The day before the start of the second Stagiaire, which would be done on an individual basis, Daniel finally received his assignment from Totsuki. He was pleasantly surprised to see that he had been assigned to Ristorante F with Totsuki alum chef Fuyumi Mizuhara. 'Score!' he thought to himself. 'I couldn't have asked for a better assignment.' He called both Hisako and Soma to let them know what his second Stagiaire would be. Hisako was surprised to hear his assignment, but happy that Daniel seemed excited about it, knowing that he had impressed chef Mizuhara during the training camp.
Soma, of course, was thrilled for his friend that he was able to score such a plum assignment. He then told Daniel that he had been assigned to chef Kojiro Shinomiya's new Tokyo branch of Shino's. While Daniel was happy that Soma was excited, he was also worried about how Soma would fare. While he didn't think chef Kojiro would pull another stunt like he did at the training camp, he also knew that Kojiro would be notoriously difficult to please. "I'm glad you're happy dude," Daniel said over the phone. "I would have been stressed as hell if I had drawn that assignment." Soma tried to reassure Daniel, saying, "Nah! It'll be alright – just you see!"
The next morning, Daniel took the train downtown to where Ristorante F was located. When he arrived (early), he was met by the floor manager, who greeted him with a friendly handshake and led Daniel to the back office, where chef Mizuhara was waiting. When she looked up and saw Daniel standing in her office, she gave a small smile and got up from her desk to greet him. "Good – you're here early," she stated. "You're already making a good impression." Daniel then bowed in respect and said, "I look forward to working under your tutelage, chef."
As Mizuhara took Daniel to meet the rest of the staff that was already there, Daniel exclaimed, "When I saw that I had been assigned to your restaurant for the Stagiaire, I couldn't believe my good luck and drawing this assignment." Mizuhara then gave a sly smile as she replied, "Actually, luck had nothing to do with it. I requested you be assigned to me." Daniel raised an eyebrow as he asked, "Is that so?" When Mizuhara nodded, Daniel chuckled and exclaimed, "Well, then. I'll do my best to make sure you won't be disappointed!"
After some introductions to the other staff members – some friendlier than others – Daniel was provided with a uniform to wear while he was working at the restaurant. Once he had changed, he was immediately put to work doing various aspects of the ingredient prep. Although some of the tasks and techniques were new to him, once he was able to figure them out and get into a rhythm, his ability to hyper focus kicked in. As a result, he was able to complete his assigned tasks in about half the time it would have otherwise been expected. This came as a surprise both to the group of cooks working around him, and also chef Mizuhara, particularly given the fact that Daniel's background both at Totsuki and working in a restaurant environment in general was fairly limited.
"Yeah," Daniel commented, "I've always had the ability to mentally process what I need to do really quickly once I'm able to figure out how to do something." He then added somewhat sheepishly, "That ability really came in handy during the 50 servings challenge during the training camp." Mizuhara nodded and stated, "I imagine it was a very useful ability to have." Now that the prep work was done, Daniel was given his assignment for that night's service. For his first night, he would be working at the appetizer station, which included soups, salads, and all the other first-course dishes.
After the employee meal, Daniel went off with the cooks in charge of the appetizer station, who familiarized him with the recipes for all of the dishes that they were in charge of. Daniel's job would be to provide support however, wherever, and whenever he was needed. This meant that he would have to be ready to even create some of the food from start to finish if things got really busy. While the portion sizes were small, the task of cooking and assembling these dishes was not, as even the salads required a level of precision that Daniel hadn't previously worked with at Yukihira Diner. Nonetheless, he was able to figure it out and lend a helpful and useful hand during that night's service, much to his relief.
When he called up Soma that night after everything was finished, he found that Soma's Stagiaire was a bit more of a struggle, to say the least. The day had started out well enough, as he helped the small staff clean and set up the restaurant for its soft opening before donning the restaurant's cooking uniform and getting to work. There, he found that his past experience didn't prepare him for the surprising speed and efficiency that the rest of the team worked with. In fact, he had fallen behind and had been a hinderance. It was both surprising and painful for Daniel to hear Soma struggling, but he told his friend to hang in there and do everything he could to learn and get better. "You'll find a way to get through this – I know it," Daniel said before their conversation ended for the night.
The next day, Daniel was once again set to work doing the food prep, and once again he impressed the staff with not only the speed, but also the quality of the work he was doing. For the second night's dinner service, he was assigned to work with the station prepping and cooking the main courses, including pastas and fish dishes. He was shown how to make, roll out, and cut pasta for the restaurant (the overall procedure was familiar, but there were some variations for the restaurant's particular style), as well as how to filet, portion, and properly cook several types of fresh fish served on the menu. He also familiarized himself with several items cooked at the grill station. Again, it was very hard and grueling work, but he was able to adequately assist the other cooks when called upon.
For the third day, he was met by chef Mizuhara and led to an entirely different area of the kitchen, separate from the main part. As she led the way she commented, "I understand that you've developed an affinity for sweets and desserts, is that correct?" When Daniel confirmed that it was, Mizuhara smiled and stated, "Then I think you'll enjoy your work assignment today." She then pushed the door open in front of them to reveal the part of the kitchen where the desserts were prepped, created, and assembled. Unlike the main kitchen, it was a bit quieter, with much less craziness than was present elsewhere.
Chef Mizuhara then introduced Daniel to the restaurant's pastry chef, a young woman in her mid-20s named Minna. She had actually gone to Italy for several years, and worked in several bakeries and sweet shops up and down the peninsula before coming back to Japan, where Mizuhara immediately snapped her up for her restaurant. Over the next several hours, Minna showed Daniel how to make a number of traditional Italian desserts that the restaurant offered. Some of the work was in preparation for the next night, as it would take that long for certain aspects to set. During the afternoon break, Minna even allowed Daniel to sample a couple of the items so he could get an idea of how intense the flavors should be and what the textures should feel like. Daniel took to everything he was taught quite quickly, and Minna was very pleased with his work.
Meanwhile, Soma's experience at Shino's was getting better as the week went on. From what he told Daniel, he was able to make an impression by getting all the prep work done before any of the other chefs arrived in the morning and was able to pepper those chefs with as many questions as he could muster. While it was still hard work, he was improving, and he was having so much fun learning everything, he couldn't stand it! Daniel chuckled, but also reminded Soma to get at least some sleep, as it sounded like he spent the entirety of his nights reviewing, learning, and prepping. Soma just laughed at the suggestion and said, "Nah – I'll sleep when I'm dead," before hanging up.
On the fourth day, Daniel began to really wonder how he would be able to leave a lasting contribution to chef Mizuhara's restaurant, as it seemed to be running like clockwork from what he had observed. Almost as if she had heard his thoughts, chef Mizuhara led Daniel back to the pastry kitchen after Daniel arrived and changed for the day, saying that she had an important assignment for him – one that would determine whether he passed the Stagiaire or not. "Fewer people have been ordering the desserts lately, and Minna and I are at a loss as to why," she explained. "I want you to help her come up with something that will entice the customers to order a dessert with their meal."
When Daniel began to work that day with Minna, he asked whether there had been any specific complaints about the desserts lately. She said that there hadn't – just that they were being ordered less frequently. As Daniel tried to figure out how to solve the problem, he remembered his experience at the bakery the previous week – specifically how the owners integrated Japanese ingredients into European pastry recipes to create something unique. He told Minna about this and suggested that they do the same by offering "Japanese" versions of at least some of their desserts alongside the traditional ones. Agreeing to give it a try, they began to brainstorm ideas that they could execute fast enough to feature on the menu the next night for the weekend diners.
By the time Mizuhara came back to check on them that afternoon, they had come up with several ideas, including matcha biscotti with pistachios and white chocolate chips, black sesame panna cotta, and white miso caramel budino. The one that Daniel was the proudest of, though, was his take on tiramisu. For the lady fingers, he suggested adding matcha powder into the mix to give the cookies a green hue (though they were still dipped in a cold brew coffee before being added to the dish). For the cream, he added pureed Ube to the mascarpone to give it a bright purple color and a bit of an earthy flavor. Finally, he topped off the dish with more matcha powder instead of cocoa powder. All of this provided the desserts with flavors that their diners would be more familiar with while still creating them in the traditional Italian style.
The other thing Daniel suggested for an extra touch of elegance was to assemble and serve the tiramisu to order in martini glasses instead of carving out pieces from a giant pan, as was the usual practice. He also suggested that this could be done with the traditional tiramisu and would be a way to make it seem whimsical and original. After tasting the various creations, Mizuhara gave the go ahead to make and serve them the next night as specials. This would give her time to publicize those specials so diners would know to come and order them.
The next night would be a real test, not only because they would be making and serving these new recipes, but because it was a Friday night, and the weekend crush had begun. If Daniel thought it had been busy and crazy the other nights, this was an entirely different animal. Luckily, he and Minna had been able to spend the day prepping and creating the various components of the new desserts. As the night went on, it was clear that they were a hit! Nearly every table was ordering at least one of the desserts, with many of them placing orders for multiple dessert dishes. Plus, from what chef Mizuhara could tell, people were really enjoying them, as they were intrigued by the colors and flavors that weren't usually seen in Italian desserts.
At the end of the service, Minna thanked Daniel for all of his help and hard work that week. Although Mizuhara had to leave a bit early to meet some people at Shino's for a special occasion, she had witnessed enough that night to know that Daniel had been successful. As a result, Daniel passed the second Stagiaire, to the cheers of the rest of the kitchen staff, who had begun to warm up to him. Before he left for the night, they all complimented him on his hard work that week, and Minna even said that if he needed a job after he graduated Totsuki, she would be more than happy to have him as her assistant pastry chef. Daniel thanked her for the offer, and said he would consider it when the time came.
Although he had planned to meet up with Soma after he was finished, Daniel was exhausted (though in a good way) and decided he needed to go home for the night to sleep before he interacted with anyone. He sent a quick text to Soma before boarding the train and heading home. As Daniel discovered the next morning while making his way back to Totsuki, he made the right call. Soma called him excitedly, telling him that he had just left Shino's after winning the menu special competition with the rest of the staff and getting an all-night cooking lesson from chef Kojiro himself about how to refine and improve his winning dish. Daniel just chuckled and shook his head incredulously as he said over the phone, "Only you, Soma. Only you could have that happen with that chef."
As Daniel arrived back at Polar Star dorm, Soma was coming up beside him, with the two of them being the first ones back to the dorm. "Sounds like you had a good week with chef Mizuhara," Soma commented. "Congrats on passing the Stagiaire." Daniel grinned and said, "Thanks, man! Same to you! You really showed something this week with an absolute beast of a challenge." When they went through the front doors, they were greeted by Miss Fumio, who informed Soma that he had a bunch of letters waiting for him – all of them challenges for food wars from other students, which Soma was very excited about.
Moments later, someone burst through the doors looking for Soma. He introduced himself as Tetsuji Kabutoyama, a second year and the president of the skewer research society, and he wanted to challenge Soma to a food war, as he saw him (and several other first years) as now worthy competitors. While Daniel thought he was nice enough, he wasn't in the mood for a food war just yet. He felt he needed another day or two to decompress before he would be ready for something like that. Soma, as was his usual state, was not only excited by the prospect, but insisted on having the food war that very afternoon.
Exasperated, but not surprised, by Soma's usual overenthusiasm, Daniel decided to support him anyway, as he quickly dropped off his stuff before going with him to the arena, where he would cheer him on sitting front and center. Not only did Soma beat Tetsuji and win the right to learn his skewering techniques, but he also beat two other students in impromptu food wars, much to the amazement of most people there. As Soma was packing up the leftovers, a red-headed female student suddenly came bounding out of the arena halls and took samples of Soma's food, complimenting his creations. Soma thanked her warily while wondering exactly who she was. As he watched from the stands, Daniel could see a Cheshire cat-like expression on her face as she walked back to the hallway to rejoin a small group of upperclass students.
