“Yes, but not just any chocolate. You should make yours white chocolate. Allen loves soufflés, and he’s crazy about white chocolate. I’m convinced that’ll bring you right back here to Lake Eden for the next Food Channel challenge.”
“Perfect!” Delores told her. And then she turned to Hannah. “What’s the next challenge, dear?”
Hannah glanced down at her notebook. “The cake challenge.”
“Wonderful!” Aunt Nancy clapped her hands. “I’ve got that one covered, too. The Allen I knew in high school was a dyed-in-the-wool romantic. As a matter of fact, when we were older, he took me to the senior prom.”
“So he was your high school boyfriend?” Delores asked.
“Oh, no. Not at all. Allen wasn’t anyone’s boyfriend. He had someone he spent time with, but that wasn’t exactly a boyfriend-girlfriend relationship. Allen was too in love with himself to love anyone else.”
“If you felt that way about him, why did you go to the prom with him?” Hannah asked.
“I wanted to go and I didn’t have a date. And Allen wanted to go so that he could show off in a white tuxedo. No one had ever worn a white tuxedo to a prom before. And he wanted his date to wear the black dress and long black gloves that Audrey Hepburn wore in Break fast at Tiffany’s because it would complement his white tuxedo so well. Allen fancied himself as a trendsetter.”
“Do you think he’s still that way?” Lisa asked.
“Oh, yes. You can tell that by the food he creates. I wouldn’t want to eat some of his meals, but they’re very successful and trendy. That man can put together the most unusual ingredients and make people eat them and rave about it.”
Delores began to frown. “I’d like to know more about that prom. Did Allen go shopping with you to help you choose your prom dress?”
“Yes, and no. He handed me a photo of Audrey Hepburn wearing the dress and he asked me if I could sew a dress just like it if he paid for the material. And since I’d always loved to sew and I was good at it, I said, ‘Yes, of course I can. What size do you need?’ And I still remember how he leaned back and looked at me critically. I got the feeling he could see right through my clothes, and it made me terribly uncomfortable. I was about to tell him to forget it, that I couldn’t make a dress like that after all, when he said, ‘You’ll do if you wear your hair up like it is in the picture. And I’ll buy the gloves. Make the dress in your size.’ And then he asked me to be his date for the prom.”
“That’s not exactly romantic!” Lisa looked dismayed.
“I knew that then. And I also knew that he thought of himself as a sophisticated and debonair man of the world. He didn’t care who he took to the prom as long as she looked the way he wanted her to look. His date was just a prop to make him appear even more suave and urbane. But I wanted to go to the prom, and he was the class president, the most desirable date I could possibly have, so . . .” Aunt Nancy gave a little shrug. “I made the dress, put it on, and went to the prom with Allen Duke.”
“Did you have a good time?” Andrea asked her.
“I had a great time! All the girls admired my dress, and their dates couldn’t take their eyes off me. We were the most stunning couple there. Allen was a superb dancer, and we spent the whole night on the dance floor. When the prom was over, Allen took me home and then he went out on a late date with another girl he said wouldn’t have looked good in the Audrey Hepburn dress.”
Delores just stared at Aunt Nancy. It was the first time that Hannah had ever seen her mother speechless. It took Delores several seconds to recover and then she said, “How awful for you!”
“Not really. I knew that Allen was all show, and I wasn’t interested in him anyway. And I knew from the start that he wasn’t interested in me. On the whole, he was a perfect prom date.”
“But prom dates are supposed to be romantic,” Lisa objected. “How could he be a perfect date?”
“Allen looked romantic. I’m talking about movie-star romantic. I looked the part of the ingénue, and Allen looked the part of the handsome lover. And that’s the reason I told you this story. Chef Alain Duquesne appreciates someone who looks the part.” Aunt Nancy turned to Hannah. “Everyone at the Food Channel knows you’re getting married right after the competition. And by the time you arrive in New York, the judges will know it, too. That’s why I think you should bake a wedding cake for the cake challenge. And you should present it to the judges wearing your wedding veil. Allen will really appreciate that, and I can almost guarantee that he’ll give you a perfect score so that you can win that challenge too!”
CHIPS GALORE
WHIPPERSNAPPER COOKIES
DO NOT preheat your oven quite yet—this cookie dough needs to chill before baking.
1 box (approximately 18 ounces) yellow cake mix, the kind that makes a 9-inch by 3-inch cake (I used Duncan Hines—18.5 ounces net weight)
1 large egg, beaten (just whip it up in a glass with a fork)
2 cups of Original Cool Whip, thawed (measure this—a tub of Cool Whip contains a little over 3 cups and that’s too much!)