of this challenge. The three judges were whispering to each other and making expressive gestures with their hands. He could see that they did not all agree on their votes. Mayor Mushroom finally motioned that the discussion was over, he then stood up.
“Settled down everyone.” The room fell silent at the mayors’ commanding words. “We have a winner, though it was a close competition.” The mayor then paused, Kit felt like he was standing on a wire about to snap. Could the man stop trying to cause a dramatic effect and just tell them the outcome before he lost his mind!
“The winner is … Chef Kit! Congratulations!” Instead of a steady stream of applause that usually followed such words. A commotion in the back of the room started.
“What! Mayor that can’t be true, our Chef Nutmeg is the best!” Shouted a young man. “This is a disgrace, did you get bribed before coming?” More angry shouts followed from the crowd. A loud bang startled the room.
Mayor Mushroom had slammed his hand down on the table. “This young man won fair and square. I don’t want to hear anymore nonsense, we of Fairweather town are honourable people not riffraff like some of our ruffian neighbours. If I hear of anyone slandering this young man, there will be consequences.”
Uncomfortable silence filled the room after the mayor spoke. Mayor Mushroom smoothed his shirt then turned his attention to Chef Nutmeg. “Martin I will leave you to handle the rewards for this challenge. Chef Kit please come and see me at the town hall before you leave, I would like to discuss something with you.”
Kit agreed to the mayor’s request, then watched as he left. He thought the other judges would follow the mayor out the door, to his delight Kate hurried over to him. “Kit I knew you would win! You are worthy of being a platinum tiered chef. I can’t wait to see what you will create in the future.”
Kit blushed at Kate’s praise. “Thankyou Kate.” Kit felt a bit more confident dealing with Chef Nutmeg now that he had an official representative of the culinary guild by his side. He had a feeling if she left Chef Nutmeg would try to get out of handing over the promised blueprint.
Kate turned towards Chef Nutmeg and motioned him to come over. “Martin I will certify the transfer of items. What was the agreed upon prize?” Kit was surprised when Kate turned professional, her speech and posture had changed dramatically from her gushing speech just moments ago.
Martin pulled a rolled up blue piece of paper from the pouch on his waist and handed it to Kate with a sullen face. Kate took the paper then transferred it to Kit. “Congratulations chef Kit, here is your rewards for winning the cooking challenge.”
Kit looked down at the blue print in his hand, he didn’t have high expectations for what was inside. He didn’t think Chef Nutmeg would part with anything good. Regardless Kit was excited to see what was inside. He started to unfurl the paper with held breath.
Ding!
[Culinary Guild Quest Complete]
Defeat Chef Nutmeg in a cooking challenge.
Reward: Magic preparation knife, 1,000 culinary points.
Bonus reward: Pond blueprint.
A pond? Kit thought about the beautiful lake that his restaurant resided against. Nothing he could put on his land could compare to the sparkling blue waters of the Spartan Fire Lake. This really was a useless blueprint.
Kit tucked the blue print away in his pouch, maybe he could also use it in a trade in the future. Kit wasn’t disappointed at the rest of his rewards. He was now the proud owner of a Magic preparation knife and an extra 1,000 culinary points added to his total.
A box appeared in Kate’s hand and a smile was blooming on her face. “Here is your Magic preparation knife. I look forwards to you visiting the guild again in the future.” He took the box with sparkling eyes, he automatically opened the lid as soon as it was in his grasp.
A silver blade with intricate carvings etched on the surface was nestled in soft red velvet. A deep purple handle completed the knife. Kit wanted to reach in and pull the knife out for closer inspection, he resisted the urge. Now wasn’t the right time, Chef Nutmeg was looking at him with a murderous gaze.
Now that the competition was over, Kit thought it was time to leave. He turned to Chef Nutmeg and bowed. “Thank you for accepting my challenge.” Although he wanted to brag about his win, Kit decided it was better for his reputation to be polite.
He had already lost his composure earlier with the aggravating man. He didn’t need to add any more fuel to the rumours that would be spreading about him being an incompetent chef by adding petty on top.
He thought after he won there might be a change to the crowd’s attitude. From what he had been overhearing that wasn’t the case. He had learnt a valuable lesson with today’s challenge. In the future he would need to prove himself to the masses before he even attempted to challenge a chef in his hometown to a cook off.
Kit used the excuse that he needed to see the mayor and dragged Peaches and Pretzel out the door. Pretzel then guided Kit towards the mayors office at the town hall. Along the way news was already spreading about the cooking challenge. Kit overheard scattered conversation as they walked, none of it made him shine in a good light.
Kit let out a frustrated breath, what could he do to turn the tide of misconception about himself? Small towns were a blessing and a curse, they could give you unconditional support just because you were one of their own, the down side was news spread like wild fire.