Yes Chef, No Chef

chapter Twenty Four



Who the bloody hell did she think she was? Tim raged jumping into the Chevrolet and saw flour from the dough on the side of his jeans. He brushed it off tutting with irritation and swung the car away from the outside of her flat to head down Grafton Road at great speed.

Her accusation about Julie had hit a raw nerve and was still ringing in his ears when he got back to the restaurant. Breathing deeply to calm himself down he wondered exactly where Sarah had seen him. But there again, he’d been so drunk that night she could have been in the restaurant when they were eating, or even outside where he’d been kissing Miss Cupcake.

The smell of cooked turkey wafted from the kitchen and Simon stood at the bench when he walked up to him clapping him on the back.

They examined the turkey together and Simon grinned enthusiastically. “It looks great, chef.”

Jessie stepped up to the bench and admired their handy work and Tim caught their excitement. “Well, as they say the proof is in the pudding,” he said. “Knife, please, Jessie.”

Tim carved the front of the bird cleanly and swiftly into thick slices and they all took a chunk to taste. The texture was moist, the traditional turkey flavour was excellent, and to make sure the duck and goose meat ran from one end to the other he carved right through the centre of the turkey. Simon wrapped some of the slices in pastry, brushed them with egg wash, and Jessie put them straight into the pre-heated oven.

“Oh Tim,” she said eagerly, “It’s going to make a great centrepiece for the royal banquet.”

Tim was back to his general good humour and agreed with her while making notes with Simon about the merits of duchess potatoes verses roast potatoes. Tim’s mobile rang and he walked away from them back to his office.

The call was from Luke who briefly told him because the Yorkshire company didn’t want to lose him they were arranging a transfer to a small branch near Notting Hill and, because he had holiday to take he’d be coming in less than a week. Tim was overjoyed that Luke had agreed to stay with him in the apartment, and not just for his company, because it meant that with a small amount of rent from him he could, for the foreseeable future, stay in the apartment. He made a mental note to ask his mum to send her cleaner across to spruce up the single bedroom.

When he lay in bed that night he thought about kneading the dough with Kate and how fantastic it had been to be so close to her gorgeous body again. It had felt familiar, yet at the same time still made him feel randy as hell, and from what he could remember from his drunken escapade with Miss Cupcake he knew she didn’t come anywhere close to what he’d had with Kate. Unable to sleep he turned onto his side and punched the pillow - it was obvious that Kate thought the worst of him now and who could blame her after hearing about Julie. He figured that Sarah must have seen them kissing outside the restaurant because Kate had taken such offence to it and he’d heard a smidgen of jealousy in her accusing voice. Which was silly because in the past she’d had no reason to doubt his feelings for her - he’d been utterly captivated by Kate from the first time he saw her.

He’d met her with Frances at a party and had been blown away with her natural and carefree manner, her glossy thick hair, tanned slim legs, and full breasts straining against a tightly buttoned cream shirt. And the first night he’d made love to her he’d thought their bodies seemed to fit together like a jigsaw puzzle, but sadly now there was a corner piece missing and he didn’t know how to find it and put it back together again.

“Maybe I should have tried to explain about Julie but I just felt so hurt and angry when she obviously believed the worst of me straight away and I figured making excuses would have made me look even guiltier?” he said to Luke while they were squatting on the lounge floor with cans of lager. He’d arrived an hour ago and had dumped his case, bags, and rucksack on the floor while they’d flopped down to have a drink and catch up.

Luke rested back on his rucksack. “Yeah, but why feel guilty, mate? I mean, its ages since you two split up and officially you’re a free agent.”

“I know, but funnily enough even though I know it’s all over between us I just can’t bear the thought of her disliking me?”

Luke got up on his knees and clapped a friendly hand on Tim’s shoulder. “I’ll get this lot put away in the bedroom,” he said, and then stared at him through his rimless glasses. “Do you want her back, Tim?”

Tim looked up at his friend, slowly nodded, and said wistfully, “I’d give anything I own to have her back…”

The next day in the restaurant Jack appeared in his office with exciting news. A food critic was coming to the restaurant the following week to taste Tim’s new Victorian dishes and his comments were going to be included in an article in The Telegraph advertising the royal wedding banquet. Jessie was just about hopping up and down on one leg with excitement when he told them about it.

Tim looked seriously at her. “Jessie, they say that a messy kitchen is a happy kitchen but I don’t even want to see a smile on this kitchens face.”

Jessie looked dumbly at him and Simon said to her, “Duh …he means the kitchen has got to be spotless!”

“Oh right,” she said sheepishly. “You can count on me, Tim.”

“And get some agency help booked because I want every cupboard and chiller turned out and scrubbed, and the use-by-dates on all the spices and condiments, in fact, on everything double checked.”

She sighed heavily at the amount of extra work but then he put an arm along her shoulder. “Thank God, I’ve got you two because quite frankly I couldn’t manage without you both,” he said sincerely and she flushed pink cheeked with pride

And then it was time for Simon’s face to beam with pleasure when Tim asked him to concentrate solely on the new dishes with him, and leave the everyday menu to the other two chefs.

“One chef,” Jessie corrected him.

Tim looked blankly at her and raised an eyebrow in confusion. “One?”

“Yeah, Geoff, the oldest guy is touring India on holiday for two weeks, he leaves this Friday. Didn’t you know?”

Tim couldn’t believe it and after getting to the bottom of the story he found out that Jack had honoured his holidays at the interview but of course hadn’t told him about them. Great, that’s all he needed, he raged, one chef down for the important visit, but it was do-able he’d just have to be especially well organised and hopefully Simon would work some extra hours.

At the beginning of the following week disaster struck when his other new chef was involved in a car accident. Jessie told him the news that he had a fractured pelvis and was on six weeks bed rest in the hospital.

Sitting at his desk Tim put his head in his hands and groaned, “Christ, it’s two steps forward and bloody three steps back at the moment.”

“We’ll be OK,” Jessie said positively. “We’ll just have to get an agency chef to help?”

Flipping open his diary to look for telephone numbers, he said, “I’ll start to ring around now and see who’s available. I’ve got five days to find another chef.”

By the end of the lunch time service he still hadn’t found anyone and had heard the same excuse over and over again that all the good chefs were tied up and he was trying desperately not to panic.

Could they do it, he wondered? Could he and Simon cope with the set lunch time menus and the new Victorian dishes too? He was determined to talk to Jack later to see if he could get a pay rise for Simon because as a commis chef he was struggling on a low salary and his commitment to the business definitely warranted a pay rise.

Later that night Jenny called into the apartment, she said, “Well, Bro, if I was any good at cooking I’d come along to help you?”

Tim made a sign of a cross guarding against her offer to which they both roared with laughter. Remembering an occasion when they were students and she’d tried to bake a cake which had all gone horribly wrong, he joked, “Er, thanks but no thanks.”

Jenny had started to call at the apartment once a week now to see him and although they still had the odd tiny spat they were getting along so much better which pleased him greatly. He loved having the support from his big sister now and at one time where he’d resented her and confused this support with interference, he now thought of her as one of his biggest allies.