Happy New Year (2019)! And with it, presenting the 60th chapter of "Culinary Rivals"! Glad I could use the past couple weeks to rest up and write, and it's only been three weeks since the last update too. Whew!

So... Lumiose-style spinach-and-Iapapa salad, anyone? DaX0315, Physcres Wolf-Brother, and StRAngE ToASt certainly get a serving!

And with regards to darkwolf0909's review from before: I may actually consider adding your idea to a future chapter. Thanks!

Speaking of which, I'd like to thank DaX0315: remember that review you gave back in October 2016? This cook-off is basically the result of that idea.

Chapter sixty: Salad Standoff

Although it was Sunday and should have been a rest day for most workers, the organisers of the Steven-Cynthia cook-off were hard at work. There was much to be planned, coordinated, and executed at Prism Tower within a set schedule. Logistics may be called exhausting, but they were extremely important. Not to mention, security was an issue too.

That was exactly the case when Cynthia and Steven arrived at Prism Tower in yet another taxi together. Wallace did not escort them this time, but it was rather Metagross and Garchomp who did a much better job at clearing a path. Despite having police cordons, it felt a little safer to pass by with Pokémon assistance.

It had taken a long time for the chefs to arrive at the Gym's battleground. Yes, they had priority access to the elevators first, along with other staff and organisers. But they had to go through administrative duties like checking in with the judges, being briefed on the schedule procedure, and that their ingredients were brought in safely. Only then could people start going into Prism Tower and take their seats. That being said, the media had to get set up too before anyone could go inside.

Among those on the front line to get in were two certain receptionists of the Stone Bistro. There was a handsome male and a pretty female, and to anyone they looked like an idea couple. Nevertheless, they would disagree on that, but that was another story. The story they wanted to talk about was happening before them and between the two chefs no less. For what it was worth, it was entertaining yet sad at the same time.

Sophie and Laurent checked in with the staff to make sure they had paid the admission. They thought it was ridiculous that for an event like this, it still had to be paid for to be watched. Then again, that would require sponsorship, and since using the floor space and moving all the equipment in there wasn't free of charge, neither would admission. There just had to be a little something to cover the costs.

What Sophie and Laurent hadn't counted on was how many people were already in line waiting to get in.

"It makes you wonder if this is blown out of proportion." Laurent couldn't help smiling. As ridiculous as the circumstances may be, it was entertaining.

"You can probably blame Wallace for that. It's always all his fault!" Sophie replied. Now she and Laurent were in the foyer waiting in line for the elevators. In her opinion, it would take hours before she and Laurent could get close to one. "This is annoying…"

"You mean Wallace, or the lineup?" Laurent joked. "Look. It's like waiting at an airport lineup. It may look long, but we'll be there before you know it."

Sophie crossed her arms. "It's not the same! We were lucky to find a good seat when we arrived a little late – I didn't want to be like the first in line!"

Laurent smiled. "Let's be serious. On the plus side, we can get a front seat this time. That should be enough for us and Monsieur Stone. We might as well cheer him on, oui?"

In less than half an hour, the two receptionists were travelling on the elevator together with a crowd of others. The staff allowed only a certain number of people to travel per elevator ride, but the elevators were fast and there were enough for everyone, which helped when the receptionists finally stepped into the Gym space.

"People are already seating close to the front…" Laurent noted.

"But the media table is right there too! No, let's sit close to the judges!" Sophie cried. She grabbed Laurent's wrist and dragged him close to the judges' table and alongside it the reserved seats. Once they were both seated, they only had to wait for the judges to appear first, and then Steven and Cynthia.

The media were already here. Camera crew were setting up, journalists sat at the table with their laptops and notebooks in hand, and photographers went about optimising their cameras (including Viola and Alexa). More and more people started pouring onto the Gym floor while that was going on.

Cynthia and Steven were in the back getting ready. They had to switch to proper cooking attire, as it was appropriate to do so. As well, they loaded their ingredients onto baskets supplied by the organisers for their convenience. When the call came, Siebold would walk in to escort them to the stage; after all, he was the host.

As Cynthia sorted out her ingredients, she noticed that Steven was talking with Astrid on the phone. How could he talk to her at a time like this? If nothing else, Cynthia was almost… envious. Unsurprisingly, they were talking about battles, but of course there was some small talk regarding the competition too. She had to admit, Steven was impressive: he could be in two different places.

That was when Cynthia noticed that after Steven had finished with his call, he was set on making another. This time, Cynthia stole at glance at his phone just to see who he might call next.

But she remembered giving his phone number to him that day. Was it even possible that he could call her at this time?! This was not a good situation at all. What if her phone started ringing in their midst? Cynthia could imagine how much mayhem this could cause before the cook-off started.

Immediately, Cynthia retrieved her phone and left for the washroom. She had no choice! Lo and behold, her phone started ringing minutes later, and Steven's ID showed up on the display. Taking lots of deep breaths, Cynthia answered it – and the moment she did that, she wished she hadn't. Some kind of feeling came over her to answer the call.

But what when through her mind was different. Should she fake her voice so that Steven wouldn't be suspicious? He was standing only a few rooms away, so it was perfectly possible he would recognise her voice. What if she played like she was sick? That would be hard to fake though.

"H-Hello?" Cynthia said.

"Hey Cindy. How's it going?" Steven said on the other side.

Just keep it cool, Cynthia. Just keep it cool. Cynthia mentally told herself. She would have to be very careful.

"I'm… I'm okay. Just watching the cook-off." Wonderful. Now she would have to lie to get her way out of this, but in a way, it was true from a point of view. "Um… when are you going up?"

"Not long. Just you wait." Steven replied. "I promise today will be flavourful."

Now Cynthia couldn't help but scoff.

"Oh. Did I make you laugh, for once?"

"You just couldn't help but make a pun, eh?" Cynthia replied. "Anything else on your mind?"

"Actually, I was wondering if you'd like to meet up after today's competition."

Now that was unexpected, and it forced her to pause.

"What? With me?"

"Last night, you asked if I had plans, but I was busy, so I thought you would like it if I made up for it. Besides, your battling style is impressive. Want to talk about that together? I can pitch you a battle, if you'd like, or discuss things over dinner."

Cynthia was stunned. She tried keeping her cool. "Wouldn't you be tired out?" she replied. "We could always wait until tomorrow, when you've recovered."

"Hmm… good point. I'll want to demolish Cynthia first. Just watch me!" he said. "Speaking of which, I have to go. I'll see you later, then. Au revoir."

"Au revoir." Cynthia hung up the call.

She stared at her phone for a while, comprehending what had just happened in the past minute. Steven – him – had just called her. But something was amiss. What was going on now? Steven had asked Cindy out, but not her. He was set on beating her.

Cynthia's state of confusion was broken by the knocking on the door. "Cynthia!" Wallace's voice came from the other side. "I know you're in there! Hurry up! We're going live in a few minutes!"

But before heading out, Cynthia knew she had to keep her phone powered down. No way was she taking chances with Steven now, now that he actually called her. Wait, was it possible that Wallace had been listening on the conversation too? She hoped not, because Wallace might end up using that as leverage of some kind.

Once out of the washroom, Cynthia got her ingredients and went to where Siebold and Steven were waiting. What weighed on her mind was not cooking, but the phone call she had gotten.

Steven had asked her out.

"Oh, look. They're coming up at last." Sophie nudged Laurent to follow her gaze.

"Bienvenue," Siebold greeted. "We now resume this cook-off series between chefs Steven and Cynthia. This is the third round now, and we know that our chefs have each won a round up to now. But let us see what comes about today! The rules are the same – you will have forty-five minutes to prepare us a dish using a theme ingredient. This round's theme ingredient is…"

A Lumiose-style salad showed up on the display.

"Salad!" Siebold announced.

Steven and Cynthia looked like they were about to jump the gun in a draw, but they only needed to wait for the next word.

"Commencez!" Siebold shouted.

Just like the other day, Sophie and Laurent watched the two chefs jump straight to work, while the clock started counting down.

In the reserved seats, Wallace and Winona were already seated, along with Lisia and Martine. They were also joined by Diantha and Fantina, and Cilan's brothers.

"You weren't here for the first day," Wallace said to Fantina.

"I had some business to attend to." Fantina replied, her eyes still hadn't pried from the constant cooking. "It appears I have missed out on lots! Is Cynthia really that furious with cooking?"

"Hard to say." Winona got to answer before Wallace could. "I haven't seen Cynthia cook normally before."

Cynthia started off by preheating the oven. Taking an oven tray, she spread a baking sheet over it, and then began to cut dozens of cherry tomatoes in halves. Then she delicately, but very quickly, placed them onto the baking sheet while the oven was preheating.

They watched Cynthia separate Razz berries from clusters into single berries and put them all into a metal bowl. After that, she set about make pasta, from noodles freshly grinded from a pasta maker she had been using, and then set them to boil. While the pasta was boiling, she also went to crush the Razz berries, and smelled the spicy and dry aroma that came from it.

"Grepa berries?" Fantina said.

"Tu as raison," Diantha replied. "Razz berries are known for their spicy flavour, despite bearing a similar sounding name to raspberries. But Grepa berries… they are very sour, but sweet. I'm not sure if that is smart of Cynthia, to be honest."

Martine and Lisia were sitting in front of Diantha at the time.

"Whoa… Mademoiselle Diantha, I didn't know you knew your berry flavours!" The redhead was surprised, no less. "Okay, I knew you ate at Steven's restaurant, but still!"

"It comes with being Champion," Diantha replied. "In battling, you have to know your preferences, and know which ones are good are bad. Pick the right berry, and you'll be at an advantage."

Cress nodded. "If that's true, then Cynthia knows what she's doing. She was a Champion too."

Chili laughed. "But since Steven was one too! So this should be entertaining!"

They watched Cynthia season her pasta before adding the Razz berries into it. She also dropped a handful of sliced Tamato berries (which were, naturally, softer than the Razz berries) into the pot. The result was a strong spicy aroma that had enveloped the Gym battleground.

"Oh my gosh! That is strong!" Martine exclaimed. "My eyes are starting to water…"

Diantha passed Martine a tissue from behind. "You may need this then."

Cynthia kept an eye on the oven, and then put her tray of halved cherry tomatoes into it.

Viola was careful not to take too many pictures because her camera only had so much memory. It wasn't a bad idea either to simply enjoy the show too, which was what she did. She sat with her fellow Gym Leaders, plus Alexa, at the media table to watch.

"Have you seen what Cynthia is doing? She's boiling those Grepa berries into a sauce…" Grant said.

Korrina kept her eyes fixed on Steven. "Steven seems to be working with a lot of sour stuff. Iapapa berries, oranges… But he's using lettuce. Would you say Cynthia might have the upper hand on this one?"

Like the other day, Clemont sat with them at the press table. He added, "I think it's a little ironic. The media all report that Cynthia specialises in sweet flavours and Steven the savoury flavours. Why does it look like it's the other way right now?"

"We'll have to see when the judging comes, I guess," Grant replied.

Cynthia's saucepan with the Grepa berries was starting to steam. Next, she added salt and sugar into the mix before turning her attention to the Razz and Tamato mix of noodles. From the looks of things, she was fine with it.

Meanwhile, Steven had been busy mixing the lettuce and Iapapa berries together. To complement the flavour, he used spicy peppered vinaigrette into the mix to offset the incredibly sour flavour produced from the Iapapa berries.

It almost smelled like sour and spicy were at war with each other; each fighting to control the air.

"Okay. Now I'm wondering if Cynthia actually remembers that this is a salad competition, not pasta." Grant raised his eyebrows at Cynthia's efforts.

"Steven might have the upper hand in this one, if that's the case," Clemont commented.

Steven had been using a pair of tongs to furiously mix his salad together, and his efforts hadn't changed much from a minute earlier. Lettuce was still mixed with the other ingredients, and had the occasional drizzle of vinaigrette. But now Steven had added croutons and cheese – which seemed odd, seeing it was mixed with sour flavour.

Korrina smiled. "This should be interesting."

Steven then added cherry tomatoes of his own – but unlike Cynthia's, they weren't dried in the oven. Rather, they were freshly cut.

Eventually, the timer had hit zero, but the chefs had done their plating about five to ten minutes ago. In that time, Cynthia and Steven had managed to clean up their cooking stations, as the dishes were basically ready!

"What a bunch of show-offs." Sophie muttered.

"What can you say? They are chefs, after all." Laurent watched Steven and Cynthia bring up their dishes to the judges' table. Cilan and Chef Bordeaux sat patiently while Siebold went to take the stage.

"Time is up! Now, we shall proceed to judging." Siebold announced in front of everyone. "Cynthia shall go first!"

Cynthia had prepared three servings of her 'salad' and had them placed before each judge. An appetising red pasta dish with a bowl of yellow vinegar made up her salad. Sundried cherry tomatoes decorated the dish, and despite the spicy aroma, the pasta was cold to the touch.

"You have a Razz and Tamato berry pasta salad before you; served with a side of Grepa berry vinegar and market vegetables," she explained. "You would think this isn't a salad, but looks can be deceiving."

Siebold looked closely at the pasta. "Well done on refrigerating the pasta. But I am intrigued as to how it tastes."

Cilan took the first bite, but without the Grepa vinegar.

He coughed, as if he wanted to choke, and he started to sweat. "It's… so… hot…" he struggled to say, as if his throat was on fire. The next thing he did, he downed a whole glass of water without stopping, and he took deep breaths in an effort to cool down his tongue.

"Heheh… I would be a little careful," Cynthia warned. "It may be cold to the touch, but you'd be surprised at how hot it can get."

Siebold ate his dish carefully. "You stacked two spicy flavours on top of each other, so no surprise." Even he was starting to show a trickle of sweat. "If you had served this hot, I can only imagine this thing being a torture tool."

Cynthia grinned.

Meanwhile, Chef Bordeaux didn't even break a sweat after eating. "We should remember that the theme is still salad. Alas, what ties this pasta dish as a salad altogether boils down to the vinegar." He speared and twirled his fork into the pasta, and then dipped it into the vinegar. "It would be unwise to eat the pasta first, because the spice is too strong, but add the vinegar on top of it…"

He then ate the Grepa-coated pasta.

"The flavours balance, and becomes very delicious, and demonstrates what it means to create a salad," he added. "That being said, the sweetness from the sundried tomatoes does its diligence to keep the flavour in control."

The judges continued to take a few more bites of the pasta salad before rinsing their mouths with water. Unfortunately, after that bit, it appeared that Cilan was struggling to eat. He was sweating more, and

"Um… Cilan. You okay?" Siebold asked, concerned.

Now all the cameras were fixed on the Striaton Gym Leader. "Ugh… how many Razz berries did she put in there?" Cilan muttered. Then he fell back and collapsed on the ground.

THUD

"Cilan? Cilan!" Siebold shouted. "Oh no… it seems the spiciness has gotten to his head! He needs medical attention!"

Not even Cynthia had counted on Cilan to get knocked out, literally, by her pasta salad. The spiciness was as reduced it could, and even Chef Bordeaux had managed it well. She guessed it had to do with Cilan's tastes, or maybe he was having an off-day.

In the next few minutes, a few organisers helped escort Cilan off the stage, and then – to Steven's mild disbelief – Wallace came up to the stage.

"Dear friends! And all people watching this amazing competition! My name is Wallace, one of the organisers here!" he happily shouted into the mic. "We apologise for this unexpected turn of events, but have no fear! We've planned for this in case one of the judges called in sick."

Much of the crowd looked unconvinced by Wallace's statement. Lots of groaning followed among a wave of indistinct chatter.

"Just in case if something went wrong, I've brought in a backup judge! He'll be good for filling in Cilan's position, and he's totally unbiased!"

Yeah, right, Steven thought.

"Please welcome, also from the same Richissime-recognised restaurant as Cilan: Chili!" Wallace declared, which was followed by a thunderous round of applause.

Chili's shocked expressed probably matched everyone around him. Cress, Winona, Fantina, and even Martine were surprised.

"Um… you probably don't have a choice, brother," Cress said.

Diantha nudged Chili to go up front, in which he reluctantly did and sat in Cilan's seat. That went without saying that he felt awkward. Why couldn't Cress have gone instead?

"Um… right…" Chili sheepishly said, and he started on the dish that Cilan had barely eaten. After taking several bites of Cynthia's salad, he ended finishing the whole thing. "Hmm… you are right! It's very spicy! So spicy, no wonder my brother got knocked out!"

Mild laughter followed.

"But I like it. The flavours are just packed with Razz and Tamato flavour, and it's enough to make anyone's face red," Chili said. "If this had been served hot, that's just – to quote Siebold – torture. But hey, I have a spicy tooth."

"So, does this mean that Chili will make an unbiased decision later?!" Wallace said, perhaps too enthusiastically, to the crowd. "Will he –?"

"Whoa whoa whoa, Wallace. That comes later!" Chili cut in before Wallace could say more. "First, we must try Steven's salad!"

Wallace had to stay quiet, and the response from Chili surprised Cress.

"Chili has never spoken that professionally before," Cress mumbled to Winona and Diantha.

"Argh… Wallace! If I was up there with him right now, I just want to bring a fist to his face again! He is so annoying!" Winona smacked her fist into her own palm.

Martine grinned.

Seems like Cynthia's salad is too overpowering. It even knocked out Cilan! Still... it seems ridiculous that Steven had asked out Cindy, eh? What will that do to Cynthia's sanity?!

Speaking of which: you can review, and dare to eat Cynthia's Razz and Tamato pasta salad, dressed in Grepa vinegar and market vegetables...