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“Hmm. Isn’t that hard for your grandma? Only having her husband for a few months out of the year?”
He snickers. “I think they prefer each other in small doses.”
I stuff another bite in my mouth and hum. “Mmmm. If my husband cooked like this, I’d never let him out of my sight for a minute, let alone half a year.”
“My grandpa’s actually an excellent cook,” he says. “He taught me how to make this sauce.”
“Really? I can’t place the flavor. What’s in it?”
“Walnuts, cream, sugar, and brandy.”
“No wonder it’s so good. Sugar is my love language.”
A small smile cracks on his face. “I’m glad you like it.”
“Like it? I want to marry it.”
Just then, Roberto shows up with our drinks. Water for Ignacio and horchata for me.
“Algo dulce para la mas dulce güeda de Dos Panchos,” he says with his goofy smile.
I shake my finger. “I know dulce means sweet and that’s all that matters.”
Ignacio gives him a sideways glare. “Gracias, mi chavo.”
“Oh!” I open my billfold to get Roberto’s tips. “Here you go.”
He bows to me, then bows to Ignacio. I bow back—as well as I can sitting in a booth. Ignacio swats him away jokingly. Roberto wanders off.
“This is amazing,” I say, taking another bite. “So different from what you serve here. Is this from your catering menu?”
“Yes and no,” he says. “The catering business is… just a side gig. A test kitchen.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“I have this friend. Caleb.”
I nod because I know this guy. “He hired me for the wedding.”
“Right. He’s a chef I know from culinary school.” He sighs. “I don’t know why I’m telling you this. I haven’t told anyone. Not even my brothers.”
I cross my heart. “Keeping secrets is my jam. I once had to hold on to a Stranger Things spoiler because of a leaked script Aaron got from the marketing firm. It was a dark six months of silence.”
He regards me for a moment and shakes his head.
“Okay, here goes. I want to open a new concept restaurant. Something of my own. So I reached out to Caleb to work through some recipes. We needed to test them out with little investment, so we started catering. It’s extremely low risk. No overhead, almost no capital needed. And we only do six or seven gigs a year. Caleb has a full-time job at the Four Seasons, so he’s not available very often.”
“What about your brother’s wedding? Were you testing those recipes?”
“Yeah, sort of. I do a lot of planning and always offer tastings. It’s not like I’m experimenting on the day of an important event.”
“Well, if it was an experiment, it was a yummy one,” I say.
He tosses me a confused look. “Did you… taste the food? Besides the cake.”
“No.” I shrug. “But it smelled divine.” I sip my horchata. Yum. Roberto added the perfect amount of ice. “So, are you thinking of adding those new recipes to the menu here?”
He laughs. “Oh heck, no. It’s not on brand. My new concept is a mix of tastes and cultures. It would have a rotating menu—dishes inspired by seasons and mixed societies.”
