AbyssRaven
patreon
Chapter 278: The Culinary Revolution, Again! [Release Version]
🕑 Added 2022-02-06 01:18:24 +0000 UTC“Good morning and it's nice to meet all of you. May the Goddess bless our auspicious meeting today, everybody. My name is Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor, and I’m the princess of whatever, as it doesn’t matter today and, hehe, it looks like you all already know me.”
Four chefs, five waiters and waitresses, and one dishwasher. That was the current number of employees Tamae had House Helvas and House Greenveil hire for our restaurant. All were either commoners with great references from working with the aristocracy or were members of a schwertnoble family, making them barons and viscounts.
At first, there were more people in this group, about twenty at first. However, Tamae never planned on getting so many people for the first iteration of the restaurant. She only wanted the minimum. Since we were planning on serving the influential with our establishment, there had to be some tests to weed out the “less efficient” workers from the best. And these were the best candidates from the entire pool, who were then allowed to build a rapport under Tamae and Svena.
After recruiting the people for the eatery yesterday, Tamae and I decided it was also high time we properly trained these people. We managed to finish up the menu yesterday and were now confident in sharing the recipes with our employees. As such, I decided on appearing today to make sure it went smoothly.
Buuuuuut, of course, it kinda went as you might expect considering they knew about me.
“““I-It is an honor, Princess Hestia!””” The ten-man group announced while kneeling down. As I said, all of them had experience working with nobles, so they knew somewhat how to act when they met a royal.
I smiled wryly as I turned around to face Amelia, who had a “I told you so” expression. Svena, standing behind me sighed and moved up, clapping her hands.
“Everybody, Lady Hestia thanks you for your formality, but today is an important day. There is much to do, so we do not have the time to waste. Please, stand up,” she ordered, prompting everybody to stand up. Clearly still nervous, they looked pretty rigidly as Tamae moved in front.
“Everybody, today is a very important day, as this will be the start of our journey together as a team of restaurant ‘Aurora.’ As you know, the goal for this restaurant is to serve premium dishes for our guests in our pursuit to better the culinary arts of our world,” Tamae began her speech. “As we have all told you before, I am one of the ‘Heroes of Aurena’ and came from a different world than Peolynca. Hestia here is the one responsible for the spread of her version of yeast throughout Artorias, and will also bring in various recipes from her ‘homeland.’ With the both of us, we managed to create a menu of dishes we believed would be best suited for the first worldwide restaurant of Peolynca.”
“First worldwide restaurant of Peolynca” sounded lofty for a title, but it was true. In Artorias, nobles didn’t go out to eat. They either stayed at home or visited another’s noble’s mansion to eat with them. In Gleisvale, we did find some eateries which served food to wealthy merchants, but none of them were called “restaurants.”
But I guess the most enticing part about being able to claim that title was the fact that our restauraunt used the nexus as a platform to serve people from different countries and cities in a single place. Just like how Duke Greenveil was able to negotiate with the new Duke Equevanna despite being two duchies away, we could serve people from Gleisvale and Artorias at the same time.
Svena handed copies of our menu to the staff members, allowing them to read what we were planning. As I read through it, I noticed the majority of the employees were raising an eyebrow. Considering about 90% of the dishes on the menu were heavily inspired by Earthen dishes, it was to be expected they never heard about them.
“Mister Ademnis,” Tamae called out to a brawny man with a slight belly dressed in a white outfit you would expect a chef from a fine dining restaurant. With a stern expression, he nodded and walked forward. “As I mentioned last time, you will be my sous chef — my deputy chef, in other words. You will be my second-in-command while we work in the kitchen, so you must be sure to remember every single dish, do you understand?”
“Of course, Lady Tamae. Such a gift from the Goddess, I will cherish it from the depth of my heart. I shall mark each ingredient into my soul, to never forget them.” Surprisingly, or maybe not, this aloof-looking man showed a fierce passion for not only cooking but Aurena, too. He was the only person I saw who was more focused on reading the menu than being flustered by them.
“Good.” Tamae clapped her hands before putting her hair into a ponytail. “Then, I expect you and everybody else to watch intently how we cook these dishes. Hestia. Priscilla. Let’s go.”
Hearing the signal, Svena quickly turned my slightly messy hair into a perfect ponytail while the 13-year-old Priscilla stepped out from her hiding spot behind Tamae. Unlike every other time I’ve met her, Priscilla wasn’t in her human form today, but rather she showed up in her dragonewt form.
““““W-What???””” The employees looked at the two of us in surprise.
Tamae, noticing this, quickly explained what was happening. “I had to test each individual dish before I placed them on the menu, of course. Since it was late, I needed help and I called on Hestia and this young dragonewt for help. Priscilla shall be my sous chef for the eatery designed to serve commoners. She has learned how to make every single dish on the menu somewhat. Mister Ademnis, I expect you to do the same.”
“Y-Yes! Lady Tamae!” Finally flustered, Tamae’s sous chef eyes widened as he watched Priscilla walk past him and to her station in the kitchen. I heard all of the employees here declined to work in the eatery, as it wasn’t part of their contract, so I did wonder what Tamae was planning by having Priscilla here today.
Yesterday, while Tamae and I worked on the menu, Yorshka came back to the subspace with both her daughter and Haati. While Svena and Josine showed Haati to her room, located in the “attendant area" as the former two liked to call it, Priscilla joined us with eyes filled with anticipation. She wanted to cook.
Watching her childish curiosity, we couldn’t help ourselves and decided on testing the dishes with her. At first, Tamae and I worked together since we knew Saori and Asaka wouldn’t be around today due to their spy mission. I was also somewhat familiar with each dish and how they should taste, so I was the best helper Tamae could find for the restaurant’s theme of French and Italian inspired dishes — her parent’s specialties.
After we managed to produce passable versions of about 60% of the menu and allowed Priscilla to taste them, we then began training as a three-man group, emulating the process of an actual kitchen. We had to show the chefs how to cook the dishes and the waiters and waitresses how they tasted and looked, so this was the only way to do it.
Of course, I saw that they were nervous that I was participating, but I simply told them this wasn’t a problem.
“As I said, everybody. My rank doesn’t matter today. Instead of focusing on it and becoming nervous, watch and learn. All ten of you will become the forerunners for the culinary evolution of our world.” With [Royal Presence] activated, I gave them a slight motivational speech before I joined the other two. I had my head already turned around before I saw how they reacted, but since Svena didn’t tell them off as the head waitress for the restaurant, my words probably did something.
Once the three of us were at our stations, we all breathed in deeply and out.
“Alright, the first step is the entrées. Let us begin! Hestia, cast your spells!”
And that was the signal to begin!
“Haste! Music on!”
<[Haste] [Music Resonation (Minor)] inflicted on [Young Sunfang Dragon, Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor]>
With a snap, a gray magic circle appeared around me before I began playing some classical music, sharing the buff with Tamae and Priscilla. By thinking of my spectators as “enemies,” I could prevent them from gaining the buff.
Using my high Agility and [Haste] buff, I moved into the pantry and carried out the ingredients needed for our entrees. Once they were there, I began cutting the chicken, removing all the meat and fat from the bones as best I could; meanwhile, Priscilla began cutting the vegetables while using wind magic to help her.
“French and Italian cuisine. Those are names of the cultures our menu will be inspired from. Fine dining, regardless of which world it came from, always strives to bring out the potential of the ingredients. To elevate them further beyond what you could imagine. The mark of a good chef is being flexible enough to adapt to the local produce, and to turn that into your art.” Tamae began her explanation. While cutting the meat, I noticed the chefs taking notes on wooden slates, focusing on watching either Priscilla or me.
Tamae continued. “I will not be adapting everything I learned from Earth into this restaurant for now, but I will add more once I become satisfied with the current results. As such, the first course of our guest’s meals will be the entrée — the entry dish.”
<Proficiency requirement fulfilled. [Dismantle Lv. 8] evolved into [Dismantle Lv. 9]>
Once the bones and vegetables were ready, Priscilla and I placed everything into a metal pot placed over a stove. Then Priscilla activated the fire runes Grimnir etched onto them, creating fire without the need for wood. By pouring more mana into the rune, the flames grew in size and warmth. Once done, she slightly filled the pot with water using her magic. Like her mother, Priscilla was a water and wind mage and has been using her magic during her days in the hunter’s guild kitchen.
“Too warm, Priscilla,” I called out before using [Volcanic Blaze] to reduce the size of the flame to boil the water slower. Priscilla caught on and removed some mana from the rune.
Priscilla then grabbed the dried spaghetti I brought out and put them into another pot to boil with some salt, beginning the second entree — spaghetti napoli, also known as marinara. Afterwards, we left the rest to Tamae and began the preparations for the main course.
“There are multiple entrees we could offer, but I am planning on keeping it small with four options. Two of them — an cepillium chicken consummé and tazghetti with matato sauce — will be served for you to taste today.”
While we kept the word consummé around since we didn’t know a better alternative, we did change the word for spaghetti into “tazghetti” since the noodles were made using tazlokwheat. This dwarven wheat was the toughest wheat we could find, making it perfect to give our noodles that bite you expect from them.
Also, since the names of certain ingredients were completely different in this world, we also had to change them to their Peolyncian variant. Onions were cepilliums and tomatoes were matatoes.
“With the help of House Greenveil, we managed to start production on tazghetti and other pasta — hard noodles — varieties similar to our yeasts facilities. Watch and learn. This is how you make the noodles ‘al dente.’ Just right. And, the sauce cannot be neglected, as that will be the lynchpin of the dish, alright, Miss Ivy?”
“Yes, Lady Tamae. I will make sure to focus," the “saucier” of the kitchen staff nodded.
With her deft hand, Tamae began preparing the tomato sauce for the pasta, explaining her moves and actions while preparing it as if it was second nature for her. Once the noodles were done, she poured out the warm water and rinsed the noodles in cold water using the rune-etched sink. Pretty much the whole kitchen had different runes made by Grimnir.
“All of you are beginners when it comes to being mages, so please use the in-built mana batteries to fuel the runes. Otherwise, use your magic to expedite the process, okay?”
In Peolynca, magic was everywhere and, for many people, it was also a daily part of their lives. As attendants and servants of the Artorian nobility, they were taught beginner-level magic to help them with their work. As such, every single employee before us had one or two spells in their profile.
In this world, we could use that magic to speed up our cooking process. Saori used her [Shadow Clones] to man the kitchen by herself, and Priscilla and I used our spells to make the cooking easier.
In a normal kitchen, chefs didn’t use magic as often due to the threat of arcane corruption. It was always a problem for them since they didn’t have access to fulinoe leaves. However, we did. We offered tea to them to drink during their breaks. While expensive for a normal business, to us, the leaves grew in our garden in abundance.
With the tazghetii with matato sauce finished, Tamae served a large portion for everybody to taste, including Svena, Amelia, and Josine. After showing them how to eat it, everybody else began to devour it.
“Mhmm. As expected from Tamae. Your food is always delectable to eat,” Amelia praised Tamae, being the only one to sit down as she was a noble.
While Amelia, Svena, and Josine were already used to Tamae’s cooking from staying inside the RV, the staff members, on the other hand, were blown away.
“Mhmm?! How are these noodles so soft but still firm at the same time? Weren’t they made with tazlokwheat? Shouldn’t they be harder?” one of the waitresses exclaimed, baffled as she tasted the noodles.
“You must be joking? Concentrate on the sauce. Didn’t Lady Tamae only use matatoes, allsati, papricha, and some aromatic herbs to make it? Why does it taste so much better than what I’ve already made?” The chef called Ivy commented, only tasting the sauce without the noodles.
“Ivy, don’t just concentrate on the sauce. Lady Tamae already taught us to take in the full experience, we need to taste and analyze everything presented to us,” another chef rebuked Ivy before taking in another fork full of pasta.
“If you want to have an answer, then it has to be how she crushed the herbs with the papricha seeds before combining it with the crushed matatoes. Also, you ignored the Port Annencia fish sauce and how she let the matato sauce lose its liquid. You don’t have that watery taste polluting the end product,” sous chef Ademnis commented on how Tamae prepared and added all the ingredients, even mentioning reduction without knowing the proper name for it.
Picking up an allsati — Peolyncian garlic — Tamae praised Ademnis for guessing the technique. “Good eye, Mister Ademnis. These are cooking techniques to bring out a better taste. I ‘reduced’ as much liquid in the sauce before letting it ‘simmer’ on low heat. Don’t let the sauce boil. You need to keep it warm, but if you boil too much, you ruin the tastes of the herbs and cepillium as you ‘denature’ them. Burn them, in other words.”
““““Ooooooooh!””””
Seems like the chefs are really getting excited now, I thought as they began asking Tamae more and more questions. I thought she might become overwhelmed, but any worry was unwarranted as she was in her element right now.
“Look at this soup. Consumé is a clear soup without any fat or impurities. It is the perfect soup, arguably. Like in a normal broth, remove the stock. All the ‘minerals’ and ‘vitamins’ have been extracted from them now. Remove the remaining fat before adding an egg.” Tamae continued with the soup, serving it to the delighted employees who wanted to savor more of her food.
This continued with the main dish where she took the lead as Priscilla and I made the desserts, which were my specialty.
“‘Bask’ the meat! Always bask the meat if the star of the dish is the ‘protein.’ Butter, herbs, garlic, wine. Whatever you can add to elevate it even further!” Tamae continued with the steak. “This sauce here is also gold, do you four understand? You can use it to garnish the dish. Use it! Don’t waste time on making another sauce if it doesn’t require one. The fat, the cooked butter with the herbs. It’s heavenly ‘ambrosia.’”
After tasting it, Ademnis once again stated his genuine surprise. “Such a simple technique but it can bring meat to such a level? Incredible! [Cooking] levels are worthless if they doesn’t teach you such cooking methods.”
Of course, an Artorian chef wouldn’t know about basking meat with its own sauce. The noble chefs in Artorias preferred cooking everything in cauldrons or roasting it over a fire. Cooking pans were less commonly used, as they were a dwarven creation in this world, reserved to fry up rice and noodles. Grilling the meat in a pan wasn’t common since the whole animal was usually roasted over the fire for noble dinners.
After serving a pan-seared steak in red wine sauce, grilled salmon in herbal dressing, and then tomato chicken with garlic rice, it was time for dessert.
<Proficiency requirement fulfilled. [Cooking Lv. 8] evolved into [Cooking Lv. 9]>
“Tiramisu with fulinoe tea mascarpone and butter canelé with wine and caramelized honey filling. Please, enjoy.” I presented them with the final touch to this three-course meal.
“Mhmm!” Amelia's eyes widened as she tasted the tiramisu first. “So creamy! Mhmm, what is this cream? This ‘mascarpone?’”
“I have to agree, Lady Amelia,” Josine agreed. “It feels like cream on your tongue, but its sweetness is more subdued. It’s less intense. And then you have the taste of fulinoe tea.”
Svena nodded her head fiercely. “This is perfect after the hearty dishes we ate before. A great palette cleanser to soothe your taste buds. Lady Hestia, this would be great to sell even outside the restaurant!”
I smiled at their comments. Coffee was impossible for us to get right now, as we didn’t even know if it existed in this world. However, what did exist was a coffee-tasting tea leaf in the form of fulinoe leaves. It was perfect, and I wondered if Tatsuya would like it once he comes back from work today.
“Oh!” However, on the other side, Ivy the chef squinted her eyes. “The wine taste might be a bit too intense with this pastry, Lady Hestia. Oh, I’m sorry!”
I was surprised. I didn’t like wine that much, but I made sure to taste test it before I served it and thought it was edible. I thought I put too little in it. Still, I was glad to hear the chefs weren’t too shy to give out proper criticism if they didn’t like something. This whole day managed to make them act more relaxed, I believe.
Still, I didn’t want to shut her up. However, as I was about to tell her it was alright to speak her mind out, Ademnis spoke up in my defense.
“Ivy, is something wrong with your taste buds? In fact, these bread might have too little wine in them. If you were to add a bit more wine in them, it would perfectly balance out the sweet honey inside it. This would be perfect for anybody without a sweet tooth.”
“Nghhh… I just don’t like alcohol in general…” The young woman admitted, causing me to feel like I had a kindred spirit in her.
In the end, this food tasting session has been a major success. With the four chefs, the one dishwasher, and Priscilla, Tamae decided it was time for the chefs to train with the dishes, telling them they will be serving food to Amelia, Ellaine, me, and the rest of Aurora.
“And all of that, without my help.” Tamae smiled but her announcement that she wouldn’t help caused the chefs to become nervous as they looked between Amelia and me. I guess they were worried they wouldn’t be able to make something good for the nobles in our midst.
“Good job, Hestia!” Priscilla told me as we finally were done.
“You too, Priscilla. Good luck with the rest of the training!” I told them, and she told me she would do her best, of course.
Leaving the kitchen so the chefs could focus, Svena led Amelia, Josine, the waiters and waitress, and I outside to the front of the restaurant — the tables. There we saw Haati and Lorena enjoying the leftovers we made.
Those two have been decorating the eatery part of the subspace up until now. After they were finished, they came to the restaurant but decided against joining in with the others as they were slightly nervous around nobles. When they saw us enter, they immediately cleaned themselves and stood up, even bowing as they greeted us.
“Don’t worry about it, you two. Hehe…” I laughed nervously as I calmed them down before asking how the food was.
“Amazing! Brilliant! I-I never thought I would ever be able to taste something this good!” Lorena expressed, having never visited our street eatery. She also only moved to her new apartment next to Farron’s home today, so I could guess she must have been famished.
“I already have been able to eat Lady Tamae’s food yesterday and at the eatery, but it never gets old. It’s really good. Like, heavenly. So this is what noble food tastes like!” Haati’s ears wiggled around like Rajah’s whenever he was excited.
“Miss Svena, who are these two?” one of the waiters asked.
“These will be Lady Tamae’s waitresses for her eatery. They are here today to train and practice being waiters before the eatery opens up soon. As such, they are fellow staff members, so please be polite.” Svena eyed one or two distrustful waiters and waitresses. I wondered if one of them was a low noble or not.
Regardless, I could rely on Svena and Josine to help out Haati and Lorena. Haati already had experience as a waitress, so she shouldn’t be in trouble, but she was there to help our Lorena. If they were to work together later on, they had to get to know each other.
“Good luck, you two!” I told the two, prompting them to say they will make sure to repay me in full. I smiled and as I was about to leave with Amelia, Svena came close to my ears and whispered something to me.
“I heard Haati received [Hestia’s Retainer] as a title. Lady Hestia, I will make sure to make my vow, later on, so please forgive me for forgetting it.”
“… Cool.”
Well, that happened.
Regardless, Amelia and I left the restaurant behind for them to deal with while we entered the community room where the former smiled at me.
“How many desserts and pastries did you two plan out?”
I winked. “Enough~”
Suffice to say, dinner was once again good, especially for Amelia and the Sarlenzia company
<[Human, Svena], [Human, Lorena], [Dragonewt, Priscilla Nordor] have received the title [Hestia’s Retainer]>
Well, that happened.
Three days later, we invited all seven dukes as well as King Drangleic to come to visit and test out the restaurant’s team with their family. We had to stress test everything, and since they were also planning to visit during the official opening, I believed letting them know what we serve in advance would be great for them.
While the team did become nervous to the point the dishes came out a bit too slowly, naturally since these were the seven dukes and their king, it still went down well with Tamae and Svena coordinating everything. We also brought in the others from Aurora to act like new customers, giving the waiters and waitresses even more practice.
It went well, and that was enough for Tamae to shine like a beacon for the next few days. After all, with a successful test service, it gave us the confidence to begin promoting the restaurant and the new opening of the Sarlenzia company as the new pastries were being made.
While Saori did bring in some news on her side about the alchemy shop and the cartels, she told me I didn’t have to worry about it for now. I should focus on gaining the political support of Estralia for Artorias, as I was best suited for that job. Once they had more conclusive answers, they would tell me them in heartbeat and we could act on them.
As such, with our restaurant and the Sarlenzia company branch planning to open in five days, I decided it was high time to meet up with the merchant guild of Gleisvale. At the same time when I scheduled a time, the secretary told me one of the senators wished to talk to me before then.
Seeing the name of the person, I remembered I had received an invitation from the same person a few days ago. A representative was sent to me, but I didn’t answer back.
Well, might as well, I thought and told the secretary, who quickly ordered a carriage for me to take me to her. Once I was there at her mansion, a foxian man equipped in metal armor appeared before me.
“Welcome, Lady Hestia. We have been awaiting you.”
My guard was instantly raised. For some reason, this man gave me the chills as I stared into his almost lifeless eyes.
Comments
Lol. Cooking chapters to torment people like with cooking shows. xD
Diego Rossi
Reading this chapter just after eating what I can cook was a torment. ;-) There isn't a way to get Aurora eatery to open a branch near my home? Very nice!
