Chapter 2: The Importance Of An Egg

Matt wanted to keep his kitchen immaculate, so Walt and Vessa were both instructed to clean themselves before their training could begin. Tesia and Matt directed them to the bathroom in the restaurant building. The bathroom had a sink with a mirror in front of it, a flushable toilet, and a shower with glass walls and door. Since the kids were dirty as well, they joined their parents.

Matt provided the family with a change of clothes. When asked where he got the clothes from, Matt just replied that they were the clothes of a friend who stayed over. The family cleaned themselves in the shower with the various soaps and gels that were in the shower. They dressed themselves in the new clothes and tossed their dirty clothes into a laundry hamper.

With their fatigue washed away, the family came back into the dining room where they saw Tesia cleaning the mud they brought in with a mop.

"We're so sorry for the mess," Vessa apologized.

"It's raining out," Tesia pointed out. "Mud is likely to come in from anyone outside. I'm just finishing anyway." She lifted her mop up and place it into a bucket on wheels. "All done. Why don't you follow? You'll need to know these things."

"What about our kids?" Walt asked.

"Oh, right! Darling!"

"Yeah, Tess?" Matt called out through the kitchen.

"Do you have something to keep the kids entertained while we train Walt and Vessa?"

"Yeah. Just a moment."

Some shuffling noise was heard from the kitchen for a minute. Matt walked out with two books in one hand and two small boxes in another. He gestured towards a table and the kids sat down at it. Matt placed one book and box in front of each kid.

"These are coloring books," Matt explain. "And the box contains crayons. A sort of wax-based chalk. With these books, they are full of drawings without any colour. Use the crayons to fill in the drawings. Be creative."

The kids opened up the books and saw many pictures of dragons, warriors, animals, and landscapes.

"Wow!" Delila said as she scanned through the book. "So pretty!"

"Thank you so much, Mister McDonald," Ritch said.

Tesia rolled the bucket towards a door. She opened it up to a small closet filled with bottles and cleaning tools.

"This closet is where we keep most of our cleaning supplies," Tesia said to Vessa. "I'll go over everything in here later, Vessa. For now we'll give you all a tour of our establishment. My husband and I live upstairs, so you don't need to concern yourselves with the stairs." Tesia gestured to a door on the far side of the dining area. "That door leads to the bar area of the restaurant. We don't have a bartender yet, but he have sent out messages to a bunch of ours friends who might be interested in working here. We're hoping to hear something soon and get more people working here."

"Oh..." Walt muttered.

"You're not temp hires," Matt quickly assured them. "These people will fill the many roles that this restaurant requires.We might have several more people come here. We don't know yet. We haven't spoken to them in about half a year so they might be doing their own thing now."

Walt and Vessa breathed a sigh of relief.

"Please follow us into the kitchen," Matt said.

Walt and Vessa follow Matt and Tesia into the kitchen.

"Whoa..." Walt muttered.

The kitchen walls and ceiling were white and, like the dining area, the kitchen was lit by non-flame lights. The floors were covered in black tiles and every piece of equipment in the kitchen was made from an extremely shiny metal. Different pots and pans hung from hooks above the stove tops. At least a dozen cooking utensils hung along side the pots and pans. There were at least half a dozen knife holders placed across the counters.

"My artist studio," Matthew jokingly called it. "This is where I create my magic. Figuratively speaking. Every tool a cook needs." Matt stood in the middle of the sizable kitchen. "Stoves, ovens, oven drawers, sinks, fryers, blenders, mixers, food processors, ranges, prep area, freezers, refrigerators, and so on. The best cooking equipment in the world is in this kitchen."

"I don't know half the things you just said," Walt admitted.

"Don't worry," Matt assured him. "I trained for four years to be a chef. You are in no rush. I will teach you everything I know."

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"What is everything made from?" Vessa asked. "It's metal, but I've never seen metal like this."

"It's a special metal called stainless steel," Tesia replied. "It's resistant to rusting and it is extremely easy to clean."

"Where did you get all this stuff from? I've never seen any cooking equipment like this."

"Ah! Uh..." Matt blurted out. "It's from my homeland. Very far away country. You've probably never heard of it."

"I would like to see it some day," Walt said.

"Not likely," Matt mumbled under his breath. "I want to show you all something." He gestured towards a large steel door. Matt opened the door to reveal a cold room filled with shelves. "This is the area I keep all my ingredients and food. I have a system for organizing all the food in here which I will teach you. For now, know there is one rule above all else. Raw meat on bottom shelves only! I don't want to risk cross-contamination in the off-chance that anything leaks."

"O-Okay," Walt replied.

"Finally, we have the freezer," Matt said as he pointed to the door in the back of the room. "Originally, I was going to have this door beside the refrigerator, but I realized that I can save more energy by having the door inside this room. I store desert items and such in there so it's not too big."

"So these are the most important areas of the restaurant," Tesia continued. "We have an employee washroom on the other side of the kitchen and the customer washroom is in the back of the restaurant."

"Now I'm guessing you're eager to learn a thing or two about cooking," Matt said. He grabbed a container from one of the shelves. "Just like me, I will start you off on the basics."

Everyone left the refrigerator room and closed the door behind them. Tesia, Vessa, and Walt followed Matt to one of the counters.

"Vessa, I want you to listen to this as well," Tesia said. "As a server, you'll need to memorize every meal that comes out of this kitchen, and a basic understanding what it consists of."

"What is the most complicated dish you ever made?" Matt asked both Walt and Vessa.

"Oh, uh, stew?" Walt hesitantly answered.

"What did you put into that stew?"

"Potatoes, beef, carrots, salt, and some mushrooms."

"Now why did you put those ingredients into the stew?"

"Because it tasted good?"

"Simply, yes. A person can go through their whole lives, just adding ingredients to a dish because it was delicious or because they got a recipe. As a cook, you need to know why each ingredient is added to a dish. How each ingredient affects a dish."

Matt opened the carton he took from the refrigerator. Inside were a dozen white-shell eggs.

"I present: The egg. A simple yet complicated ingredient. An egg will add flavour, colour, moisture and structure to the food it is added to. Not just that, but the egg white will have a different effect on a dish than the yolk."

"Really?" Vessa muttered.

"Oh, yes. Like in baking, the yolk adds fat. The egg white gives structure. Cakes and cookies are a great example of an egg's affect on food. Adding yolk to a cake will increase it's fluffiness, but add too many and the cake will become rubbery. For cookies, adding whites will make them softer. And forget about being an ingredient. An egg itself can provide an almost unlimited selection of meals. Each one has a different flavour. The egg is always the best first step to learning how to cook. My teacher always said, 'if you can cook an egg, you can cook'. Allow me to demonstrate three completely different dishes with just an egg. Tess, can you grab me two pots and fill both of them a third with water?"

"Sure thing!" Tesia cheerfully said.

Matt and Tesia walked over to the other side of the kitchen. Matt grabbed the small hanging pan that hung from above, while Tesia grabbed two pots and filled both with water like instructed. They placed the pots and pan on top of the stove. Matt turned each burner to a medium heat.

"Stainless steel pots and pan with a copper core," Matt said. "Excellent for an even distribution of heat."

Matt placed a whole egg into one of the pots of water. He then grabbed a dish of butter and sliced off a piece of it and then tossed it into the pan. The butter slowly melted into the pan. In the final pot, Matt took a bottle of vinegar and poured out a couple of teaspoons that went into the pot.

Matt cracked an egg into the pan and one egg into the pot of water. The egg white quickly turn opaque. Walt and Vessa watched closely as the three eggs cooked. Matt flipped the frying egg and then sprinkled salt and pepper on it. After several moments, he scooped the egg up with his spatula and place the egg on a small plate.

"Try this fried egg, over easy," Matt presented. "There's forks and knives in that drawer."

Walt and Vessa got their utensils and cut the egg in quarters. The yolk spread across the plate. They each took a bite and let out a pleased moan.

Matt covered the pot, with the whole egg in it, with its lid and then took it off of the heat. He then took a strainer spoon and lifted the other egg out of the water and placed it on another plate.

"This is poached-style egg," Matt announced.

Walt and Vessa ate the egg. Despite just it being an egg, this method of cooking made it taste much more differently than the fried egg.

Matt lifted the lid off of the other pot and lifted the egg out with a spoon. He tapped it several times and then peeled the egg's shell off.

"One of my favourite styles. Hard-boiled. What's great is that in this form, you can slice it up and add it to a salad, or you can mash it up and add a few condiments and make egg salad sandwiches, among other things."

"I didn't realize cooking could be this complex," Walt said.

"Cooking is an art. It requires precision, patience and heart. Under my tutelage, you will know all of this. Hmm... Come to think of it... Your kids, did they go to school before you left your town?"

"We never could afford it," Vessa said. "So the twins helped us around the farm."

"Ah," Tesia muttered out. "Well, this city has a lovely school for children. It paid through city taxes so they can attend for free. They would do much better there where they can make some friends."

Tears came to Walt's and Vessa's eyes when they heard the news. Walt hugged Matt and Vessa hugged Tesia.

"Thank you so much," Vessa cried out. "We thought our lives were ruined when those bandits came to our town. You both have done so much for us."

Matt awkwardly patted Walt on the back.

"It's... no problem," Matt said. "Really..."

Walt and Vessa released the two and wiped away their tears.

"There is much I still need to teach and as long as we don't have any customers, we're going to spend every moment going over each of my dishes until you memorize each of their ingredients and measurements."