I did say updates would be faster, eh? Only some two weeks later and we have the next one. I appreciate the support you readers have been giving me. And you know what? Before writing this chapter, I hadn't even thought of putting a mistletoe in there! Feel free to have a chestnut and mushroom roll! First servings to IAmDomeAceTucker, honoured Guest, and Key321.
Chapter three: Against the Cyllage Cold
A crowd had gathered wondering what the commotion was about within the next hour. While they were there, Lisia was doing her best to draw people in to donate. Already the donation bucket was filling with coins and bills as people watched what was going to be entertaining match between Steven and Cynthia.
Today's lunch would be noodles and vegetables in Razz and Wiki berry broth. Razz berries were regularly known to be slightly spicy and dry, which would certainly warm up anyone's day in times like these. With dry flavour, the broth would become quite delicious, and the slight spiciness was ideal for cold weather, guaranteed to warm up anyone's insides. Wiki berries, known for their savoury dry flavour, were a favourite for soups.
Wallace was supervising.
"Ready? Allez," he said.
Things got chaotic after. The two chefs took the Razz berries they had prepared earlier and set about making them into broth. They simultaneously got their pots simmering so that they could put in the Razz and Wiki berries later, and reduce them to stock.
But as people had different tolerances for spicy tastes, that would be the real trick. Although they would constantly prepare the same dish over and over, they had to separate orders into broth with spice and broth without.
And the first six orders started flowing in, courtesy of Laurent who had taken orders from inside the Pokémon Centre. Outside, Sophie and Martine took orders from donators and they already had ten orders combined. To keep things organised, Martine had a system put in where orders on the left side were for Cynthia and on the right side for Steven. For each order completed, they would get one point.
This was because Wallace had given Steven and Cynthia only one service area between them, so there was the odd chance they might crash into each other and fail their orders. In Martine's heart, she hoped things might turn spicy between her bosses.
Steven and Cynthia simultaneously got to chopping up the Razz berries so that the dry centre could be exposed underneath the spicy skin. That was the crucial part of the Razz berry broth and the longer the berry was cooked, the better. They would leave the skin on if more spicy flavour was desired.
For the same reasons when they created the recipe together, Wiki berries were used to equalize the spice levels in order to bring a balanced flavour for the mild.
As the large pots of soup were being prepared, they both set about pre-cooking their batches of noodles in separate pots of water, then quickly draining them with colanders and then letting rinsing them before they were cooked again in boiling water. It was this method that made the noodles taste better.
No sooner did Steven and Cynthia serve the noodles into bowls and topped them off with hearty servings of soup. They knew which ones needed to be spicy and which didn't, and their work was flawless. Together they brought their orders to the service area where Martine, Sophie, and Laurent were waiting to take them out.
And inevitable, both chefs, in a hurry, bumped into each other and nearly spilt their orders. While there was no serious harm, they each had a bit of the red soup staining their jackets.
"Steven." Cynthia growled.
"Cynthia." Steven's eyes were a glare.
They could have glared at each other and argue. Martine, however, wasn't having any of it.
"I hate to break up your lovers' quarrel, but we have a dozen more orders coming in…" the redhead warned. Then Martine's face broke into a grin. "Oh, you two probably have to kiss now…"
Whatever glares were on the chefs' faces were replaced by confusion. What did Martine mean? They didn't need a verbal answer because Martine was pointing above their heads.
Mistletoe.
There was mistletoe hanging above their heads over the service area.
And it not help at all that Wallace was standing beside them.
"That's one more challenge for you two! For every order you put at the same time, you have to do it," he said, smiling idiotically. "Otherwise, either one of you has to yield or you don't put out orders at all. Your choice!"
Worse still was that the public was watching them!
Steven looked into Cynthia's eyes. He saw her face was as pale as his.
"You have to do it, boss!" Martine edged them. "Either way, this will be in the papers."
It was unfortunate that Martine was right. Cynthia, deciding that Steven was taking too long, went forward and kissed him.
As visitors passed the dirty bowls back to Martine, Sophie, and Laurent, Cynthia's Milotic and Lucario and Steven's Claydol had formed a team to clean them. While Claydol would be using its psychic powers to clean them rapidly, Milotic would be rinsing them after for Lucario to give them back to the chefs. Wallace had made sure there would be enough bowls, supplied by the Pokémon Centre itself.
The broth's aroma had attracted an audience within the hour. The donation bucket was filling up with people curious as to what was going on, braving the wind chill as they did. And as they braved the cold, they commended the two chefs' efforts to make food for their local Pokémon Centre in this weather. The hot food made by two famous local chefs brought directly to serve those who had to celebrate Christmas in a ward was worth supporting.
And as more went to have a meal, many who did, if not all, gave generously to the cause. The local media were already present taking pictures of the chefs and of the visitors enjoying their noodles in Razz and Wiki soup. Why, even the media ended up donating and settled down for a meal!
That also meant more orders for Steven and Cynthia to go through. The pair were furiously going through batch after batch of noodles and vegetables and they were a perfect pair while doing it. Unlike what Wallace had planned, the two chefs became more courteous to each other when they needed to as more orders flew in. They knew that to survive this many orders, they had to not get in each other's way. It all came down to their cooking skills.
As the snow continued falling and the wind chill kept up, their Pokémon were there to block the wind from getting in their way.
Soon enough, the lunch hour was complete, the bowls returned, and Wallace signalled the close. It appeared that Steven had won the round, judging from the stack of orders Steven had put in his 'finished' pile.
Yet Cynthia was fine with it, as she was content with people coming up to her and Steven and thanking them for the meals. Words like "Merci, chef! My day just got much warmer!" and "Thanks for the food!" were among the several thanks they got. And everyone they saw wore smiles.
After most of the dishes had been cleaned, Steven and Cynthia knew there was one more serving to go through. There was plenty of hot Razz and Wiki berry broth left over and they both made more bowls of noodles and soup, though obviously not as fast as the past hour. Steven gestured Cynthia to go serve them, insisting he would clean up the area.
So Cynthia was carrying a tray of two noodle bowls, with Martine, Laurent, and Sophie helping with more servings. Cynthia took the lead walking into the Pokémon Centre, going through the doors and filling the building with the aroma of Razz and Wiki berry soup. The aroma wafted from the nurse's desk in the centre to the lounges and shop around it.
The same nurse who saw them earlier clapped her hands in delight. "Is that for us?"
"It's fresh!" Cynthia replied. "And it's for you hard workers helping the sick. Say it's a token of appreciation."
The nurse's smile became wider and she called her colleagues in for lunch. "The patients wish to pass on their thanks to you. You should have seen how their faces brightened up! Honestly, thanks for doing this. We couldn't have asked for more."
Hearing that made Cynthia's heart melt a little. The impact was better than she expected!
The organisation that managed the Pokémon Centres in Coastal Kalos would be the recipient of the generous donations from Wallace's fundraiser. Wallace, Winona, and Lisia had taken their donation bucket and secured it in a charity account specially created by the bank, which would go to the organisation by the end.
"And the highlight is, the owners of Hotel Cyllage gave us a big cheque too! We ought to give them honourable mention!" Wallace remarked.
Winona wore a smile too, holding the empty donation bucket that had its contents in the charity account now. From what Cynthia saw, Winona was about to catch a cold.
"You okay, Winona?" Cynthia asked.
"I'm fine, I'm fine. You should get to counting…" Winona eyed the stacks of orders before the chefs.
Steven and Cynthia met together to count the orders they did today over their own servings of lunch. They both ate the same level of Razz berry spiciness, enjoying the Wiki berry flavour in the broth which was a sight for sore eyes and sore throats in the cold weather. They savoured the flavours critically, thinking whatever needed improving.
But it was a consistent and balanced flavour nonetheless.
"You beat me this time…" Cynthia after swallowing her last bite. "You beat me by nine orders!"
The final result was 109 to 100 in Steven's favour after the orders had been counted.
Steven tried to be positive, looking at Cynthia in the eye. "Look on the bright side, Cynthia! You were working on an entrée, right? So you must be improving! You'll catch up soon."
Cynthia looked back unsure whether to take Steven's words as a low-key effort at being smug.
"Is that a challenge? You're on!" She poked Steven's nose, causing him to blush a little and smile.
How was that? You can have a noodle bowl of Razz and Wiki berry broth too, you know! Just leave a review to have one.
Fun fact: I intended this Razz berry noodle to appear in Culinary Rivals but couldn't work it out. Now this is even better!