Spiced

Author:Dalia Jurgensen
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Group US
Published: 2010-02-25T16:00:00+00:00

FIFTEEN

Seeing Stars

She sidled into the kitchen, casually making her way over to the expediter station, where Joey stood taking command of the kitchen. It was Camille, the twenty-year-old French coatcheck girl at Scarabée, in her usual “uniform”: snug, low-cut shirt and even snugger black pants. She walked right up to Joey, practically wrapping her lithe body around him. She coyly posed whatever question she’d come up with as an excuse to leave her coat-check post and come back to the kitchen, where the real work happens. Joey’s eyes remained fixed on the dupe slide, which held the order tickets for every table seated in the dining room. As expediter, he was at the helm of the kitchen, funneling ordering information to the cooks, but he was also a liaison between the waiters and kitchen and all special requests or questions had to go through him and only him. The cooks had to remain focused on their pickups, and the waiters had to wait for his direction before taking food out of the kitchen. If there is a linchpin in a busy kitchen, it is the expediter. Joey listened to Camille while he continued to manage the dupes: crossing out appetizers as they left the kitchen, noting times, “spiking” tickets when a table’s order had been completed.

Camille stood close to him—too close. Her eyes fluttered up at him as she waited. Eyes still on the dupes, Joey cracked a slight, wry smile, and I watched him mouth the word okay, which transformed Camille’s expectant face into a wide grin. She turned and pranced out of the kitchen, her full, perfect ass the last of her to go. I realized with a sudden pang of nausea that Camille and Joey had slept together. Worse: They’d been sleeping together.

“Fuckin’ hot!” said Vinnie in a loud stage whisper.

We’d been open only six weeks and already the line cooks were comfortable in their new setting, each one taking on a role. Vinnie, the heavily accented Brooklyn native, was the only cook adept enough at his job to not only notice and comment on every female who entered the kitchen but also simultaneously put up twelve perfectly executed entrées. He had a smart, streetwise answer for everything and everyone, aside from Joey, for whom he had great respect. The rest of the cooks idolized him. I didn’t need any verbal confirmation of Camille’s hotness, but I was helpless. I could no sooner shut up Vinnie than I could ignore him.

“Is that ready?” Marlene’s voice snapped me back to reality. “The dessert,” she went on. “Can I take it? My table’s in a rush. Pre-theater,” she explained.

I looked down at the warm pear tart Tatin oozing caramel, my right hand poised above the plate, a scoop of fromage blanc ice cream ready to finish the dessert. I hated to put the ice cream on warm desserts before I had someone ready to pick them up.

I squeezed my right palm around the scoop and, with a flip of my wrist, let the ice cream fall onto the warm Tatin.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.