Under the Mango Tree: 101 Tales (1)

WHAT'S COOKING?

WHAT'S COOKING?

Challenge No.5

What's Cooking? As your character watches the hibachi chef prepare their meal, something seems ... off. What is it?

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Anbas kai-la, was the Japanese restaurant on the island of Saint Lucia. It was the first and to date, only restaurant to get a Michelin Star and the owner Chef Ricky wanted the other two.

Until... the fire.

A crowd gathered to watch the restaurant be consumed. Amidst comments, observations and offers of advice from the voyeurs on dealing with the fire; the Fire Service fought the blaze but it was in vain. It was obvious to everyone that it was a total loss.

The smell of the smoke hung in the air even as the investigation started. A police officer walked up to a grouping in the restaurant uniform.

"I'm Sergeant Nixon, can you tell me what happened?"

But the Chef remained too distraught to be of help so a junior stepped forward.

"Eh... Officer, I'll tell you."

"Great. What's your name son?"

"Drew Fowell."

"And what do you do here?"

"I'm a Sous chef."

"And you were in the dining room when... what happened?"

"Sous chefs don't work in the dining room. We work in the back kitchen preparing things for the hibachi chefs. I was delivering to Chef Ricky at the time. So I saw."

The policewoman paused. "Hibachi?"

"Yes, this is a Japanese restaurant. We do hibachi."

"Uh-huh." She had no clue what Drew was talking about.

So, Drew told her. "The hibachi or fire bowl is a traditional Japanese heating device designed to hold burning charcoal. It is filled with incombustible ash, and charcoal sits in the centre of the ash."

She pounced. "Are you telling me that the chef burned the place down?"

"No! No! No! Hibachi is used for heating, not for cooking. It heats by radiation and is too weak to warm a whole room, much less burn a place down."

Sergeant Nixon felt that Drew had more to say. The crowd had started to disperse so she pressed. "Drew, you were there, you watched the hibachi chef prepare the meal, something seemed... off. What was it?"

Drew started to fidget. Nixon waited, patiently.

Then. "Hibachi is a very flamboyant form of cooking. Lots of flair and juggling." Drew licked his lips. Still, the policewoman was silent.

"We have a Michelin Star. The only restaurant on the island. Very prestigious. The maximum is three. We want it. We all want it."

Drew was now sweating. "To get more, we have to do more. It's like I said before hibachi places the charcoal in the incombustible ash... I'm just the sous chef... I don't think the hibachi used enough ash."

There he'd said it, now it all gushed out. "It's a fine balance and Chef was experimenting. I think maybe it was too hot. I think maybe something at the counter caught fire. I think we didn't see..."

Sergeant Nixon reported to her Captain. "This is the place where the chef burned the food, that burned the counter, that burned the room, that burned the restaurant down."

© 5 March 2022

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