Buch lesen: «Spicing It Up»

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It’s too easy to fall into a familiar routine that eventually turns stale—whether the routine is in your kitchen, your bedroom or other areas. Sometimes, we gotta spice life up.

—from the foreword to Six Course Seduction by Chef Miriam Scott

SINCE THAT MOMENT in junior-high home ec when I first realized, “Hey, I kick ass at something,” through all the family gatherings where my sanity had been preserved by sautéing in solitude while boisterous relatives drove each other nuts elsewhere in the house, the kitchen has been my refuge. There’ve been nights on the job when I’ve actually had the urge to shuffle from the walk-in freezer to the pastry station proclaiming, “Sanctuary! Sanctuary!” But why scare the line cooks?

Tonight, I was using the after-hours serenity for a moment of private victory in the silent, stainless-steel surroundings. We’d wowed one of Charleston’s pickier restaurant critics, and the crew had all left for a round of triumphant drinks. I’d taken a rain check, claiming the need to work on a test recipe. From their winks and nudges, it was clear they’d interpreted my excuse as code for clandestine celebration with Trevor. Truthfully, while I don’t have one of those “chef’s temperaments” you hear about, I had enough ego to want to savor the accomplishment alone.

But I wasn’t alone long. “Miriam?”

Startled at the interruption, I glanced up from the pan of ginger consommé I was stirring at the stove. Trevor Baines, whom I’d expected to be working on bookkeeping for another hour, stood shadowed in the doorway. When he stepped into the light of the kitchen, I smiled at how miraculously unrumpled he was in his dark-blue dress shirt and black slacks. The handsome owner of Spicy Seas, Trevor is technically my boss but also my long-term boyfriend. He’s tossed around the description “fiancé” once or twice, but we’ve been too busy with our business plan to discuss wedding plans.

I doubted that was why he’d sought me out now, though.

“We need to talk,” he said. Despite our doing a great night’s business, his expression was medium dire with a side of pity.

In fact, his features were arranged in what I think of as his Poor Baby face, the one that secretly makes me want to smack him in the head with a spatula. Don’t get me wrong, Trevor’s a great guy, but from time to time he can be unintentionally patronizing, especially when giving bad news. As if I need to be handled delicately. He should know better than anyone how staid and dependable I am.

My creative culinary bent and occasional errant thought about spatula violence notwithstanding, I was the one who calmly dealt with the behind-the-scenes crises that almost always arise when launching a restaurant. Trevor contributed family money—which secured us the place—and his sweet-talking ability to charm vendors, prospective clients and the staffs of food magazines. His people skills and my fabulous recipes have made Spicy Seas one of Charleston’s most successful new dining spots. I have as many insecurities as the next vaguely neurotic twenty-eight-year-old American woman trying to have it all, but my cooking isn’t one of them.

I turned off the burner, sensing that whatever he had to say needed my undivided attention. “What’s up?”

“First of all, let me just say you did a great job tonight.” He ran a hand through his wavy black hair. “You always do, but that critic really liked the wreck-fish and spicy fruit salsa.”

Wreckfish is a recent South Carolinian delicacy; the salsa, based on tamarind, is a specialty of mine.

“I think the write-up is really going to help us,” he continued. Which was all to the good, but his smile had the same ring of insincerity as a doctor who says, “This shouldn’t hurt,” just before jamming in the hypodermic needle.

“Thanks, Trevor. You know I appreciate the praise, but if there’s something wrong, you don’t have to soften me up first.”

He chuckled. Nervously. “Such a pessimist. What makes you think something’s wrong?”

Certain symbols throughout history have been universally recognized as Bad Signs—a skull with cross-bones, for example. And the words we need to talk. He had to have been really nervous to make such a rookie mistake.

Oh, God. Was Spicy Seas in trouble?

Profits had been promising, particularly for a restaurant less than a year old. Promotion had been well planned, and the critics had been kind thus far. The recent change in seafood suppliers was costing us a bit more, but our new provider’s strict attention to conservation principles would benefit restaurateurs up and down the coast.

Don’t panic. Whatever the problem was, we would deal with it. My friend Amanda had commented once or twice that she didn’t see the sparks between Trevor and me—and we’d subsequently decided that maybe it was better just not to discuss our respective love lives—but sparks or not, Trevor and I made a good team.

“Just tell me what happened,” I prompted.

“All right.” His hazel eyes were full of anxiety, and he glanced away. “The truth is, I don’t think this is going to work.”

“The restaurant?” My worst fears, realized. I was certain my face had gone the same white as my discarded toque, the chef’s hat I’d removed at closing.

“No, not the restaurant, Miriam. It’s doing great. I meant us.”

Spicy Seas was doing great—relief bubbled up inside me like milk at a fast boil. Wait a minute, cancel that order. “Us? As in, you and me?”

He nodded, suddenly looking haggard in a way that was rare for him even after a double shift. “I think the world of you. You know that.”

Well, I’d inferred it, based on our discussing eventual matrimony. Maybe that had been presumptuous.

“You’re a talented chef, too,” he continued, his Poor Baby expression firmly back in place as he oozed flattery, no doubt meant to temper the blow. “And a, um, lovely person. These months with you—”

“While we’re young, Trevor.” I sounded as impatient and demanding as the most dreaded culinary professor, but allowances for snippiness should be made when a girl’s getting…dumped? For a moment, confusion beat out all the other emotions swirling inside. What was going on, and why hadn’t I seen it coming? “Is there someone else?”

I had no idea when he would have found time to cheat on me, but I’d watched him charm dozens of women. Women who showed up at the restaurant in little black dresses and the latest haircuts. The combination of hours spent in a hot kitchen and unflattering, boxy chef’s whites don’t exactly create a Vogue cover look.

Trevor shook his head. “It’s not anyone else. It’s you.”

“Me?” I blinked, indignant. Although I could objectively admit he dealt nightly with more attractive women, I still thought he had a lot of nerve to announce that whatever problem we had was my fault. My right hand felt along the countertop for a spatula.

“Not that you’ve done anything wrong,” he hastened to add. “I talk about us during publicity interviews, and it’s really made me think about our relationship. You and I together, we don’t make sense. Take a rack of lamb—it goes so perfectly with a cabernet sauvignon.”

I was too caught off guard by this conversation to point out that the entire concept of Spicy Seas was more imaginative combinations.

“You wouldn’t pair it with a cheap beer, right?”

I managed to find my voice. A hoarser, angrier version of it, anyway. “You’re calling me a cheap beer. You’re breaking up with me and insulting me? In my kitchen?” He probably had hot plans to crash a convent and harangue nuns next.

Forget whacking him with a spatula, this called for something cast-iron.

“Our kitchen,” he corrected with a surly tone no customer would ever hear. “My reputation’s on the line with this place. I’m somebody in the restaurant community, among the movers and shakers of Charleston. I want you to stay, of course—you’re part of what makes Spicy Seas work—but you aren’t the woman people expect to see on my arm.”

“Trevor, I…” Have no idea what to say. This man who had ardently pursued me now thought I didn’t fit his image and should be cast aside like a freaking cuff link that didn’t look right with his jacket?

He sighed. “I know there’s such a thing as being too blunt, but you deserve the truth. Inside the kitchen, you make some of the spiciest, most creative dishes I’ve ever tasted. But everywhere else, Miriam, you’re a little too bland for me.”

WHEN I ARRIVED HOME—a reasonably priced duplex apartment in North Charleston with nice amenities but entirely too little kitchen counter and pantry space—I was still vacillating between shock and anger. Tomorrow, I might be feeling homicidal, or at least angry enough to submit my résumé to Spicy Seas’ top competitors. Tonight, though, hours of being on my feet and orchestrating the precision timing of entrées had left me too drained to sustain quality rage.

I pitched my keys on the unfinished wooden TV stand in the living room, then plunked myself down on the striped couch, where I went through the motions of shuffling the day’s mail. But I couldn’t truly focus on any of the envelopes in my hand, stuck as I was on the unexpected relationship drama that had unfolded. In this evening’s performance, the part of Arrogant Jackass will be played by Trevor Baines.

I was bland?

Until tonight, I’d been “methodical,” which benefited my cooking and was one of the traits Trevor had claimed to like, part of what made us a good match. Trevor had always been more an ambitious dreamer than a doer, although he had been proactive about our relationship. From the beginning, he had pursued me. Perhaps that in itself should have been a red flag, now that I thought about it. None of the men I’d attracted before—not that their numbers were legion—had possessed Trevor’s looks, money and charisma.

Don’t get me wrong. I didn’t fall out of the ugly tree or anything, I’ve just never been one to put much energy into attracting attention. Because of my hours sweating in the kitchen, I tended to skip makeup and simply pull back my too-dark-to-be-blond, not-quite-brown hair. My style guidelines came from the health department rather than fashion magazines. Besides, even if I were more fashion-conscious, I’m not exactly a hotbed of potential, with a body just waiting to be draped in the right materials. I exercise frequently to avoid love of food becoming expanse of ass, so I’m not overweight, but I’m not waiflike, either. Or curvy. I have what’s politely called “an athletic build.”

The no-frills exterior hadn’t dissuaded Trevor, though. We’d met when I was working as a sous-chef at an upscale restaurant where the manic executive chef walked out in a prima donna fit one night. I’d received a hasty interim promotion, and Trevor, a regular patron, had noticed the difference. He’d asked to come back to the kitchen and pay his compliments, and we’d started dating soon after.

Now that I thought about it, even his earliest displays of interest had included his conviction that I was destined to be the headliner somewhere instead of an understudy…and hints that he wanted to open a place of his own. Some men schemed to get into a woman’s pants. Guess Trevor had just wanted into my recipe box.

I blinked away a fleeting sense of feminine inadequacy, redirecting my irritation to this month’s bills. But the dove-gray envelope in my hand said Hargrave NonFiction. My fingers trembled slightly, and I dropped everything else on the mosaic-tiled end table. Although it had originally been Trevor’s brainstorm for me to try to have a cookbook published, as a possible promotional tie-in to the restaurant, I’d enthusiastically warmed to the idea. So many months had passed since I’d submitted the pages, however, that I’d almost given up hope of ever hearing back from the publisher. Fine cognacs aged in less time than it took these people to make decisions.

The letter in my hand was thin, and I was half-afraid to open it. Wouldn’t good news have come by phone so that we could discuss details? Then again, if it was bad news, what better time to get it than tonight? All I needed were some black balloons and second-rate wine and I could throw myself a genuine pity party.

I scanned over the letterhead and obligatory “Thank you for thinking of us” opener. They don’t want it. I read the note twice, then wished I’d stopped at the first pass. The upshot was that my recipes sounded fantastic—but people would never discover this if they didn’t buy the book, and I didn’t have a strong enough marketing hook to stand out among the daunting competition of better known chefs. The editors invited me to try again if I could present a more persuasive selling point, which I took to mean, “Please resubmit if you ever get famous.”

It’s not personal, I told myself. But it sure as hell felt that way, in light of the double whammy I’d received tonight. My lover found me to be not woman enough for him, and now an editorial committee in New York had deemed me not chef enough. My identity was caving in like a subpar soufflé.

I punched a sofa pillow. Normally, my coping mechanism of choice was a therapeutic cooking binge, but for what it would take to make me feel better tonight, my kitchen didn’t have the necessary square footage. I wasn’t sure the eastern seaboard had enough square footage. I knew how everyone else in my family handled crisis—talking. They’d talk it out, then do a recap, followed by lengthy discussion of how much it meant to them that they could have these meaningful conversations.

Big with the sharing, my family.

Mom, Dad and my older brother, Eric, have a patent-pending method of baring their souls as quickly and often as possible. If they could get it registered as an Olympic event, the Scotts would take home gold every four years. I picture it as a lot like the luge, but in the three minutes it takes the team to get to the bottom, they’d have to exchange stories on every date, breakup and medical condition they’d ever had. Judges would base scores on technique around the curves and accurate recall of personal details.

Despite my family’s manic outgoingness—or maybe because of it—I’ve always been a little reticent. There used to be tremendous pressure for me to “open up,” but then my brother married a woman who filled the gaping hole in my parents’ lives, giving them the daughter they’d expected me to be. It’s difficult to tell from my twin nieces’ frequent inappropriate public announcements whether they’ve inherited the legacy, or they’re just being standard-issue three-year-olds.

I’m thinking they came by it honestly. My sister-in-law is not to be trusted in public. I’d been with her at a grocery store a few months ago, bent down to grab a pack of gum, and by the time I straightened, Carrie had launched into a discussion about breast-feeding with the cashier—much to the chagrin of the elderly man ahead of us in line. I may have temporarily blacked out when the words cracked nipples became part of the conversation.

I had to admit, though, that for all my discomfort with the soul-baring Scotts, a sympathetic ear sounded pretty good right now. What I really needed was a sympathetic ear that came with mob ties and an affordable have-your-ex-whacked layaway plan. (I’m kidding, of course. I have my eye on a new set of Calphalon cook-ware I’d spend money on long before I wasted any funds on Trevor.)

Just this once, I gave into genetic coding and reached for the cordless phone. Lord knows Carrie would be elated if I called her. The dial tone buzzed in my ear along with second thoughts. If I confided in Carrie, everyone who’d ever met me would know about my humiliation by noon tomorrow. Besides, my sister-in-law wasn’t part of the Vampire Club—meaning she, like most normal people, would be asleep right now.

Folks who work in the food services and the club/bar scene tend to form a tight-knit group because of our isolating schedules. For instance, my neighbor a few doors down, bartender Amanda White, is my polar opposite in many ways—from her outspokenness to her compulsive dating—but we share the habit of getting home around three in the morning. Over the past four months, we’d become pretty good friends, frequently meeting after hours for breakfast and parting ways before sunrise. Hence the vampire reference, though frankly I’d be lost without garlic.

I knew Amanda hadn’t been scheduled to work tonight; would she still be up? Before I even realized I’d stood, I was opening my front door, still clutching the rejection letter. The summer night air was muggy around me, and I clenched my fists as I strode toward Amanda’s. By the time I reached her front porch, I’d unconsciously crumpled the paper in my hand to roughly the size of a bouillon cube.

Soft lights spilled through the curtains of Amanda’s front windows, so I rapped my knuckles across the door, loudly enough to catch her attention if she was reading in the living room or watching a DVD, but gentle enough that she could ignore it if she was sleeping…or otherwise engaged. She receives amorous offers on a near nightly basis, which, trust me, you’d understand if you saw her. I try never to stand too close to her, for self-esteem reasons.

Footsteps thudded on the other side of the door, followed by a pause. I knew she was glancing through the peephole, and I stood waiting, feeling oddly like a suspect behind a one-way mirror in a police lineup.

The security chain rattled, then Amanda opened the door. Her curly chin-length hair, platinum blond of late, was tousled—very new-millennium Marilyn Monroe—and a pink nightshirt hung to midthigh, her tall, curvy frame making her look like a lingerie model despite the plain cotton. “Hey, Miriam.”

“Did I wake you?”

“Course not. I can’t remember the last time I was in bed this early,” she said, her alert gaze confirming her answer as she backed away from the door.

Once we were both inside, she studied me with a curious expression. “Is everything okay?”

“I, ah…Not really.”

She waved her hand to indicate I should follow her into the oblong kitchen/dining room area. Our floor plans were almost identical, but her furnishing was as modern and fashionable as she herself was. She sat in a straight-backed chair at the black lacquered table. I remained standing, restless despite my fatigue.

“You want to talk about it?” she prompted.

Sort of. I mean, that’s why I was here, but the words didn’t exactly burst forth.

How did my family do this? If I explained how the evening had begun so promisingly, only to end in my being dumped and rejected, wouldn’t it start stinging all over again? Wouldn’t I sound like a pathetic loser? Clearly, if spilling your guts was an Olympic event, I wouldn’t make it past the qualifying round.

Besides, although Amanda was arguably my closest friend, we had an unspoken agreement not to discuss Trevor much. He had never hit it off with her, which I’d found ironic considering the huge number of men she did like. It was a little embarrassing to find out she’d been right.

“Mir?”

I stared at her blankly.

“I’ve got some vino in the fridge,” she offered. “Want me to break it out?”

As long as it wasn’t the type of cabernet sauvignon you were supposed to pair with lamb. “Trevor and I broke up.” The admission got me going—pushed me over the edge and unleashed the building g-forces.

Amanda’s memorable violet eyes widened in shock as I paced around the table, explaining in rapid-fire delivery that I was somehow “too bland” for the man who had proclaimed to love me as recently as…Well, I couldn’t specifically remember the last time he’d said it, but still! Then I talked about how Hargrave NonFiction, people who’d reportedly paid six figures for the biography of a supermodel’s Chihuahua, didn’t want me either.

At some point, Amanda poured us each glasses of white wine. Having had practice with people sharing tales of woe over cocktails, she was a seasoned pro at listening. Mostly, she muttered little sounds of encouragement and, where appropriate, a briefly interjected, “That pompous bastard.” All much appreciated. When I finally wound down, I slumped into one of the matching chairs, realizing I did feel oddly better. Maybe there was something to be said for this talking stuff out.

But they’d be serving sorbets in hell before I worked cracked nipples into a conversation.

“Wow.” Amanda heaved a sigh. “I’ve never heard you say so much at one time. You’re good and truly pissed off.”

“You don’t think I should be?”

“Are you kidding? I’m ecstatic. I mean, not about the rotten night, but everything will work out in the long run. This just gives you the chance to write an even more kick-ass cookbook. And I never was convinced that Trevor was the right guy for you.”

After tonight, I was inclined to agree. Who the hell did he think he was? The encounter at the restaurant had knocked me so off balance that his unexpected criticism had temporarily made me feel lacking somehow. Colorless and insignificant. But the only thing wrong with me were the hours I’d wasted on an ungrateful egomaniac.

I’ll show him colorless.

I slapped my hands down on the table and leaned forward. “You know what? I want to get—”

“Sloshed?” She stood to get us more refills.

My friend, the ever helpful bartender. When life hands you lemons, do tequila shots.

“No. Well, maybe.” I was getting there, since I’d been pretty tired even before the first couple of glasses. “But I was going to say even.”

“You want vengeance?” she asked as she walked around the counter that separated the dining room from the kitchen.

“Not vengeance.” In the past, I’d channeled my emotions into cooking and had come up with some of my best dishes. Now, my anger had taken a subconsciously productive turn. “Vindication.”

Bland, huh, Trevor?

Not compelling enough for the Big Apple big shots?

Maybe I could roast two ducks with one glaze.

“I have a plan,” I said.

Amanda shook her head. “Can I be like you when I grow up? I’d still be cussing the guy out and cutting up his picture, and here you are already methodically working through your problems and coming up with sensible solutions.”

I winced at the word methodical, wondering if it was code for boring. “I’m not sure sensible is the right word for what I have in mind.”

“Ooo…I’m liking the sound of this. Anything I can do to help?”

“Possibly.” Even though I’m often more of a loner, I couldn’t think of anyone better for helping me brain-storm my bizarre, fledgling idea—the type of idea best mulled over at 3:00 a.m. with a little alcohol buzzing through your system.

“So, what’s your plan?” she wanted to know.

I laughed recklessly. “Sex sells, right?”