The Birria Bream Salmon

It was Monday evening, they had finished 30 covers and had few more to go. The head chef, Luke Moises was braising the cube of salmon, constantly pouring the stock on top of it while it sizzled in the heat. They were running late by three minutes, which in restaurant time was calculated in years. His eyes were focused on the underside of the salmon as it turned golden brown. He dropped the pan to add some sea salt and let the vinegar ooze into the salmon a bit more. The food needs to go out right now and he can’t cook it any faster. Luke poked a hole in the lemon with his thumb and squeezed it with one hand to let that acid sear the salmon’s sides.

‘They fucked us. They fucked us royally!’ said Mariah, once she saw the take-away orders. ‘Those fucking vegans!’

‘Loud out now, chef. what happened?’ cried Luke, as he tasted a bit of the sauce and immediately winced. ‘I need shallots right now! Who is on shallots?’

‘One shine of shallots coming up chef!’ yelled the helper at the end of the kitchen.

‘I need it now!’ Luke cried as the chef next to him poured rum on the pan to flambe the banana slices. The flames rose up to the kitchen counter, just like his temper.

‘Chef! Did you hear what I said? The Take-aways are a nightmare!’ Mariah cried, holding the tickets in her hand. ‘They are all requesting vegan food. The meat is going to be dead panned. They need to be wrapped soon or we are going to fucking throw it to rats!’

‘We will figure it out! Read me the dupes now please!’ asked Luke, his hands cramping up from holding the pan for too long. ‘Shallots now!’

As the nightmare in the kitchen continued, the people in the quiet and serene dining hall were enjoying their meals. One of them, who was wearing a red dress, whispered to the waiter.

‘I know the head chef. He is a friend of mine. Can you tell him that we are here? Oh wait, tell him that the bulldog is here. He will understand.’

The waiter smiled and walked slowly towards the kitchen.

Luke punched the table and cried, ‘Shallots! Where is my fucking shallots! Are we dead panning dishes now? Is that what we are doing? are we working together to put this restaurant out of business? Where are my shallots?’

The prep cook placed the bowl of freshly diced shallots near him.

‘Thank you, chef! Everyone I need you to be on your toes, be a bit quicker, we have a few more covers to do and we are on calm waters, people. Do I hear a yes chef?’

‘Yes, chef!’ cried the crew, as Luke carefully started plating his dish.

‘Chef, a customer said that they know you. They asked to tell you that the bulldog is here?’ said the waiter, hesitantly.

Luke’s hand froze for a bit. He was holding his plating tweezers staring at the lentil leaf he had to place on the cooked salmon.

‘Not right now, I cannot be fucked right now.’ said Luke, as he carefully placed the lentil and nodded at his waiter. The food went off the kitchen in a hurry. Good, now rinse and repeat.

Mariah yelled at the chef again, ‘Chef you need to tell me if we are putting the meat back in the freezer. They are not getting any fresher, chef!’

‘I know! I know! Give me a minute!’ said Luke. The memories of his customer in the red dress was haunting. He was still a broken mess with a bit more money than before. A Michelin star and an ad-space in the local tabloid.

‘Jeff can you cover for me? I will be right back. Mariah, 86 the vegan dishes from take-aways, don’t accept any more orders. When I come back I need a call out on the remaining uncooked meat.’

Luke took off his apron and stepped out into the dinner. On the edge of the restaurant, were two familiar faces. He hated being in the middle of the crowd, walking through his customers, smiling and nodding at everyone. His confidence was on the food that he cooked, not on the image he saw in the mirror. Behind the dish, he was the hero. The one who makes people warm and fuzzy as they take that first bite from the food he cooked but when he stood in front of them, their eyes wavered to something else. .

‘It’s so good to meet you! Oh my God! Look at you and the new beard!’ cried Ori as she hugged Luke. The image of a carrot getting sliced through a grater flashed on his mind.

‘Hey you guys,’ he said, ‘You found my restaurant? I went through so much pain to hide it from you!’

‘Well, we were visiting a few places here and I really wanted to come and check this place out. Boy, it is quite difficult to get a reservation.’ said Mona, looking at the tattoos and red bruises on his knuckles.

‘Sure, you were checking out the place. That is the only reason.’ Ori chuckled. She had the same jet black straight hair, same brown eyes and a small dimple on her cheeks. Her eyebrows arched as she smiled.

‘I wish we could have bought our husbands. But you know Gary, he is always busy designing half the buildings in the city.’ she said, quite proud of herself.

An Architect? Since when did you like Architects?

‘My man is somewhere in the Bahamas. What kind of husband goes on his own trip without taking his wife? Thankfully Ori decided to give me company until he got back. We were so bored at home that we decided, why not check out the local food scene? Lo and Behold, we found you!’ Mona said, raising her empty glass.

‘Well, I am glad to see you guys after all these years. I see you have ordered the Birria Bream Salmon, its a wonderful choice. It tastes as good as it looks.’ Luke said, looking at Ori’s eyes.

Her nails were fully painted. A small golden chain on her neck and a half bracelet on her hands. Her hands used to be messy when they painted her apartment. She still hasn’t paid him for his service eventhough she insisted that he will be either paid in cash or with food. It has been five years.

‘You are not going to believe this but Luke had a severe crush on me. A michelin star chef, having a crush on me. Can you believe it?’ she told Mona as she ran her fingers on the table. ‘I could have eaten all this food, all my life.’

‘No he didn’t! Really?’ Mona’s eyes opened wide. ‘Luke is this true? You had a crush on her?’

Ori started giggling, ‘I am telling you the truth. He confessed to me one day. I remember it vividly because I was watching masterchef when he told me all about it and I was like, Luke knows how to cook and now he has a crush on me while I am watching people cook. How sweet!’

The clock slowed down a million times. He would rather put his hand inside a furnace than to stand there and debate if his feelings were valid. The reason why he was successful with his restaurant was that he was a glutton for needless hurting. Angry customers, Landlords who mess up the day just because they were bored. Things going horribly wrong through no fault of his own. Only if you enjoy that, can you survive in a restaurant. Today, he wasn’t feeling hungry for that type of punishment.

‘I mean, it is so random. Luke? Our Luke? I don’t think you ever had a crush on anyone. Let alone this ugly duckling called Ori.’ Mona chuckled. ‘Trust me Luke, you are in a much happier place without her. You are not missing out on anything.’

‘She is right. You have no idea how much worse I have gotten’ said Ori, building her own defense. ‘I am still a horrible cook and I forget things. I ramble so much that you would walk away just to stop your ears from ringing. You would have hated me for sure.’

Luke listened to them patiently as they both came up with reasons why it was a blessing to go home to an empty apartment, drinking water and lemon juice from a plastic jar because you are too tired and nauseous from having 14 different sauces and foods in your stomach every single day.

‘You are very special to me Luke. I was just telling her the other day how special you are. I am very proud of you. I am proud of this restaurant. Wish you all the very best.’

‘Thanks.’ said Luke, ‘You know, I just remembered something.’

‘What’s that?’

‘I remembered why I called you a bulldog.’

She chuckled, ‘No. Luke, do not tell her. It is so embarrassing.’

‘Oh, this I want to hear.’ Mona said, criss crossing her legs.

‘I am not sure about that.’ Luke chuckled, ‘You want to know?’

‘Yes, please. I want to know. I always wondered why that particular name. I mean, we didn’t own bulldogs. I just thought it was some weird boring secret.’

‘Well you see, a while before she left the city, she was into someone and we used to chat about this guy a lot. Then one day, it so happened that she decided to teach him a lesson. She said, let’s flirt with each other and record it. When he finds out, he will know what it feels like.’

‘That was so stupid. Oh I wish we were that young and stupid again.’ she told Mona, who was rather fixed on what Luke was about to say next.

‘So we were hanging out, she had her phone with a record button. I was cooking her favorite dish. The receipe I learnt from her mom. It got late into the night and I was cooking while she was rummaging around, reciting lines to me.’

‘Luke, we don’t have to bore her with details. Do we?’ she said, looking at Luke as his eyes glistened.

‘She started flirting. Now, as a good friend, I am going to imagine all of it was a bit of acting, right? It was just two people on stage telling lines. Nothing in it. Just say your lines, record it, make the boyfriend jealous. We had been friends for a very long time and I know what she likes, what words to say.’

Her head dropped for a moment as she curled her hair behind her ears while Luke explained.

‘We flirted, on and on. I don’t remember when but she stopped recording after a while. We made each other laugh and kept flirting. Ate our favorite food. Watched our favorite show. I kissed her forehead and she said she was my bulldog. I asked why. She said bulldogs never leave. That’s how she got that nickname.’

Ori was silent for a moment and then said, ‘I can’t believe you remember all that! That is so sweet of you.’

Mona’s smile disappeared but she forced it back into her face. ‘Here is to being sweet all day and having good food!’

‘Yes, that’s the dream.’ said Luke, ‘Anyways, I don’t want to keep you guys waiting on an empty stomach. Food is ready and will be served in a few minutes. I have to head back now, so have a really good afternoon. Thank you so much for trying our food today.’

The kitchen doors opened and Luke put his apron back. It felt as if he had been talking to them for a lifetime but he had left the kitchen for a total of 4 minutes.

Disclaimer – Only Luke knows the recipe. No bulldogs were present during the write up of the blog