Yes Chef, No Chef

by Willis, Susan

  “Jeez, it’s good to see you,” he said beaming at her. “In case I forget or don’t get time to say this later, I can’t thank you enough already.”

  Revelling at being in his arms again, she laughed. “Hey, hold back with the thanks, I haven’t done anything yet.”

  She felt her stomach lurch with passion and desire when he looked into her eyes but reminded herself this was neither the right place nor time and forced her professional business head back into place.

  “OK, Chef, lead me to it,” she said giggling nervously, slipped her jacket off, and took her white apron from a bag.

  He stared longingly at the vest she wore stretched over her breasts and remembered the day they’d kneaded the dough but he shook the images from his mind because he needed to concentrate on his work.

  She wrapped the apron straps twice around her tiny waist and scraped her hair up into a mop cap Jessie gave her then fell into step behind him while he showed her around the kitchen and introduced her to Simon. As they walked, he told her how great Chrissie had been and how she’d done a fantastic job preparing everything with Jessie, and that Jack had paid her generously.

  Katie smiled, watching Jessie’s face as she followed Tim around, gazing up at him like a puppy-dog as though he was superman. But she knew there wasn’t the slightest reason to be jealous because for as long as she’d known him Tim had been completely guileless where women were concerned – he simply had no idea of his natural physical attraction.

  Just before the restaurant opened Tim gathered them all together, reminded them of their duties and gave a little pep-talk. She felt so proud of his achievements even though it had cost them their relationship. Walking back to her work station she wondered if she could have been more understanding of the daily pressures he’d been working under.

  Starting to cut the blanched leek and carrot into Julienne strips she chatted briefly with Simon and weighed out the lemon grass, ginger and red wine in readiness for her first orders. The whole kitchen was buzzing. And, although they knew the food critic was coming for lunch, they didn’t know what time, and she could see Tim was already showing signs of nervous irritation.

  “Is the salad prep done?” he yelled at Jessie.

  Jessie hurried around to the green chiller, checked and then called back, “Yes Chef!”

  The first customers arrived for table three and Tim called out her order. “Kate, we need three scallop starters.”

  “Yes Chef,” she said and went to the yellow chiller to get her readily prepared scallops.

  “Kate! Did you hear me?” he bellowed, “I need to hear you answer me and you didn’t!”

  “I did answer you,” she called back lighting the gas under the pan of olive oil.

  He walked over to her and stood behind her inhaling her familiar shower gel. “Well you’re not shouting loud enough,” he said close to her ear.

  “Yes Chef!!” she practically screamed at him like a sergeant major.

  Alarmed, he jumped back and wanted to howl with laughter at her humour in a challenging situation but as Simon was tittering at the other side of the bench he decided upon a sober reaction.

  “OK. That’s better,” he smirked and watched her drop scallops into the sizzling oil.

  Her hands were trembling slightly when she shook the pan but willed herself to stay calm; this was her first order and she wanted to do a good job for him. She quickly arranged her small piles of leek and carrot strips, rescued the scallops from the pan after two minutes and set them aside to keep warm. Adding the ginger, red wine and lemon grass into the juices she stirred quickly and then placing four scallops onto each pile of vegetables she drizzled her dressing over and around them.

  He was waiting at the service bench for them and sniffed his approval as they were whipped away to the table. Got through round one, she thought breathing a sigh of relief and hurried to prepare her salmon for the main courses.

  The restaurant began to fill with hungry customers and she worked quickly cooking a further eight orders of scallops. Tim’s temper was building and he was barking out orders to them all while loud Yes Chef answers could be heard simultaneously throughout the kitchen as they all did their best to keep up with him.

  She had two orders for her salmon and pine nut crusted fillet with roasted sweet potatoes and began by flash frying the prepared sliced potatoes and spreading the pine nut mix on top of the fillets to go into the oven. After six minutes and with a golden brown crust she lifted them carefully out of the oven and placed them onto plates with scoops of chunky red salsa and roasted sweet potatoes. Once again they were whisked off to the table but this time Tim told her the potatoes were a little overdone.

  He hoped he wasn’t being too picky because he didn’t want to upset her but the food had to be perfect, especially today - surely she was used to taking criticism? One of the waiters arrived at the serving bench with a plate of salmon fillet in his hands and told Tim table seven were sending the meal back because the salmon wasn’t cooked. He could feel his face flush with embarrassment in front of the snidey waiter and lost his temper. What was wrong with her, he fumed, could she not even cook a piece of salmon properly?

  Descending upon her he shouted. “Kate! This fillet is not cooked. Table seven have sent it back. How long did you cook them for?”

  She stuttered, “S…six minutes, like you told me to this morning.” Her heart was hammering inside her chest and she tried to breathe deeply to steady herself as he glowered at her.

  “Well check the oven and do them again,” he snarled. “And this time call for me to look at them.”

  “Yes Chef,” she muttered and then hurriedly correcting herself she raised her voice and said louder, “Yes Chef!”

  Walking back to the serving table he tried to calm down by taking long, slow breaths and willed himself not to lose his temper again. It could have been much worse if they’d been given to the food critic’s table he decided and then felt his foot slip on a wet patch on the floor.

  “Jessie!” he yelled gripping hold of the table. “Get this bloody floor dried-up, it’s soaking wet.”

  Katie looked at him while she prepared the fillets again, his face was flushed with the exertion of shouting, his eyebrows were knotted in frustration, and his forehead was covered in beads of sweat. Not quite so cute now, she thought testily, and set the oven timer for the fillets while frying the potatoes. Jessie sidled up to her and told her the oven she’d used was a little temperamental and showed her a more reliable oven for which she was grateful, but from then onwards things went from bad to worse and the lunch-time service seemed never ending. The next two salmon fillets she cooked were overdone and he shouted at her again until her third attempt was better although the sweet potatoes were a little too hard.

  By this time her previous optimistic confidence had completely deserted her and she felt thoroughly miserable. Reasoning with herself, she knew that although his manner was dreadful, some of his criticisms were justified and she couldn’t even argue with him. But the more uptight she became the more mistakes she made and her stomach churned like a rollercoaster. Her usual calm demeanour had long since dissolved and the more he shouted at her, the more panicky she felt. God, how she wished this was over she thought, and yet she’d started the day with such high hopes. Tears pricked at the back of her eyes and, not wanting to make a fool of herself in front of everyone, and especially not him, she fled to the toilets.

  Washing her hands she stared into the mirror and choked back the tears. Come on, you can get through this she told herself and blew her nose hard. Taking three deep breaths in succession she felt a little calmer and more determined to get things back onto an even keel.

  When she left the toilets Jessie caught up with her and put a comforting arm around her shoulders trying to reassure her that she was doing fine.

  “It’s just because he’s worked so hard on the new dishes and is desperate to get a good review from the food critic,” Jessie said. “And
I do know he’s over the moon that you’ve come to the restaurant and your support will definitely buck him up.”

  Katie smiled back at her young earnest face. “I know, and he’s very lucky to have you Jessie.”

  Jessie grinned then anxiously looked over her shoulder to make sure Tim wasn’t anywhere in the vicinity. “He’s been so sad lately without you. He’s never said as much but I can tell by the way he stares at your photograph on his desk.”

  Katie thanked her and, trying to hold her head up higher, she returned to her bench where she managed to cook the last few sets of orders to his satisfaction.

  At the end of service he came up to her and smiled tentatively. “Well done, tough call today but we got there,” he said awkwardly patting her shoulder.

  Feeling confused she looked into his eyes and wasn’t sure what to say. She knew that admitting mistakes had always been painful for him and noticed him wringing his hands together in embarrassment. His face was still slightly flushed and he shuffled from one foot to another.

  “Tough call?” Katie probed untying the apron strings from around her waist. “What the hell is that supposed to mean? You’ve done nothing but scream and shout at me”.

  Tim took the apron from her and then tried to take hold of her hand. “Look, you know it’s not personal,” he stumbled uncomfortably. “I mean, when I lose my temper and shout, it doesn’t mean anything…”

  Jack suddenly appeared at the doorway calling his name and he dropped her hand quickly and turned to leave. “I’ll call,” he said over his shoulder striding towards the doorway while she stared after him slowly shaking her head in confusion.

  Chapter Twenty Nine

  Arriving home with a feeling of crushing disappointment and her mind racing in turmoil she tried to figure out how everything had gone so badly wrong. She decided the guy who wrote the saying, never mix business with pleasure had hit the nail right on the head. Hot tears of humiliation and frustration ran down her face; what on earth had got into her and how could she have made such a mess of cooking the salmon and scallops.

  Striping off the skirt to pull on her jeans she remembered how he’d yelled at her and the look of dismay in his eyes when the first salmon order had been returned uncooked. He had every right to be annoyed at first but then the more he’d gone on at her the more flustered she’d become. Groaning at the memory, she sauntered into the kitchen and swiped a piece of kitchen towel from the roll, wiped her face dry and opened the bag Jessie had thrust into her hand when she’d left. Inside were some scallops and three fillets of salmon left over from the service. Holy Moly, she cursed, as if she needed reminding about the complete and utter fiasco - the fiasco that was meant to have been a lovely day spent together.

  She pushed the bag into the fridge and sat down heavily at the table with her head in her hands, remembering every single order she’d cooked and wondered why she’d fallen apart. And where, she cried out loud while pouring a glass of wine, had her notorious self-control been when she’d needed it most? Never, in the whole of her working career had she cracked under pressure like that and felt sick with shame at her crap performance. Sipping the wine she wondered what the girls were doing and if it would help to talk it through with them.

  Sarah put an arm around her shoulder as Katie blurted out the whole sorry mess with Tim from start to finish while huddled on her settee and Sarah perched on the end of the cushion nodding sympathetically.

  “And there was me this morning hoping we could at least be friends, and well, if I’m totally honest, I’d hoped to be a bit more than friends,” Katie blubbered. “A…and, Jessie told me he still has our photograph on desk and that she’s caught him loads of times sitting staring at it. So, I’d sort of hoped if he was missing me as much as I’ve been missing him then maybe we could try and get back together again. But all those hopes and dreams are well and truly down the pan now. I mean, if we can’t even work together for a few hours without falling out, there’s no hope whatsoever!”

  She stopped and dried her face with a tissue before taking a deep breath and wailing, “And another thing, I wished I’d never got in touch with him because now we’re even further back from the day we kneaded bread together and it hurts more than it did back then. Oh, Sarah, I still love him so much – what am I going to do …” She threw her arms up in the air and knew she was being what Lisa called a drama queen but simply couldn’t help it.

  Sarah stroked Katie’s knee. “Now, now, you don’t know that and he’ll be feeling crap as well, you know. And from what you’ve told me about his reaction when you arrived with his bear hug and being so pleased to see you he’ll be cringing now that he’s behaved so badly towards you.”

  Katie looked at Sarah and tried to give her a smile of thanks. She really was trying to understand her misery. Gulping at her wine, she whimpered, “Do you think so?”

  Sarah smiled. “Of course he will. It wouldn’t surprise me if he’s running around here tonight full of apologies begging you to forgive him.”

  At the sharp knock on Katie’s front door they both jumped and Sarah said, “That’ll be Lisa. I’ll go and let her in because I have to get going soon to meet Simon.”

  Katie uttered her thanks and then looked up to see Lisa hurrying into the room full of concern and Katie took a deep breath in readiness for the onslaught.

  “What the hell has he done now to upset you like this?” Lisa raged dropping down on the settee next to Katie.

  Sarah gave Lisa a ‘calm down’ expression, while Katie busied herself pouring wine into another glass and drying her eyes.

  “He hasn’t upset me, Lisa,” Katie said handing her the glass. “I’ve upset myself more than anything else with my stupid dreams.”

  Sarah left and Katie settled back against the cushions to repeat the story again for Lisa who was surprisingly sympathetic and reassuring when she got to the end.

  “And you haven’t heard anything from him since?” Lisa asked, nodding her head in understanding.

  Katie smiled weakly. “Not yet. He did say he’d call but does that mean he’ll ring or call around?”

  “Either I suppose…” Lisa soothed patting her hand. “And you really want to do this to yourself again, honey?”

  Katie relaxed her shoulders and felt relieved after talking to the girls. She drained the wine from her glass. “I do still love him, Lisa, but after this mess today, I can’t see how we can come back from this disaster. Maybe it’ll never work out for us now,” she said miserably.

  Lisa slipped her old denim jacket off and slunk back against the settee twirling the stem of the wine glass between her fingers. “You know, I’m not the best person to give you advice about this scenario, Katie. I don’t let myself get caught in a trap like this. In my mind if a relationship isn’t working, I just get out and move on to the next guy but there again I haven’t been in a living together set up like this, so…”

  Katie shook herself out of her pathetic maudlin state. “I know, but I do appreciate you both being here and the support. And now the wine has kicked in and the embarrassing memories are fading, I suppose I’ll get over the disappointment again. It’s my own stupid fault for building myself up for another fall.”

  A flashing memory of sharp pain settled upon Lisa’s face as though she was reliving her own personal battles and Katie tried to lighten the atmosphere. “You ok?”

  Suddenly, as if a light had snapped on in Lisa’s mind she shook herself. “Me? Of course, I’m ok,” she said with her usual bright smile back in place. “After all, Katie, who the hell does he think he is? Heston bloody Blumenthal?” she giggled, to which they both fell about laughing.

  Chapter Thirty

  Tim woke the next morning with his first slight headache for months. He remembered finishing work at the restaurant and coming back to the apartment and, over five or six cans of lager, telling Luke how he’d shouted at Kate in the restaurant kitchen.

  Swinging his legs over the bed he groaned, thinking
of how he’d yelled about the undercooked salmon - how could he have been so horrible, especially when she was the one who had come to help. The coffee pot that Luke had made earlier was still warm and he gulped mouthfuls of coffee while breaking a muffin in half. He had to get this mess sorted out as soon as he finished work. She would probably slam the door in his face, which he knew he deserved, but he was definitely going to beg her forgiveness. Whether that meant grovelling, apologising over and over again until he had to crawl along the floor - it didn’t matter what it took, he would do it.

  After lunch time service and ignoring his stomach groaning for food he jumped into his car and sent Kate a text to let her know he was heading over to her flat with her wages. He prayed she would be home and they were soon answered when she sent a text back with a simple ok. His mind was racing as he pulled out of the car park and rehearsed exactly what he was going to say to her. While sitting at traffic lights he drummed his fingers impatiently on the steering wheel knowing this was what he should have done months ago. In fact, he thought, he should have done this the day after she’d left him and although she may never forgive him now he was going to give it his best shot. Whether he came away looking like a prize idiot he didn’t care but he was going to tell her how much he still loved her.

  Katie closed the mobile shut with a snap and felt her insides tumble. He was coming over and she was determined they were going to sort this mess out once and for all. Suddenly, she had a flash of inspiration that might just make her feel better and at the same time prove that she was a good cook. Opening the fridge door she took the bag Jessie had given her and quickly set to work. Within ten minutes she had everything prepared just as the front door bell rang and she opened the door to a very sheepish looking Tim.