Gemma looks like she’s about to burst into tears. “You’re just saying that to be nice.”
Mebel snorts. “I have never been accuse of being nice.”
Gemma rolls her eyes, but she looks like she’s suspiciously trying to hide her smile. “That’s true. Look, Mebs, I appreciate you coming all the way here—although, hang on, how did you find my address? Did the school give it to you? Because that’s a serious breach of privacy.”
“No, I have my ways,” Mebel says with a flippant wave of her hand. “Are you sure you not coming back?”
Gemma nods, not meeting Mebel’s eyes. “I’m sure.”
“Okay,” Mebel says.
Gemma’s eyebrows rise up into her hairline. “Okay? Just like that?”
Mebel shrugs. “Yes. I accept your decision. If you say you not coming back, then, okay, you not coming back.”
“Wow, okay. That’s surprisingly accepting of you. Thank you.”
“But I still need your help.”
Gemma frowns. “What with?”
And so Mebel tells Gemma about her duck course being pirated by Kate and Matt.
“Oh, those bastards!” Gemma cries. “I knew they weren’t trustworthy. Kate’s always got this shifty look about her, and Matt—”
“Matt look like he is drug dealer,” Mebel says.
Gemma laughs. “Oh my god, he really does, doesn’t he? Ugh, how could they do this? Well, I know why they did it, because orange peel and brown sugar syrup? That’s brilliant, Mebs. I can’t believe you came up with that all on your own. That’s amazing.”
“Thank you, yes, it is, but now I don’t know what new thing to come up with.”
“Hello, earth to Mebel, you’re with Chef Alain? One of themost well-regarded Michelin-star chefs in the world? Why don’t you ask him?”
Mebel shakes her head. “Because if I do, then people say, ‘Oh, you win just because you sleeping with Chef Alain.’ No, I need to do this myself. Or with my partner, which is you. You owe me, Gemma.”
“Okay.” Gemma taps her chin for a moment, then gets up and leaves the living room. When she comes back a minute later, she’s carrying a notebook. “All right, let’s see.”
Mebel leans forward. It’s a book containing all of Gemma’s notes on anything food-related. There are recipes, notes on different methods of cooking, musings about different ingredients, and so on. The entire thing is very impressive, and Mebel has to bite her tongue from using it as proof that Gemma belongs at a culinary school.
“How about dry-aging the duck with butter that has Chinese spices mixed into it?” Gemma says. She glances at the bag of honey and adds, “Oh! That’ll go really well with clover honey, actually, won’t it?”
Mebel considers this for a second before nodding. “Ah yes. Chinese five-spice powder, star aniseed, cloves, soy sauce, and sugar. I love this combination, I always eat Chinese boiled peanuts for snack, and they use this combination.”
“Yep, except instead of sugar, I think you should use the clover honey.”
Mebel nods more enthusiastically. “Yes, it go so well with the Peking duck confit dish. But you don’t think is too traditional?”
Gemma grins. “No, because you are going to top the dish with this.” She holds up the open notebook and points to a page filled with barely legible writing.
Mebel squints at it. “I need my reading glasses to read your chicken scratch writing, Gemma.”
Gemma laughs. “I came across a review of a Michelin-starred restaurant that tops their duck dish with crumbled crunchy duck skin. How amazing does that sound? I haven’t eaten there, obviously—can’t afford to—but I did my own research and experiments, and I think I’ve got it. Here’s my recipe for crumbled duck skin. It is divine, Mebs.”
“Crumbled crunchy duck skin,” Mebel muses, shaking her head in awe. “I don’t know how people think such things. And you figure out how to do yourself?”
“It took a while, but yep.”
As Gemma continues to come up with a sauce to accompany the dish, Mebel stares at her, this bright young woman who has folded under the pressures of culinary school despite her brilliance. The thought of it fills Mebel with a tangled mix of sorrow and admiration. It is clear to Mebel that she is in the presence of a gifted person, and her motherly instincts are going haywire, wanting to help Gemma somehow.It is not your place, she reminds herself.
