Kevin started with a very basic dough for noodles he was planning. Eggs, flour, milk, salt. He kneaded the dough for a while, rolled it through the rollers, and set it aside in the bowl he had been working in, sprinkling a bit of extra flour on top.

He’d made dough like this before, but after waving around [The Spoon of Perfect Seasoning], held been able to dial in exactly how much salt and flour to add. Some of his preparation for the noodles and the dish could differ from how he’d made them on Earth, since this kitchen had a handful of magical tools, including one that could help with aging ingredients or letting dough rest longer within a shorter period of time.

Then, he began preparing some of the ingredients for the sauce he was planning. He also water on a burner to boil and heated a pan with a bit of oil on the burner in front of him. The burners in the kitchen were not powered by electricity or propane but were fueled by fire magic. One reason why this world was slow to incorporate mundane technologies was that many modern conveniences Kevin usually associated with technology could actually be accomplished with magic instead.

As the oil and water heated, Kevin removed raw chicken from a cooler and seasoned it with a combination of herbs and spices, some of which he was not familiar with. His new world didn't always have the exact same herbs as back on Earth; however, there was a larger variety in the kitchen than Kevin was accustomed to. He would have been lost without help from [The Spoon of Perfect Seasoning]. Once he actually started choosing spices to use, the spoon would alert him if he should add another.

Every once in a while, as long as he physically held the spoon in his hand, he would get bursts of inspiration and just know things that he otherwise wouldn't have understood, too. In fact, even smelling a hint of a new herb would tell him whether or not it was a good fit for what he was making.

Kevin got out another pan and carefully measured out three cups of milk. The initial measurement itself wasn't important for the end result since he was making everything on the fly, but he figured that if it turned out well, it might be a good starting point for the future too.

Now that he had everything he needed on their respective heating elements, he began making noodles out of the dough he had crafted. That didn't actually take long. The roller, originally meant to crush vegetables or fruit, was strong and the gap between the two rollers, though intended to only let pulp through, was not too thin for the noodles Kevin envisioned.

Once he had the sheets of dough all thinned out, longer and thinner than he would normally imagine such a thing would be in a real kitchen, he began to manually cut the noodles.

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Luckily,the cutting didn't take long because even though Kevin was not an accomplished chef in any point of his past life, his weapons skills over several lifetimes meant that he had a steady hand with the knife. His knife work wasn’t blazing fast, but it was solid. The noodles were finished right around the time his oil was ready, which was ideal.

Kevin carefully laid the chicken in the oil after he had cut and butterflied it to a consistent thickness. He didn't leave it in for too long, just long enough to make it brown and crispy on both sides. It was not completely finished when he pulled the chicken out of the pan, placed it on a baking pan, and put it in the oven. He didn't want to overcook the chicken.

At this point, Kevin realized that the three Elves who worked in the kitchen, including Piney Scent–were behind him, all watching from different locations. The two line cooks had different expressions—one showing curiosity and the other skepticism—while the chef had a completely neutral expression. She seemed to be watching everything Kevin did.

He turned back to his work with a mental shrug and decided to ignore them. If they wanted to watch, they could. What he was doing right now was for himself.

Now that the chicken was in the oven, he mentally began counting the time as he started to work on his sauce, folding the different ingredients together. He started by checking the cheeses and verifying yet again that the cheese he had found was close enough to mozzarella to work. That was really what had started him on this particular dish to begin with.

The sauce he created was simple, but thanks to the [Spoon of Perfect Seasoning], he was able to increase the ingredients bit by bit until he knew with certainty that it was the perfect amount. He continued this process until the sauce was ready to sit for a while.

Then he checked his water and saw that it was at a nice rolling boil. Kevin added salt and a little bit of oil so that the noodles wouldn't stick before he began cooking them. He found a wire basket and prepared it next to the sink for when the noodles were done. Then he pulled his chicken out of the oven and set it to one side, letting it cool on the counter where he could keep an eye on it. He made a few last-minute touches to the sauce before carefully transferring the chicken to a cutting board with a spatula and then artfully cutting the protein into the perfect size strips.

He had timed everything to come together correctly, more out of luck than skill. The noodles were just about done, the chicken was done, and the sauce was almost done as well. Kevin waited until it looked like the noodles were properly cooked before taking the pan off of the heating element and pouring the noodles into the wire basket to drain them. Then he ran cold water over them to stop them from cooking. After that, it was merely a matter of combining all the parts properly and plating.

When he was done, he had his own version of Kevin-Made, Magic World Chicken Alfredo Pasta. Kevin took the first bite and closed his eyes in satisfaction—it was delicious. At the same time, a system window popped up, and he opened his eyes in surprise as the window clearly showed that he had earned another point towards unlocking his spoon.

Absently, he took another bite of his hot, delicious pasta when suddenly one of the line cooks, Polished Stone, a relatively young male elf, quietly asked, "Could I try some of that? It smells different than anything I've ever seen."

Kevin nodded. "Sure." He grabbed a different fork from the utensils cabinet and plated out three small portions of the rather large dish he had just created. Then he handed them to all three of the elves in the kitchen. When Piney Scent tried hers, she shook her head softly, quirked a strange smile at Kevin, and said, "Okay, fine, I concede defeat on this one."

With a confused expression, Kevin asked, "Defeat? What do you mean? I wasn't fighting with you."

The two other elves began to chuckle, and after a moment, Piney Scent joined in too. Kevin felt nothing but confusion as all three elves continued to laugh as they ate their pasta, and none of them explained the joke to Kevin.

I think Elves might be crazy, he thought.