“Welcome everyone to the Inaugural Mermaid’s Roof Supper Showdown!” Chorus spoke directly into the camera for once. The audience cheered—seats filled with workers given the afternoon off to watch, but the next year it’d be open to guests of the resort.
“We have several top chefs here with us, all from multi-plaque restaurants around the world, who will be competing for today’s grand prize: a restaurant of their own here at the Mermaid’s Reef that they’re able to design and operate however they wish, fully funded by the resort itself. Truly, a once-in-a-lifetime chance to make their culinary dreams come true.”
“All they have to do is serve their perfect meal—a pretty simple task for any chef worth their kosher salt. But they’ll have to dish out something special if they want to impress our panel of judges. Let’s go ahead and introduce them now.”
“First, we have Drim Drazah. He’s traveled the world and eaten the most unique and disgusting things. Now he’ll say just about anything is good, so if you want to leave an impression, you’ll really have to pull out all the stops.”
“Our second judge is Phon Drazah, and she couldn’t care less about any of this. Who wins or who loses doesn’t matter at all to her, but expect her to be watching her brother closely. Because she will blatantly steal your recipes or spin them into her own if you put a smile on his face—a home-chef who could hold her own in today’s competition.”
“And now we have Mallea Dulip, an esteemed chef who has worked in many plaqued restaurants herself. Some of our competitors today have even worked under her and learned from her in the past. But don’t be mistaken in thinking that old relationship would give them an edge. She won’t remember them anyways.”
“But these three sitting there aren’t the only ones. We have two more up here on the stage with me who will also be participating in the judging as well. First is Xard Randex, who really has no experience, accolades, or knowledge of the culinary arts. But that’s an important perspective to have for these judgments, since everyday folk like him will be the most common patrons to their new restaurant.”
“And lastly, we have the proprietress of Mermaid’s Reef herself, Kada Susten. If you don’t make her happy, well your future here wouldn’t be long to begin with. Do you have anything to say to these chefs aspiring to serve under you?” Chorus presented the mic to Kada.
She put her hands on her hips just above her suit skirt and said with confidence, “If you serve me anything with mustard or pickles, you will never work here!”
“A good warning to avoid early pitfalls,” Chorus nodded. “More than I would have given them. Now then, before we get right to the competition, Kada and Xard here will be performing an opening act for us—a bit of culinary creativity to get us into the spirit of things.”
“These two were tasked with coming up with their own creative dishes. And we prompted them to try and include their own Curses if possible, so it would be something completely new, something only they can make. Obviously, it won’t become a regular dish that could be served here, but maybe it will inspire something along similar lines.”
“They’ve already prepared their dishes with only a few minor touches needed, so we’ll get right to presenting. Madam Susten, you’re up first!”
A staff member rolled out a cart in front of the judges and Kada walked over to it, pulling up the silver cloche covering her dish. “Dun duh duh dun! Here you go!”
“It’s… a meatball,” Phon was the first to comment, disappointment in her eyes.
“A very big meatball,” Drim was a bit more impressed. It was about the size of a zoneball.
“Impressively shaped,” Mallea admitted, noticing its perfect sphericalness. “But I have high doubts that it was properly cooked through unless you baked it for far more time than you had. Though, I suppose you could have cooked it as a flat patty and then used your Curse to shape it afterwards.”
“Wrong on all counts!” Kada lauded her own brilliance. “Except for you, Mallea, you’re on the right track. But you missed something fundamental. It’s not a meatball, but a Meat Bowl. Wacha!” she grabbed the giant knife on the tray and cleaved the ball in two.
Both halves of the meatball fell to either side, resting perfectly on the curve, sitting now as two proper bowls. It turned out that the meat layer wasn’t that thick at all, filled to the brim with steaming pasta that it now cradled, ready to eat.
“The idea is for it to be like a bread bowl,” the amateur chef explained. “Get some pasta on your fork then stab off a piece of meat at the end—eat the dish as you go! Fun and delicious. Eatertainment for the whole family!”
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Drim quickly gave a thumbs up after he was served his portion, stuffing his mouth, but that was more likely due to just being hungry than anything.
Mallea only took a single bite and then gave her review. “Hmm, I can understand the novelty of it. In fact, I may adapt it to something else, but as for a regular dish, it seems far more tedious than just making it conventionally. The flavor is better than I expected, and the sauce and cheese have melted together nicely. However, the pasta is a touch overcooked, most likely from being trapped in the meat with no ventilation. Undercook it a bit next time to account for that, and it will be much better.”
“It’s fine, Kada,” Phon at least took a few more bites due to her own hunger. “A little bland for my tastes, but you could easily serve a good family meal with this since it’s so big. Just needs a bit more seasoning, but you definitely get some points for creativity.”
Kada wiped away a big sweat of relief, far more nervous about the judging than she’d let on. At least she hadn’t been roasted over the pit. They probably took her lack of experience into account and were nicer than they’d be to a professional.
Xard was next, and an employee rolled out a rack and a cooler. Out of it, they pulled out a frozen chicken and hung it on the rack, suspending it in midair. It looked like the chicken was coated in some sort of icy sauce as well.
“This took a few tries in practice to get right and mostly just to keep it from exploding,” Xard admitted. “So apologies if it doesn’t go right the first time. We made a few backups just in case.” A second employee also set up a curved barrier behind the chicken.
The redhead walked up next to it and took a deep breath. He then wound his hand back and then thrust it forward—slapping the check with insane power. It was clear that he must have added extra energy with his Curse, and frozen sauce went spraying into the barrier, coating it but leaving an almost perfectly chicken-shaped spot that remained perfectly clean.
It took a second to fully realize what he’d done, but the sauce started to drip and steam began radiating off the chicken. A delicious smell filled the room. Xard had cooked the chicken entirely with a single slap. “I call it Kinetic Fried Chicken,” he introduced it with a smile.
“Wow, this is cooked through perfectly,” Mallea was the first to speak after it was served, clear surprise in her voice. “Obviously, you can’t add as much flavor or some breading since it would just fly right off, and you overcoated it in sauce originally to account for the loss. This leads to some inconsistency in the flavor and sauce, but it is extremely tender and just the right temperature. Unfortunately, it also doesn’t have that extra crisp from traditional roasting, but still, it’s a very impressive concept.”
“We'll definitely have to look into making some device that mimics a similar effect,” Phon insisted. “Bit bland, same problem as Kada’s, but it’s crazy how tender this is.”
“You have no idea how badly I wish I could cook something this fast when I was starving out in the wild,” Drim nodded in approval before diving into his second course.
“How creative and clever were those dishes?!” Chorus took focus in front of the camera right after and prompted the audience to applaud. “Fiends aren’t only for killing monsters after all. Who knows what industry they’ll revolutionize next, but these chefs have nothing to worry about for the time being. It’s time for them to strut their stuff. Let’s get cooking!”
Stagehands rolled out ten cooking stations onto the stage, already filled with ingredients and some prior preparations that had been allowed. Chefs then came out of the back, each taking their spot. There were a few mumbles from the audience, since a few of the chefs were well known enough to be recognized, but none that the Fiends knew. The only one that seemed to draw their attention more than the others was the Lesser among them.
The cooking started immediately while Chorus explained the rules. “This is a cooking gauntlet, and it’s up to the chefs to decide how they want to serve it up. There’s no time limit, so they can take as long as they need, but that alone might alter the outcome. If they take too long, the judges might get impatient, or if they present too early, they might be forgotten by the end.”
“They’ll be serving three courses, and it’s up to them as well if they want to serve each course as they’re ready, or present it all as one complete meal. We won’t be asking the judges for scores, but they’ll be taking notes and making comments. And once all dishes have been served, they’ll deliberate until we have a winner.”
It didn’t take long, barely a few minutes, until a chef overflowing with ego served the first dish. He didn’t even stick around to see the reaction, walking off with an already smug, self-satisfied smile.
“Something is off about this,” Phon noticed immediately as she prodded at the foliage.
“Is it supposed to dissolve in my mouth like this?” Xard tried it, and he garbled in confusion with liquid still in his mouth.
“I think I understand. How intriguing,” Mallea figured out the gimmick. “This isn’t a salad at all, but freeze-dried soup—a few different ones so they can have different colors.”
“Not sure that I care for it,” Drim said with reluctance. “My mouth is just too confused.”
“Yeah, I just melted mine back into soup in the bowl, and it’s much better,” Kada slurped hers down.
That caused the chef responsible to scowl a bit, but he took the hit on the chin and kept working. There was some time before the next dish was served, so Chorus went around interviewing the chefs. They mostly got short answers from those actually focusing, but a few took the time to stop and gussy up to the camera.