Master Brian’s maid

Jane answered with a smile instead of greeting in return, she took her vacant position and took out the ingredients. She observed that this room had been cleared of excess items, leaving only a large long table placed in the center of the kitchen. And it has been divided into cells, each person will have a small space to cook, it is separated by a chalk line. The place was quite open and spacious, so no one touched each other and bothered, they focused on their exam and finished the dishes that their master ordered.

There were only two empty slots next to Jane, and it was filled up in about ten minutes. If you don’t hurry, I’m afraid there won’t be room for you to cook and you will be disqualified from the competition. The rest of the people went to the kitchen, they found out that the seats were full, they had to step out and be eliminated.

It seems that Jane is quite lucky with that, she once imagined herself being eliminated and the most annoying and awkward person was the owner Brian. Because he only has her as a servant, if she is eliminated, the people in this mansion will discuss and ridicule her. So right now, Jane can breathe a little sigh of relief.

The rest of the time, she will focus on cooking, completing the four dishes he has ordered. Jane looked back at her four-course list, took a deep breath and focused on the first dish, fish and potatoes. A dish whose name already includes ingredients, so Jane can quickly figure out what basic ingredients she needs to complete the dish.

Jane laid out the utensils on the table, then looked at them once, then she looked at the servants standing beside her, all very focused and busy with the dishes on their list. Jane looked at the ingredients on the table and thought to herself:

“Fish and potatoes. Is this dish similar to the fried fish I used to make when I lived in the Harvet family? I don’t know what its recipe is?”

She noticed that the servants here, hands and feet are flexible, without any difficulty, Jane said to herself:

“Their limbs are so flexible and agile. Perhaps the servants here know it and know how their master tastes.”

Next, Jane looked around for a moment and then stopped her gaze to the side, where a short-haired maid was hastily gathering to cook. Jane asked:

“Sorry to bother. Do you know how to cook fish and potatoes?”

Chimi coldly replied:

“I know.”

Jane politely continued:

“So can you tell me how to cook that?”

Chimi paused her cooking action for a moment, she propped herself up on her hips and looked at Jane sarcastically and said in a bossy tone:

“Are you the servant here? Why can’t such a simple dish even know how to cook?”

Jane stammered replied:

“I only serve the master, besides, I rarely cook so I don’t know the food here.”

When Chimi heard that, she showed a condescending attitude:

“It turns out that you are master Brian’s only servant, perhaps you are so pampered that you become idle and make a habit of depending on your master.”

She did not give Jane a chance to continue, Chimi said:

“As you can see, I am very busy right now and so are everyone here. So you should solve your own problems. Because no one has enough time to teach you how to cook, they are all in a hurry to finish their exams.”

Having said that, Chimi turned away, continuing her work. Jane also knew that she couldn’t count on other people’s help, so she nodded and understood what Chimi said to her. Jane looked at the people who were cooking with her, and indeed as Chimi said, at present, no one can spare time to help Jane right now.

Therefore, Jane made a decision for herself. That is, she will cook these dishes the way Jane already knows, it could be like a fried fish she used to cook when she was on the island.

Thinking like that made Jane more comfortable, she started cooking, she prepared the ingredients first, starting with washing the fish and peeling the potatoes. Then she proceeded to make the seasoning to marinate the fish she knew, it looked quite simple with the ingredients available on the table. So about ten minutes later, Jane finished marinating the fish for her dish.

And she continued to put the marinated fish inside a pan filled with hot oil and fry it. Jane fried the fish until it was golden brown and then took it out, she drained the oil and then placed it on a large plate. The potato was similar, Jane fried it until it turned golden and then quickly took it out, decorating them next to the fish on the plate.

Jane looked at the delicious food in front of her and felt a little excited. She shouldn’t continue to waste her time. So she embarked on making the second dish. It’s a roast beef sandwich. With this dish, it reminds her of Mrs. Dixi – Jane’s stepmother, she always cooks this dish for Mr. Harvet and Ruben.

She remembers, to save time for a busy morning, Dixi cooked this dish as quickly as possible. She had spent some time the night before and made them, Dixi had seasoned her cuts of meat in a superficial way and put them in a large box, store in the fridge.

When someone in the family wants to eat it, they have to take it out and leave it outside to cool down, then fry it in a pan or bake it in an old oven. And since Dixi didn’t have much time to take care of the cooking, once like that, she marinated a lot of beef and put them in the box. A box full of beef that Dixi made, they could eat for five days a week.

Jane remembered and thought about this dish, she saw that it was exactly the same, there was no difference, only the roast beef that Jane and the Harvet family ate, they were cut into pieces of meat to serve with stir-fried or mixed noodles, which Mrs. Dixi buys cheaply at an island market.

That was what she remembered living on the island, a busy life and poor eating, the squalid food the Harvets had fed her. Anyway, she no longer lives there, where she lives now is here so Jane doesn’t want to bother or continue to remember it much.

She should complete her exam well with limited time left. Jane had to hurry up, she encouraged herself and started processing beef. She did it the way Mrs. Dixi did because other than that, Jane didn’t know how to cook it.

After struggling for a while, Jane also finished the processing of beef, followed by grilling. She took it to an oven in the kitchen and had to wait in line, because there was only one here. Currently, there were four servants in front of Jane waiting for their turn, holding a tray of food in their hands.

In it, there was a fat servant who was grumbling because the person in front of her was lazy and slow while she needed to cook three dishes on a tray at the same time. She couldn’t help it and had harsh words to the person standing in front. As a result, they had a conflict and led to a big argument. When another servant stood up to intervene and advise, they stopped that action and waited patiently.

Jane sighed in disgust as she watched the time go by so quickly on the wall clock in the center of the kitchen, she really didn’t know what to do at this point, except wait and wait. It wasn’t until an hour had passed that it was Jane’s turn, now she hurriedly grilled the steaks that she had made earlier.

It took about twenty minutes longer to roast Jane’s beef, which made her feel even more impatient because she herself didn’t have much time left. Jane immediately put the cooked steaks on her cooking table and then quickly ran to the bread area in the kitchen.

It’s a big bread stand, they have different types of bread and are neatly arranged on the shelves. But most of the dishes that the servants made required bread, so they had gathered in this place quite crowded and were waiting in line to wait for their turn.

Jane too, she stood in line and waited. And when it was her turn, she noticed that there were no breads on the shelves, only a few sandwiches left instead. She didn’t want to waste her time any more so she took them at that moment without thinking.

Those in line behind her had to take the last few pieces of sandwich because there was nothing on the shelves, they were all gone like they had just gone through a food market with discounted food. Everyone went back to their seats sadly because they couldn’t finish the dish without the ingredients.

For Jane’s side, she placed the sandwich on a plate and neatly folded the beef inside, then she would proceed to make ketchup, the kind of sauce that Mrs. Dixi rarely makes at meals, she just makes it on special days or on weekends. Making the ketchup, it’s not mandatory, it’s just that Jane wanted to give this dish something new, so she came up with it while waiting to get the bread.

So Jane made ketchup in about ten minutes and garnished it with her dish. In addition, she also put a chili and greens around the plate to make it more beautiful. So Jane has done two dishes, she looks at the third dish and is a bit more thoughtful. Jane read it silently in her mouth:

“Bubble and Squeak? What is this? I’ve never heard of it or it’s a popular dish here, but I don’t know anything about it.”

At this moment, while Jane was confused in her thoughts, suddenly the voice of a maid standing beside her whispered:

“I’ve been watching you for a while now, you seem to work harder than others, so I’ll be kind enough to tell you a little bit about the food you’re cooking.”

Ramha inquired:Têxt © NôvelDrama.Org.

“What kind of food do you want to know how to cook?”

Jane happily replied:

“Yes, it was Bubble and Squeak.”

Ramha was cooking while answering:

“This dish is quite simple, they are made from ingredients such as potatoes, beans, cabbage and carrots… Also you can make use of other ingredients that you have available to cook it. More specifically, you can make them with fried omelets. Then you will put them all in the pan and stir them continuously until cooked. And that’s how to cook this dish.”

Jane flashed a bright smile and said:

“Thank you so much for telling me that.”

Ramha waved his hand, smiled lightly and replied:

“Nothing. I can only help you a little, the rest depends on you, I am not allowed to help you much. Because that is the implicit rule of this contest issued by Chesa.”

Jane asked in surprise:

“Underground rules?”

Ramha slowly replied:

“That’s right. All participants in this contest are not allowed to help each other such as revealing how to cook or helping their opponent in processing and finding ingredients.”

She paused for a moment and puzzledly asked Jane again:

“But don’t you know anything about it?”

Jane shook her head.

“No, I don’t know about it.”

Ramha hastily said:

“Perhaps you didn’t notice that line, it was faintly written at the bottom on the ingredient note the person who supplied them gave you.”

Jane heard Ramha say that, she took out the piece of paper and looked at it, and it was true what Ramha said, a line was obscured there that Jane carelessly overlooked it. At this point, Jane suddenly realized that she herself was clumsy and stupid, not paying attention to those important details leading to her wasting a lot of precious time.

Ramha saw Jane’s attitude, she laughed and left, because she finished four dishes while talking to Jane. Ramha looked back at the poor little girl standing there with confused thoughts in her heart, Ramha said to herself with a proud attitude:

“Oh, what a pity for you. A pitiful and stupid girl. I think you’ll be out of the competition soon. Because no one can help you now, except a beautiful angel like me. Haha…”

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