Cooking Camp Disaster

by Carolyn Keene

  “Yes, Chef,” Rosemary said, scurrying away.

  A moment later, she was back. “It’s not there,” she announced. “The bottle is missing!”

  • • •

  “This is two days in a row of weird stuff going on,” Nancy said to George and Bess in a low voice. “Today it was the red pepper flakes. And yesterday, George, someone switched your salt and sugar jars.”

  The three girls were making a second batch of pizzas along with the other campers. The first batch had to be thrown out because they all had red pepper flakes on them.

  “How do you know someone switched my jars?” George said as she arranged pineapple slices on her rolled-out pizza dough. “Chef Giorgio thought Rosemary probably just mixed up the labels by accident.”

  “Maybe. I noticed something funny, though,” Nancy piped up. “The labels on your jars had these little red smudges on them.”

  “Really? What were they?” Bess said.

  “I’m not sure. Mine didn’t have them, and neither did yours, Bess.” Nancy glanced around the kitchen. “We should look around and see if anyone else’s labels have those smudges.”

  “Um, are you guys discussing your mystery?” Talisha said suddenly. She was shredding cheese at her workstation, to the right of Nancy’s. She seemed to be having a hard time; the cheese was spilling everywhere. “Did you solve it yet?”

  “Not exactly,” Nancy said. “We’re not sure if there is a mystery.”

  “I heard you talking about those red smudges. Maybe they’re fingerprints?” Talisha suggested.

  “Hmm, maybe,” Nancy said.

  “But why would they be red?” George pointed out.

  “Because, um . . . hey, where did it go?” Talisha said, glancing around.

  “Where did what go, Talisha?” Bess asked her.

  “Chef Giorgio! Chef Giorgio!”

  Nancy glanced up at the commotion. Cristin was waving her hand wildly and trying to get Chef Giorgio’s attention.

  Chef Giorgio was showing Dev how to chop mushrooms. “What is it, Cristin?” he called out.

  “I know who put the red pepper flakes on our pizzas,” Cristin announced. “It was my sister, Chloe!”

  The First Suspects

  Chloe gasped. “Wh-what? I did not put red pepper flakes on everyone’s pizzas!” she stammered.

  “You did too! I have proof!” Cristin insisted.

  “What proof?” Chef Giorgio demanded.

  Cristin marched over to the row of backpacks hanging on the wall. Most of the backpacks had their owners’ names or initials on them: DK, TNE, Dylan Wong, Jeremy, and so forth.

  Cristin pointed to a pink backpack with Chloe’s name on it. A small plastic bottle was sticking out of a side pocket. The bottle had a red cap.

  Chef Giorgio walked over to the backpack and pulled out the bottle. “Red pepper flakes,” he said gravely. “Chloe, what is the meaning of this?”

  “But . . . but . . . I didn’t put that there,” Chloe blurted out. “I’m innocent!”

  “Well, if you didn’t put it there, then how did it get there?” Chef Giorgio pointed out. “It seems we have a mystery on our hands.”

  Dev whispered something in Dylan’s ear, and the two boys cracked up. Nancy frowned. Did they put the red pepper flakes in Chloe’s backpack?

  • • •

  “Who needs a snack?” Hannah said merrily. She balanced a tray in her hands as she walked into Nancy’s room.

  “I’m superfull from camp!” Nancy said, patting her stomach.

  “Me too,” George added.

  “Well . . . maybe just a tiny snack,” Bess said with a grin.

  Hannah set the tray down on the desk and left. It was late Tuesday afternoon, and the three girls were hanging out at Nancy’s house. They had decided it would be a good idea to have an official Clue Crew meeting to discuss what was going on at camp. Nancy’s puppy, Chocolate Chip, was curled up on the bed, taking a nap.

  Nancy got her special detective notebook out of her desk drawer. George booted up Nancy’s computer. Nancy liked to write down clues and suspects in the notebook while George typed up the information.

  “Okay, let’s start with suspects,” Nancy said, uncapping her pen. “Who could have switched George’s salt and sugar labels? And ruined everyone’s pizzas?”

  “Jeremy!” George said immediately. “J-E-R-E-M-Y,” she spelled out loud as she typed. “He really wants to win Best Chef. Maybe he’s worried I’ll beat him, so he decided to destroy my peppermint brownies.”

  “What about Dev and Dylan?” Bess said, grabbing a fistful of popcorn from the tray. “They did that dumb thing with the blender yesterday. They’re really into pranks!”

  Nancy wrote down the three boys’ names. “I guess we should add Chloe, too, because of the red pepper flakes,” she mused. “The thing is . . . whoever put the red pepper flakes on the pizzas probably did it while we were outside picking basil and stuff, right?”

  “Right,” George agreed.

  “That’s the problem. Chloe was with us that whole time. I know, because she and I were talking,” Nancy said.

  “Oh! That is a problem.” George looked thoughtful. “I remember that a few kids stayed inside to go to the bathroom. They came outside a few minutes after everyone else.”

  “Enough time to sprinkle red pepper flakes on everyone’s pizzas?” Bess said.

  “Maybe. So who went to the bathroom?” Nancy scrunched up her face, trying to remember. “Jeremy . . . and Talisha . . .”

  “And Cristin. Oh, and Rosemary, too,” George said, typing.

  “But the red pepper flakes bottle was in Chloe’s backpack,” Nancy said. “Unless someone put it in there to make Chloe look guilty?”

  While George entered everything on the computer, Nancy read over what she’d written in her notebook so far:

  SUSPECTS

  Jeremy: He wants to win the Best Chef prize. He went to the bathroom for a few minutes while everyone was outside picking herbs. So he had time to put red pepper flakes on the pizzas.

  Dev and Dylan: They like to pull pranks and break rules. BUT they were outside picking herbs. So they didn’t have time to put red pepper flakes on the pizzas.

  Chloe: The bottle of red pepper flakes was in her backpack. BUT she was outside picking herbs the whole time too.

  Nancy glanced up from the notebook. “What about clues?” she said. “There’s the bottle of red pepper flakes in Chloe’s backpack. Plus, there’s the weird red smudges on your salt and sugar jars, George.”

  “They weren’t on anyone else’s jars,” George said. “I went around and checked this morning.”

  “Hmm. That’s good to know!” Nancy picked up her pen again and wrote:

  CLUES

  The bottle of red pepper flakes was in Chloe’s backpack.

  The “Salt” and “Sugar” labels on George’s jars were switched. They were kind of crooked. And they had little red smudge marks on them.

  Nancy nibbled on her pen. What if the two incidents weren’t even related? What if one person messed up George’s peppermint brownies and another person messed up all the pizzas?

  Maybe the Clue Crew had two culprits to catch.

  The Clueless Crew?

  “The trick to decorating a cake is planning in advance,” Chef Giorgio said. “Decide what you’re going to put on your cake first. Make a little drawing, even. Arrange all your ingredients: icing, powdered sugar, little candies, cut-up fruit, edible flowers, and so forth. Then . . . decorate!”

  It was Wednesday morning, and Chef Giorgio was teaching the campers how to decorate a cake. He and Rosemary had baked a bunch of round yellow cakes the night before. Now it was up to the kids to add the finishing touches.

  Nancy had decided to decorate her cake with an ocean theme. Following Chef Giorgio’s advice, she first drew a picture of sea creatures such as dolphins, jellyfish, sharks, and whales. She added a background of blue water as well as coral, seashells, and seaweed.<
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  George was going to decorate her cake with a soccer theme. Bess’s theme was ballet.

  “Ugh! This is hard!”

  Nancy glanced to her right. Talisha seemed to be having a tough time with her cake. She was trying to make a swirly design with a tube of red icing. But the icing was splattering this way and that. Her workstation was a big red mess!

  “Maybe you’re squeezing the tube too hard?” Nancy said gently.

  “This is so not fun,” Talisha moaned.

  Rosemary came up to Talisha, wiping her hands on her apron. “I can help you with that! Don’t worry about making it perfect. I used to be superawkward with cake decorating too. It just takes a little practice.”

  “No, Rosemary, you still don’t know how to do it properly. I will help Talisha. You can go wash up those dishes in the sink,” Chef Giorgio interrupted.

  Rosemary hung her head. “Yes, Chef,” she mumbled.

  Nancy wondered why Chef Giorgio was always mean to Rosemary. He was so nice to everyone else.

  Nancy turned her attention back to her cake. It was almost done; she just had a couple of fish to “draw” with icing.

  As she worked, she glanced around the kitchen. She wished she could figure out who was responsible for George’s salty peppermint brownies as well as the superspicy pizzas. So far, the Clue Crew had four suspects on their list: Jeremy, Dev, Dylan, and Chloe. Nancy really wanted to talk to all of them as soon as possible and try to get more information from them.

  She noticed that Jeremy was checking out her cake from across the island.

  “Hmm, not bad,” he called out. “It’s better than George’s or Bess’s. It’s still not as good as mine, though. I’m definitely going to win Best Chef on Friday!”

  Jeremy’s cake had a space theme. It had stars, moons, planets, and rockets on it, and a scary-looking alien, too.

  “Well, at least I don’t have to cheat to win,” George snapped at Jeremy.

  “Cheat? What are you talking about?” Jeremy asked her.

  “You switched my salt and sugar jars so my peppermint brownies would be supersalty. And I bet you put red pepper flakes on everyone’s pizzas, too!” George blurted out.

  “The Clue Crew is on the case. If you’re guilty, we’ll catch you!” Bess added.

  “The Clue what?” Jeremy said.

  “The Clue Crew. Nancy and George and I solve mysteries,” Bess explained huffily.

  Jeremy pushed his glasses up his nose. “I don’t need to cheat to win Best Chef,” he said with a mean smile. “Besides, even if I did cheat, I’m too smart to be caught by you, Clueless Crew!”

  • • •

  After a picnic lunch outside in the warm summer sun, everyone met back in the kitchen to finish decorating their cakes. Nancy and Bess were done before everyone else. They began putting their unused ingredients back in the big refrigerator in the corner of the room.

  They passed Cristin’s and Chloe’s workstations. As usual, the two sisters were arguing.

  “Your cake looks like messed-up spaghetti!” Cristin said to Chloe.

  “Well, your cake looks like yucky garbage!” Chloe shot back.

  Nancy and Bess exchanged a glance. Nancy was about to say something when she heard a voice calling out to them. “Hey, you! Uh, Crew Cuts! Over here!”

  Dev was waving to them. He and Dylan were decorating a cake together.

  Nancy and Bess walked over to their workstation. “We’re not the Crew Cuts. We’re the Clue Crew. What do you want?” Bess asked them, sounding annoyed.

  “We need your help,” Dylan said, handing Bess a measuring cup. “Could you pour this into the middle of our cake? Dev and I have to pour powdered sugar and chocolate chips on the cake at the exact same time. So, uh, we need a third person.”

  Nancy peered curiously at the measuring cup. It had some sort of clear liquid in it. It had a strong, strange smell. But she couldn’t figure out what it was. Chef Giorgio paused at the workstation, then moved on to Talisha’s.

  Nancy’s gaze fell on the cake. It was different from the cakes all the other campers were working on. For one thing, it wasn’t small and round. It was tall and kind of cone-shaped, with a hole on top.

  Bess took the measuring cup from Dylan and started to tip it over the cake.

  “No, Bess! Stop!” Nancy cried out suddenly.

  The Almost-Exploding Volcano Cake

  Bess jerked back, nearly dropping the measuring cup. But fortunately the liquid didn’t spill onto the cake.

  “Wh-why did you tell me to stop, Nancy?” Bess stammered.

  “That’s not a cake. It’s a baking-soda volcano!” Nancy explained. “Remember? Someone made one of those for the school science fair last year. The measuring cup has vinegar in it. If you pour it into the volcano, it mixes with the baking soda inside and start bubbling and erupting like crazy!”

  Bess’s eyes grew enormous. “Oh my gosh! You’re right!”

  Dev and Dylan cracked up.

  Bess glared at the two boys. “Yeah, very funny! It’s almost as funny as the other dumb stuff you did. Like destroying George’s peppermint brownies and everyone’s pizzas!”

  “Huh? We totally didn’t do that stuff,” Dev said.

  “Yeah, but I wish we did!” Dylan added.

  Nancy regarded them suspiciously. “Where did this volcano come from?” she asked them.

  “We made it at Dylan’s house last night and brought it in this morning,” Dev said. “We thought it would be a superfunny prank!”

  Nancy glanced across the kitchen. Chef Giorgio was busy helping Talisha with her cake. He didn’t seem to notice what was going on at Dev and Dylan’s workstation.

  Chef Giorgio had told Dev and Dylan on Monday that if they continued with their bad behavior, they would have to leave the camp. She wondered if she and Bess should tell Chef Giorgio about the volcano, or if they should give the boys another chance.

  Because if Dev and Dylan left the camp, and if it turned out they were responsible for messing up the brownies and pizzas, the Clue Crew would never know!

  • • •

  “Are you girls ready to go?” Hannah said.

  Camp was over for the day, and Hannah was waiting outside the front door. She had promised to take Nancy, George, and Bess to the mall and then home to the Drews’ house for make-your-own-taco night.

  “Hi, Hannah! We’re ready!” Nancy adjusted her backpack on her shoulder and rushed up to Hannah, hugging her. She wiped a bead of sweat from her brow. Although it was late in the day, it was blazing hot outside. Even the herbs in the herb garden looked a little wilted from the heat.

  “That Jeremy is so guilty. We’re this close to catching him!” George grumbled to Bess as they caught up to Nancy and Hannah.

  “Yeah, but what about Dev and Dylan? That volcano trick was definitely not cool,” Bess complained.

  “Yeah, but I think Jeremy is the one who—wait, where’s my backpack?” George stopped in her tracks and glanced around, frowning. “Sorry, guys. I think I forgot it inside.”

  “Let’s all go in. I could use a drink of water, anyway,” Hannah said.

  The four of them headed back into the building. The other campers had already left with their parents and babysitters. Nancy knew that Rosemary was still around, though; she’d seen her just a few minutes ago. She wasn’t sure about Chef Giorgio.

  Nancy led the way to the kitchen. She paused at the doorway; she could see George’s backpack across the room, hanging on its usual hook.

  Then she saw something else—something odd. She put her finger to her lips, indicating to George, Bess, and Hannah that they should be quiet.

  Rosemary was standing at the island, her back to the door. On the counter in front of her were the campers’ decorated cakes: nine in all.

  Rosemary was holding a tube of icing over one of the cakes. Nancy leaned forward to get a better look. Was Rosemary about to mess up that cake?

  Could she be the culprit?


  Too Many Suspects

  “What’s going on?” George whispered to Nancy.

  Nancy pointed to Rosemary, who was still holding the icing tube over the cake. She was muttering softly to herself and making swirly patterns in the air, above the cake.

  “Maybe she’s the one who’s been messing everything up,” Nancy whispered back. “It kind of makes sense. Chef Giorgio’s pretty mean to her. What if she’s trying to get back at him?”

  “Yes! And we can prove it!” Bess pointed out.

  “How?” Hannah piped up. “My goodness, this is very exciting! I’m at the crime scene! That’s what you detectives call it, right? Or is it ‘the scene of the crime’?”

  Bess didn’t answer Hannah, but instead marched boldly into the kitchen. “Aha!” she announced to Rosemary. “We caught you red-handed! You’re our criminal!”

  Rosemary whirled around. She dropped the icing tube on the floor. “Wh-what? What are you talking about?” she stammered.

  “You were just about to destroy somebody’s cake!” Bess went on. “What’s in that tube? Red pepper flakes? You’re the one who ruined George’s peppermint brownies Monday, aren’t you? And all our pizzas yesterday?”

  “What? No!” Rosemary bent down and picked up the icing tube from the floor. “This is Talisha’s cake. I wasn’t about to destroy it! I wasn’t even decorating it; I was just pretending to.”

  “Why would you do that?” Nancy asked her.

  “Because Chef Giorgio never lets me cook!” Rosemary said, pouting. “I took this job so I could become a celebrity chef someday. I thought this would be a good place for me to learn how to cook. But Chef Giorgio makes me wash dishes and mop floors and stuff all the time. He only hired me because my aunt Petunia is BFFs with his mom, and his mom convinced him to give me a job. He doesn’t like me!”

  “Why not?” George said.

  Rosemary shrugged. “I don’t know! He says I’m incompetent. Like, I don’t know what I’m doing. But I do know what I’m doing. It’s just that he makes me so nervous that I’m always dropping stuff and mixing stuff up!”