The Parisian Christmas Bake Off

by Jenny Oliver

  She swallowed. Tried not to laugh again and raised the glass in the air. ‘To the making love.’ She giggled.

  ‘Bon,’ said Marcel, draining his cup and ambling over to watch as she gulped hers down before sweeping her off her feet and carrying her through the alcove to the hard metal bed.

  Next morning she woke when the garbage truck hissed to a halt in the street below. Stretching languidly, she reached across to find an empty bed.

  ‘Marcel?’ she said, sitting up and glancing around the flat.

  Sensing something wasn’t quite right, she looked around for her phone but it wasn’t by the bed. Finally she found it still in her bag, alarm unset.

  ‘Shit.’ It was eight-thirty. She had thirty minutes to get across Paris to her class. Marcel was nowhere to be seen.

  Yanking on her clothes, she glanced outside to see a thick carpet of snow, the heaviest it had been since she’d arrived. People were pushing through it, heads down. Cars were stuck, kids were sliding up the pavements on invisible skateboards.

  ‘Shit.’ She pulled on her boots, hopping around on the floor, while trying to look in the mirror. Staring back at her was a white hung-over face, dishevelled hair she had no time to fix and eyes puffy from lack of sleep.

  It was only as she was flying down the stairs that it dawned on her Marcel had left her on purpose. That this was game-playing.

  What a fool! Hadn’t Lacey warned her on the first day?

  Clearly Marcel was trying to eliminate the competition by any means possible.

  ‘The little bastard.’ She paused, hand on the banister. She wouldn’t be surprised if he’d swapped Abby’s sugar for salt as well.

  Outside the freezing air hit her like cold water and her feet disappeared into the snow. Hauling her bike into the partially gritted road, swerving on the death-trap black ice, she cycled as fast as her frozen legs would pedal her. Wiping the snowy ice from her face as it fell, she pleaded with whoever was listening for her not to be late. She realised how much she not only wanted this, but now wanted to win.

  ‘Mum, if you’re listening,’ she said up to the foggy white sky, ‘help me. Please.’

  Chantal’s lilies were flopping around in her basket as she pedalled faster. She hadn’t wanted to leave them on the step and had been in too much of a hurry to unlock the door and put them inside, but now they were losing petals all over the place. She skidded on the ice and swerved in the thicker snow but as the time ticked away she seemed to be moving slower than ever. The weather was getting worse, the snow falling in heavier flakes so she couldn’t see, her tyres sliding in the slush.

  ‘Damn him,’ she said out loud. ‘Damn him.’ Exhausted, angry with Marcel but more so with herself for believing he thought her irresistible, she finally stopped when her tyre caught in a snowdrift. Hanging her head over the handlebars, she exhaled with great gulps of despair. Flashing images hit her of her mum serving warm pain au chocolat that oozed on the plate when torn open before church on Christmas day. Of the queues outside the bakery on Christmas Eve. Of what she thought her mum’s face might have looked like had she made it through another round, even to the final, maybe—just to beat Marcel! To know that she threw it all away for drunken sex that, from what she could remember, hadn’t even been that good.

  ‘Fuck it.’ Rachel yanked the bike free but like a stubborn donkey it wasn’t going anywhere. She was kicking it out of pure frustration when a car drew up next to her and the window slowly slid down.

  ‘The bicycle, it not your friend?’ Philippe leaned over to look out of the passenger window.

  Rachel stood back, pushing her hat back out of her eyes and patting the bike on the handlebars. ‘We’re having a slight disagreement.’

  He laughed. ‘You want a lift?’

  ‘I would love a lift.’ She smiled. Locking the bike to the nearest railing, she ran to get in the nicely heated car. ‘You’ve saved my life. I could kiss you.’

  As she said it he made a face, bemused, and the air suddenly seemed a little warmer.

  ‘Not actually kiss you, you know, it’s just—you know—an expression…of gratitude…’

  He kept his face forward, a smile now teasing the corners of his lips.

  ‘Oh, God.’ She ran a hand over her face and looked out of the window. ‘I’ll just shut up.’

  ‘You’re late today, no?’

  ‘Yes, I’m really late. Stupidly late.’

  ‘I’m having dinner with him tonight. I’ll put in a good word.’

  ‘I fear it might be too late by then.’ She checked her watch and sighed. Five minutes—there was no way they’d make it. Then she caught her reflection in the visor mirror and almost shocked herself with her dark puffy circles and glowing white face. She pulled her bobble hat lower.

  Philippe wove through the slow-moving traffic as she tapped her fingers on her knees, watching the minute hand tick by.

  ‘I know a short cut, don’t worry,’ he said, and then, yanking the wheel round, proceeded to drive the wrong way down two one-way streets, up a bus lane and down a cobbled path that she wasn’t convinced was made for cars.

  When they pulled up to the pâtisserie she was sitting rigid, clinging to her seat.

  ‘Et voilà, we are here.’

  She looked over at him in his clean-cut smart suit. ‘I’m not sure that could legally be called a short cut.’

  He laughed. ‘You’d better go. You’re ten minutes late.’

  ‘Thank you,’ she said, and reached over to give him a peck on the cheek. But just as she did he moved his head to look at her and she ended up awkwardly kissing him on the nose.

  ‘Oh.’ He pulled back.

  ‘Thanks,’ she said again, putting her head down to hide her blushing cheeks and, grabbing her bag, fled from the car.

  Chapter Ten

  ‘Ah, Ms Rachel, so you decided to join us.’ Chef was breaking an egg into a bowl, the yolk caught between his fingers.

  ‘I’m so sorry. It was the snow.’ She ran to her work station, uncurling her scarf and shaking the flakes off her hat.

  ‘Look around, everyone else managed to find their way here.’ He transferred the yolk to a separate dish while glaring at her. ‘I don’t like to be interrupted.’

  ‘I know, I’m sorry, it won’t happen again.’

  ‘So why let it happen in the first place?’ Chef spread his hands wide but was interrupted by a knock on the door.

  ‘Henri, a word.’ Philippe pushed it open and was standing in the hallway, beckoning for his brother to step out and join him.

  ‘Un moment.’ Chef paused mid-tirade, wiping his hands on a tea towel and marching off to join Philippe.

  Rachel shut her eyes and took a second to catch her breath.

  ‘Where have you been?’ Abby whispered.

  She waved her question away. Glancing over her shoulder, she saw Marcel sitting smugly, legs crossed, rolling an egg back and forth on his work surface, a wilted lily lying on the shelf with his pots and pans like a trophy.

  She was about to say something when Chef stormed back in. ‘OK, let’s get on with it.’

  ‘That’s it?’ Lacey hissed. ‘How do you get away with it?’

  Rachel didn’t look at her.

  ‘Today it is soufflé.’

  ‘Shit,’ she said under her breath. Rachel had never really made soufflé. She actively avoided making soufflé. She tried to concentrate extra hard on what Chef was doing but her mind wouldn’t focus—it was dancing back to Marcel and his traitorous ways. What a fool she had been.

  She couldn’t stop casting sideways glances in his direction, determined to make him feel uncomfortable but he wasn’t having any of it. Face impeccable, poised, concentrating on every word Chef said. Then she wondered what Philippe had said to stop his anger. And who that bauble was for…

  By the time she got round to listening, Chef was pulling a perfect, puffy blue cheese soufflé out of the oven. As everyone gasped at the beauty of it, he said, ‘You, this
afternoon, will prepare me and my brother a soufflé. Oui?’ Then he swept out of the room for a cigarette.

  Rachel didn’t go out for lunch; instead she walked down to the pâtisserie and picked out the largest chocolate eclair there was and rammed it into her mouth right there at the counter. Françoise was laughing because her mouth was so full.

  ‘J’ai faim,’ she said over the cream.

  ‘Very hungry.’ Françoise nodded. ‘Un café, aussi? Very tired too?’ she said, pointing to Rachel’s face.

  Rachel slumped down onto one of the stools. ‘Very tired.’

  Françoise made her an espresso and popped it down on the marble counter. The dim white milk-glass of the lights took any brightness out of the room, making it perfect for her hung-over eyes. She stared at the wall behind the pastries where there were postcards pinned along of places she assumed customers or friends had been. Perhaps she could run away somewhere hot, leave smug Marcel and the daunting soufflé behind. The high stool she was sitting on was squishy and comfy, the espresso bitter and sharp. Perhaps she could have a little nap—the cup clinked into the saucer as she sat back and shut her eyes but could still hear the clock ticking down the end of her lunch break, so she ended up just ordering another eclair.

  Soufflé-making was hard. Rachel had never understood them. Her mum had never understood them. Once baked, twice baked, what was the difference? And were they really baking, anyway?

  She was sticking to a really simple three cheese and spinach one with roasted cherry tomatoes and garlic on the side and perhaps a sprinkling of crushed rosemary. Lacey was doing a crab, lobster and clam soufflé with a prawn and fennel bisque on the side and a crispy garlic-infused baguette. George was doing cheese as well but was aiming to make it the highest in the group by fashioning a baking parchment sleeve that would force the mixture to keep growing to practically the height of the oven. Marcel—she didn’t even look at what he was doing. Ali had chosen raspberry rice-pudding soufflé with vanilla custard sauce, which he was planning very secretively, and Abby was doing a white chocolate and amaretto one with a sweet lemon and almond curd, which sounded delicious. Rachel gave her a thumbs up before they got started.

  As she separated her eggs she could feel the tiredness creeping into her body, and she was coming down fast off the eclair sugar rush. All her determination was seeping out of her in favour of crawling back into bed. But there was the fact that Philippe was tasting and she found herself wanting to impress him with her food.

  Ten minutes in George burnt his butter, which made the whole room smell sweet like cinema popcorn. Ali tipped his whisked egg whites above his head pretending that they might slip out all over him, and when she heard Marcel laugh she gave him a sneer. Then she went back to cutting through her beaten whites with a palette knife but all she seemed to be doing was making her mixture go from light and fluffy to flat and drab. It just seemed too heavy, but it was too late to start again. The smell of her cheese made her feel sick, as did Lacey’s bubbling prawn stock.

  Tearing her eyes from her solid-looking mixture as it tried to rise in the oven and switching off the grill as her tomatoes bubbled under the heat, Rachel wiped down her surface just praying that her mixture would puff up enough not to be an embarrassment. She only looked up when she saw Abby draw out a white-chocolate stunner. Smooth, fluffy and risen high like a chef’s hat, it was the most glorious-looking soufflé she’d ever seen. Dusted from up high with a snowy shower of icing sugar and sprinkled with slices of sugared lemon rind and circled with a vivid yellow curd sauce, it was a definite show-stopper.

  As she glanced across at Lacey’s individual crab towers that were quite pale and George’s burnt crust it was clear that Abby would be the day’s winner.

  Rachel hardly dared look at hers. Everyone else was putting the finishing touches to theirs. Ali was spooning his custard into a vintage blue and white Cornishware jug. George was looking dubiously at his very forlorn soufflé, blackened like a scorched Leaning Tower of Pisa. Sucking in a breath, she bent down and peeked through the glass of her oven.

  There it was—tall and puffy and risen like a skyscraper, with a tear round the edge where the cheese had pulled like crocodile teeth. She did a little clap. Then yanked the door open and drew out her beauty, bronzed on top and glistening with a deep glazed shine.

  ‘Wow,’ said Lacey before she could stop herself.

  Rachel could only nod, speechless that it had worked.

  Abby came round to look at it. ‘That’s amazing.’

  ‘I know, I can’t believe it.’

  They all stood round gazing at Rachel’s cheese tower.

  A knock on the door broke the reverie and as Chef went to answer it Rachel pulled off her oven gloves and, turning her back on her prize creation, went in search of a plate.

  Philippe walked in, wearing a black cashmere suit, and looked round the room till he spotted Rachel and smiled. She winked back and pointed triumphantly at her soufflé. He did a nod as if humouring her. She raised her eyebrows nodding more, to try and show him how much this risen soufflé meant to her. Even her mum had never been able to make them rise. There was a soufflé curse on her family that had now, finally, been lifted.

  Beaming, she looked down to put it on her flowery plate and saw to her horror that it was completely flattened. Dissolved of air and height like a burst balloon. A sunken mush of stringy cheese. An echo of her now deflated heart.

  ‘How?’ she whispered.

  Glancing around, she noticed that Lacey wouldn’t catch her eye. George was fussing with his disaster. Marcel was leaning back against the counter, one brow raised. She made a perplexed face at Abby but she looked down, away from her.

  Was it Rachel’s imagination or were her cheeks flushed?

  ‘And now we taste.’ Chef clapped his hands together and he and Philippe strode forward.

  Rachel stared in horror at her sunken mess.

  Lacey’s, of course, tasted bloody marvellous. Her bisque, Philippe thought, divine. Ali’s left them silent; beneath the fluffy top was a cloying mass of sticky rice and raspberry jam that fell from their spoons like baby sick.

  Chef snorted when he got to Rachel’s. ‘Oh, dear, oh, dear.’

  Hands clasped behind her back, she looked down, refusing to see the look of sympathy on Philippe’s face. ‘I don’t know what happened. It had risen when I got it out.’

  ‘A likely story, Flower Girl.’ Chef grinned and stabbed one edge with his fork, beckoning for Philippe to do the same. ‘If you can bear it,’ he added.

  It was only when Philippe dug his fork in that Rachel saw it—the slice. A cut the size of a Sabatier knife, stabbed into her right-hand side.

  She gasped. Someone had murdered her soufflé.

  ‘It is delicious,’ said Philippe, surprised.

  ‘Mais oui, the girl, she can cook. She is simply a disaster.’ Chef licked the last string of cheese off his fork and they walked over to Marcel.

  ‘Delicious,’ Philippe said again before leaving, but Rachel could only nod, distracted.

  She looked round the room again and she tried to get Abby to look at her so she could mouth what had happened but she wouldn’t.

  ‘Abby,’ she muttered in the end, but Abby bent down to rummage on her shelf.

  And that was when Rachel saw the missing slot on her knife roll. The twelve-inch blade empty. Probably in Abby’s sink, slimy with congealed parmesan and Gruyère.

  ‘You!’ she whispered.

  Abby looked back at her this time, but did a face of pleading innocence before turning away as the men appeared at her station and rhapsodised over her white-chocolate creation.

  Rachel stayed in the competition by the skin of her teeth. Luck was on her side as Ali’s and George’s were both dreadful.

  Ali stormed out refusing to talk to anyone after he was dismissed. George stayed and cleared up his table. ‘Oh, well.’ He shrugged. ‘Back to my little business. Dreams of stardom over. Too old anyway.’
>
  Rachel watched his back as he walked over to the coat stand and pulled on his tweed blazer followed by his Peter Storm cagoule.

  She wanted to stop him and say it was unfair. That there had been sabotage and cheating. ‘You’re not too old, George,’ she said instead.

  ‘You’re very sweet. It was enough for me. I’ve reached my limit. It’s hotting up. If it had been anyone else I’d have said, no, it’s time for me to go. I can feel it.’ He smiled. ‘And you, young lady, need to pull yourself together. You’re at the end of your nine lives. You hear me?’

  She nodded.

  ‘Good.’ He pulled on his flat cap. ‘I expect you to win.’

  Chapter Eleven

  There were no drinks in the bar that night.

  Marcel sloped off almost as soon as Chef left. Abby seemed to be absorbed in a task that prevented her from leaving. Rachel grabbed her bag, pulled on her hat and mittens and stalked out. In the corridor she passed Lacey, who was tapping into her mobile over her bifocals. Neither acknowledged the other. It was competition now. War.

  Rachel took a couple of paces outside and then ducked into an alley and waited. The snow was like a sheet shaken from a balcony—a wall of white coating cars in foot-deep white. Kids were pulling sledges down the street while businessmen slipped in leather shoes.

  She blew on her hands, white misty breath in the freezing air, and listened to the accordion music drifting out of the pâtisserie as it closed.

  When she heard familiar footsteps Rachel stepped out onto the cobbled pavement and said, ‘Why did you do it?’

  Abby hoisted her bag further up on her shoulder. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’

  ‘Yes, you do. You sabotaged my soufflé. Why would you do that? After I saved you yesterday.’

  ‘Oh, yeah, great, you saved me. Aren’t you a star? I heard what he said, Rachel. When he called you back. I waited in the doorway. All good bakers have a signature.’