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A small crowd had gathered around and were seated in the dozens of chairs set up for the event. The judges were at their table, chatting among themselves.
“Welcome, everyone. I’m Terry Bishop, and I’ll be hosting today’s event.” He looked around as the crowd grew. “Allow me to introduce to you, our esteemed judges. From right here at the academy, we have Ms. Candace Donner and Mr. Denis Fitzgibbons. Then from the highly regarded Chez Gaston restaurant, Mr. Francois Bellavance, and from the equally esteemed Villa del la Vienna, Miss Beatrice Jankles.”
The audience applauded.
“We are all here to encourage our contestants who will be making historical dishes with a modern twist,” Terry said. “From Los Angeles, we have Robert Murray who will be making an old style blood pudding.”
The audience applauded as he went on to name the other contestants. Then came me.
“And here we have Layla Tyler from Amarillo, Texas. She’ll be making Bedfordshire... what is this? Clanger?”
He looked at me with a curious grin and I simply nodded.
“Right,” he said. “A Bedfordshire clanger. Can’t wait to see what that is.”
He then turned to look at Axel and the audience applauded even before he could say a word.
“The man who needs no introduction, our own beloved and endlessly talented, Axel King.”
The crowd roared with their love of him.
I glanced sidelong at Axel, curious of his reaction to all this adulation. While he raised both arms into the air to wave at the crowd, there was something reserved and humble in his smile.
Terry waited for the crowd to settle down, then looked at all the contestants. “Everything you need for your chosen recipes is there in the pantry and back there in the refrigerators. You all have two hours to prepare your dishes which will then be tasted by our judges. I wish you all good luck. Get settled, get ready, and begin!”
The excitement in the air was contagious as we all rushed to the pantry to pick out the ingredients that we needed.
At one point, so focused was I on choosing the perfect vegetables, I reached out for a large red onion, only to have someone’s hand immediately cover mine.
I looked up into the startled face of Axel. He, too, had clearly been caught up in the excitement and hadn’t seen me.
But for that quick and electrifying moment, we froze.
He recovered first. “Nice try, hick. A clanger? What the hell is that?”
I had no time to argue with him. I simply reached for another onion and went on my way. I couldn’t allow him to distract me now. This was too important.
I had trouble finding the suet that I needed and for a moment almost panicked. We’d all been told to submit our list of ingredients to the coordinator.
I found oils and butter and shortening and lard, but no suet.
Damn.
What would happen to my crust without it? Would the flavor change? And what about the texture?
For all the times I’d gone over the recipe with Chef Mac, I never once considered trying it with shortening or lard. I wanted to kick myself.
Then I found it. Tucked behind a row of exotic cooking oils was a small plastic container with the maggot like substance.
As I headed back to my workstation, Axel came up beside me and looked at what I had in my arms, his gaze making a beeline for the suet.
“Interesting choice,” he said. “Why am I not surprised that maggots would figure in your recipe. Good luck getting the judges to taste that.” And he hurried on to his workstation.
After another trip to the refrigerator and pantry, I finally settled in to get to work. It didn’t take long before I was in the zone and laser focused on my work. Everyone around me disappeared, even Axel. All that mattered was getting my fillings and crust perfect.
“You have thirty minutes left,” Terry called out.
I’d made my four perfectly shaped clangers and had already put them in the oven. All I could do now was wait.
