Fire In the Kitchen (23 page)

She walked away from him and started to set up her equipment. She looked at the oversized clock on the wall and could tell they only had a few more minutes to set up before the madness began. She had to calm her mind, focus. If her heartbeat didn’t shut up, she wouldn’t be cooking anything today.

Dante followed her and reached for her hand. “Cassidy, wait.”

She pulled it back. “Wait for what? More sensationalism to come out about the conversation we’re having now? You let me come back based on a lie. I cared about you. I’m an idiot.”

“You use
cared
for me in the past tense.” Dante’s voice sounded strained. “I care for you very much, Cassidy. More than you’ll ever know. What can I do to make you believe that?”

A voice over the loud speaker shouted for them to get into position. The now-familiar TV jingle was played to get them in the spirit.

“Not that I believe you,” Cassidy said, “but if you care for me, you’ll do what means a lot to me.”

“I’d do anything for you. Name it.”

“Do everything you can to win. All I’m asking of you is you do your best, and so will I. Then, if by some miracle I do beat you, it will be on my own merits and not because of the betrayal of a patronizing competitor I thought I could trust.”

Dante closed his eyes and frown lines etched his forehead. He opened them again and looked directly into hers. Then he nodded.

Noisy high heels announced the arrival of Valerie. She stood in front of the cameras, fluffed her hair, and pouted. The studio became quiet as everyone watched the cameraman count down from ten to one. For the last three seconds, he used his fingers instead of his voice.

“Good evening,” Valerie said, “and welcome to the grand finale, featuring our dashing Dante and our lovable Cassidy. Who will win? The perfectionist chef or the talented foodie?”

Valerie walked toward Cassidy and held the microphone at an unattractive angle, just under Cassidy’s nose.

“So, Cassidy, how are you feeling tonight? Are you ready to cook up a storm?”

Cassidy ignored the fact it was morning, as she was supposed to. “I’m as ready as I’ll ever be, Valerie. Hopefully I’ll be able to do something with this nervous energy.”

“We can’t wait to see what you have in store for us. I’m sure it will be very different—chocolate-covered grasshoppers?”

“Sounds interesting, but I’m not sure about that.”

Cassidy started to fidget with her utensils.

“I can see you’re raring to go. Good luck,” Valerie said as she walked toward Dante.

“So, what do you think, Dante? Is the amateur cook making you nervous?”

Dante held his hands up in the air in a charming fashion. “My competitor is a lot of things when it comes to adventurous cooking, but the word ‘amateur’ doesn’t belong in her cooking repertoire.”

“So you think she’s going to give you a run for your money? I’ve heard the betting odds are only slightly in your favor.”

Dante stood tall. He took a knife out of its holder and sharpened it with practiced speed. “I’m here to win,” he said.

*

As Valerie welcomed the other judges—three times because they weren’t happy with the first two takes—Dante was pleased to see the ousted competitors had all been invited back to watch. As each chef entered, enthusiastic applause followed before they took their seats. Dante pondered how Cassidy had found out he’d been willing to forfeit his place in the competition for her. It didn’t take too much imagination to come up with the answer. That damned Valerie. It was so difficult being nice to her for the cameras when he knew what havoc she’d caused him with Cassidy. He could see how the idea of the new show must have looked to Cassidy, and he wanted the chance to prove to her he had no intention of taking it.

Valerie smiled at both of them, swinging her arms around expansively. “We have a surprise for you. Watch those doors.”

The annoying jingle played again,
“You’re hot when you’re hot, cooking with fire, dry ice in the pot…”

The doors opened and Dante’s sister, Sophia, appeared. He felt the sibling love in abundance when she ran to him and he squeezed her tight.

“Mio tesoro, it’s so good to see you.”

“What’s going on? You getting soft on me?” Sophia kissed both his cheeks. “No asking about the restaurant?”

The doors swung open again and a small crowd of people came racing in. Like a swarm of bees, they moved as one toward Cassidy. She managed to give equal time to each one of them, even though she only had half a minute, as they were guided to their seats.

“Who are all these people, Cassidy?”

Valerie looked pointedly at Dante and then back at Cassidy. It was obvious to him she’d ensured Cassidy would have twenty people supporting her to his one. But her ruse wasn’t going to make him cook badly. He still had a lot of support from the other chefs.

What he hadn’t been prepared for, however, was the true support Cassidy was getting from the loved ones around her. As well as her beloved family she’d risked the competition for, she had several close friends, and probably regular customers, too. What had happened to all his regulars? Had they been invited? He’d lost a lot of friends when he’d decided to dedicate most of his spare time to his cause. They’d told him they were sick of him looking in their fridges and pantries whenever he visited to make sure they were buying the right products.

Over the top.
Those were the words thrown around the most, before his invitations to their homes and restaurants had ceased altogether. He had an admirable social life now, and being a celebrity had opened many doors for him, but many people he’d cared for along the way had closed theirs.

Cassidy was laughing, crying, jumping for joy. He was sure he looked as interesting to the viewers as a loaf of stale bread by comparison. Valerie had managed to squash his previous popularity in less than half a minute. He turned his attention back to his sister.

“They told me I couldn’t bring anyone else,” Sophia said. “They wouldn’t even let me bring the kids. What are they playing at?
Bastardi.
” She looked at Cassidy. “She looks like the type of person I’d like to get to know.”

Dante thought about his cousin and how he had tried to ruin everything, using Cassidy as collateral damage. He must have wanted to win this with a passion that was unhealthy. He never had played fair, even when they were kids and it was excusable. Looking good or looking bad, that was all that had ever been important to him. Come to think of it, he and Valerie would make a good pair.

“Thank you, everyone, you’re a great audience,” Valerie said into her handheld microphone. She swung around to speak to Dante and Cassidy. “Today you will cook a three-course meal, using the same key ingredient for each course.”

Dante looked at Cassidy, who refused to look back at him.

Valerie had a large covered bowl in front of her.

“The ingredient you must use in every course is…”

She paused theatrically for longer than necessary, no doubt following Eric’s instructions in her earpiece. Dante concluded it had been set up for a commercial break. Valerie caressed the silky cover seductively and whipped it off to reveal a bowl of vivid yellow and green fruits of varying size.

“Citrus!”

Excellent
, Dante thought as he juggled in his mind several combinations of citrus dishes that would complement each other seamlessly.

“Are you ready for an exciting cook-off, people?” Valerie said. The audience went wild. “Your time starts…” Everyone watched the second hand on the clock. “…now!”

Cassidy and Dante raced to the walk-in refrigerated larder and reached the door at the same time. Dante opened it.

“After you,” he said.

There wasn’t any time for discussion as they grabbed their baskets and started to pile them high with ingredients. They would only get one shot at this, so concentration was paramount.

Dante thought of the ingredients of each dish as he stacked them in his basket. Cassidy was less methodical and ran around in her usual excitable fashion, calling out everything she was picking up as if checking them off a list.

Pleased with himself, Dante had everything he needed and went to leave the food room, when Cassidy called after him.

His heart did a tango.

“Yes?”

“Forget something?”

He looked through his basket and double-checked everything. “I don’t think so.”

Cassidy held up a lemon.

He slapped his forehead and felt like an idiot. He’d forgotten the blasted key ingredient. He gave her an embarrassed smile and packed as many of them as he could fit around the rest of his items.

“That’s all the mentoring you’re going to get from me, Mr. Cristiani.”

“It was very much appreciated, Miss Summers,” Dante said. “Would you like advice from me in return?”

“If you must.”

“Take no prisoners. I won’t be taking any.”

“Let the games begin,” Cassidy responded and she skipped,
actually skipped,
back to her workbench.

Before Dante unpacked his ingredients, he put a heavy grill pan on the stove to heat up.

“Think in advance of what you’ll be cooking, Cassidy,” he called out. “If you need the deep fryer, you need to put the oil on now, it takes a long time to heat up.”

“Yes, Chef. Thank you, Chef.”

Cassidy filled a large pot of water and placed it on the stove to boil. The audience applause was deafening.

Dante was right at home cooking in front of an audience, and he was able to talk to the judges about what he was preparing whilst slicing, chopping, and cooking. He knew Cassidy would lose valuable time speaking to them because she needed to concentrate, and when she was distracted, it took her a while to get back to what she was doing.

He stole a glance at her cooking technique. She’d already toppled a bowl of parsley onto the ground and her cooking area was a combat zone. The cameramen were having a field day filming the dirty dishes she was piling up in front of the bench to get them out of her way.

Judging was on a course-by-course basis, and time passed quickly.

Dante beat Cassidy with his starter of caramelized pan-fried scallops with lemon and coriander.

She later upped the stakes when she served her main course of tequila-lime chicken, resulting in a real crowd-pleaser.

Dante was no longer interested in letting her win. He was going to make a dessert to rock everyone’s culinary world, and he knew just the recipe that was going to do it.

He’d perfected it. Exactly the right amount of lime juice and zest, great consistency. Light as air. He could’ve made it with his eyes closed.

“How are you doing over there, Dante?”

“I think you might be in trouble,
bella.
My dessert is going to be
bellisima
!” He put his index finger and thumb to his lips and made a loud kissing noise.

“Don’t be so sure. My dessert is awesome.”

Following Dante’s lead, she brought both palms to her lips simultaneously and kissed them in loud smacking noises. The audience went wild.

“Just remember what we’ve talked about before,” Dante called out. “Keep it simple…”

“…and let the ingredients tell the story. I remember. Now stop talking to me, I’m trying to cook, and I can’t do two things at once!” Cassidy giggled and the whole studio laughed with her, Dante included.

Conversation over, Dante checked that his dessert had cooled down enough to plate up.

“Ten minutes to go,” a crew member called out.

Plenty of time
.

Cassidy squealed and ran around like she was on steroids. She grabbed a spray gun and goggles and went behind some protective glass.

“Really, Cassidy?” Dante rolled his eyes. “What ever happened to my advice of keeping things simple?”

“Oh,” she called back, a little too sweetly. “I thought that was just a
suggestion.
You do your thing and I’ll do mine, Chef.”

Dante laughed. “Good luck,” he called out to her.

Cassidy ran back toward Dante as if she’d forgotten something. “By the way, in case you forget to tell me…” She beamed at him.

“What now?” Dante put his hands over his eyes in mock horror.

“You love me.”

The clock started ticking its countdown loudly but he didn’t care. He picked her up and swung her around. “You love me, love me, love me, too.”

The screams from the audience were deafening as he kissed her hard on the lips.

Who would ever have thought oversized goggles could be so endearing?

“Get back to your cooking, you mad woman.”

Cassidy ran back to the spray booth.

“You’re an impossible man to stay cranky with.”

Soon, all he could see was a heavy gold mist followed by a bright green one, both splattering against the glass, making it impossible for anyone to see the final stages of her dessert.

“Thirty seconds.”

Dante used the time wisely, trying to ignore the exasperated screams from behind the glass barrier.

He served his pudding on a plate with a side-serving of homemade vanilla ice cream and a quenelle of citrus mascarpone cream. A simple wedge of lime on the side of his lime syrup and his dish was complete. He was satisfied he had an exact balance of flavors and knew it was a dish that would be on his restaurant menu for many months to come. The cameraman came for a close up, blocking Cassidy coming in to view. There was thunderous applause, and he went to take a bow before comprehending the adoration seemed to be for Cassidy’s dessert and not his.

The only thing simple about Cassidy’s dessert was the large white china plate she’d arranged her masterpiece on. Resting on it was an edible miniature lime tree, about nine inches high. It sat in a flowerpot made of milk chocolate. She’d even made tasty soil and, knowing her, everything in the pot was edible, even the tree branches she’d spray-painted a coppery gold. The limes on the tree had been coated with shimmering green and the contents of a small jug on the side resembled lime syrup. There was only one word for her dessert.

Magic.

“So glad you kept things simple, Cassidy,” he said, stroking an imaginative beard as he swung the plate around and admired it from every angle. “Well done.”