Great Clover Cook-off!

[Renard Godspell]

Once his mind is set on what to do first, Renard heads towards the venue for the cooking competition. He was no stranger to cooking due to having to cook and take care of his younger siblings for extented durations of time, which allowed him to develop his skills. Standing next to a sign, indicating where potential cooks can registrate for the competition, stand a woman with a wooden clipboard no older than her thirties (Renard noted as he approached). Getting closer tothe lady, Renard notices a somewhat bored look on her face, looking as though she has been forced to do a job when she would rather be enjoying the festival. "Name?" she said bluntly and drily. "Renard Godspell of the Crimson Lions" the young mage replied, trying to match her tone, suspecting that she would rather get this over with as soon as possible. As quickly as Renard spoke, she noted in the clipboard and waved the boy into the venue.



Once inside and ushered to the main area, Renard spotted various immaculate work stations equiped with various pots, pans, cuttboards and numerous utensils. Looking around, Renard saw that a few of his fellow contestants starting to set up their stations and, overlooking the contest floor were five judges, four of them sat behind a long table and the fifth judge, the head judge Renard assumed, stood patiently in front of table. While waiting for the judges to speak, Renard started setting up, making sure everything was in reach and sharpening his knives and making sure that the station is ready.



After a few minutes, it seemed like the last of the contestants have arrived and set up their stations, the "head judge", a tall square-jawed man with spiked up dirty blond hair in his mid to late fifties, stepped forward and adressed the contestants. "Contestants!" He spoke up with an air of authority suiting his position. "Welcome to the Annual Fete cooking contest. We are looking forward to see what you will be giving us this year. The rules are simple..." On queue two assistants wheeled in a cooking station each. One had some condensation on it and some frosty mist emitting from it, as though the air surrounding the station was reacting to some ice magic. This one was topped with various cuts of meats and fish, which thank to some labeling, each of the contestants saw that they would be working with turkey, lamb, rabbit and salmon. The second station was carrying some flour, milk and eggs on one side whilst the opposite end was full of asparagus, spinach, cauliflower, potatoes and lemons. As the assitants halted the stations, the middle-aged judge continue to spoke "...each of you will have 45 mins to cook us whatever dish you wish, the only restriction is that you use the ingredients before you. Any spices, seasoning and herbs you wish to utilise will be readily available. I suggest you make use of them." I said, although sounding serious, he paused as though waiting a laugh or at least a chuckle. He clears his throat and simply says "You may begin" and the timer starts and the contestants rushed to grab our ingredients.


WC: 534

TWC: 1029

Moved from: Annual Flower Blossom Fete

[Renard Godspell]

As soon as the timer began, Renard raced towards the cooking stations and sore immediately, within a split second one, a cut of salmon he knew he could make a tasty dish with,salmon steaks. Knowing that he was on a timer, Renard quickly pulled out his groimoire and call for his spell. "Shadow Step!" Willing his shadow to form the familiar outline of his shadowy boots, allowing him to pick up his pace to save on time. As he collects the salmon steaks, Renard quickly examine the cuts and notice that each piece has been perfectly descaled, pleasing the young mage as it would save on preptime. Once the salmon was collected, Renard raced to the other cooking station and gathered same asparagus, lemons and some medium sized potatoes before quickly bringing his workstation. Before he started cooking, the young mage made sure that the stone oven was lit and heating up and rushed to collect some olive and sesame oils as well as some seasonings (namely sea salt, black pepper, garlic powder, dill and smoked paprika) for his dish.



42 minutes remaining!



Once returned to his station, he ground up some sea salt and black pepper in a mortar and pestle and quickly cut the potatoes into quarters before tossing them together in a large bowl with some garlic powder and paprika and olive oil, making sure to coat the potato wedges and transfering them to a sheet pan. Once the sheet pan is in the stone over, Renard turned to the asparagus and cut off the vegetable's the greyish purple ends and placed the spear-like vegetable in a casserol dish. Before continuing with the asparagus, the young man made sure that the stove was generating heat and placed a skillet on top, letting it heat up for the next step. Returning to the asparagus, Renard lightly drizzled some of the sesame oil on the trimmed vegetables, coating them with the the salt and pepper he grounded up previously and placed the dish in the stone oven beside the potatoes.



30 minutes remaining!



Taking the sheet pan out of the oven, Renard used a set of tongues to turn over the potato wedges in order to cook them evenly. With the asparagus and potatoes roasting in the oven, the young man poured the sesame oil in the heated skillet and let the oil heat up. Once the oil is heated up, the young mage placed the salmon steak on the frying pan, skin facing down. While the salmon is pan searing, he started working on a sauce. After quickly fetching some garlic he had forgotten, Renard started zesting and juicing two whole lemons, as well as finely mince the garlic. Once the incredients were ready, Renard blending the lemon, garlic, salt, half a cup of olive oil and the dill in a mixing bowl, whisking its all into a lightly creamy sauce.



20 minutes remaining!



When the sauce is finished, Renard took out the asparagus and potatoes of of the stone oven and, upon seeing the brown colour of the salmon skin and deeming that the fish to be cooked most of the way, using a razor thin turner to flip the salmon over for thirty seconds to finish of the sear on the meat of the salmon steak.



15 minutes remaining!



When it came time to plate the dish, Renard started by creating a bed from the roasted spear-like vegetables and placed the pan seared salmon on top of bed. As for the potatoes, he placed the wedges in small, circular patterns around the salmon in an attempt to create a flowery pattern across the plate, which he admited seemed very childish. After drizzling the sauce on the salmon, the amateur chef wipes down the sides of the plate with a dishcloth to avoid any drops of the sauce to ruin the plating before bringing the dish up to the front of the workstations. With less than ten minutes remaining, Renard noticed that three of the other contestents have already finished their dishing but as the judges tested the dishes, looks of disgust wereclearly visible on their faces, causing a sense of dread started to form in the young man's throat. With a slight tremble in his hands, Renard reaches his pedestal for the judges to sample the food. As the judges each tested the dish, Renard's dread started to slowly dissipate as he saw a more positive reaction from the individual charged with judging the contestant's dishes.



As the timer runs out, the last contestant brought up their dish, less than a minute to spare: a rack of mint crusted lamb.



The rest of the event felt like a haze to Renard's recollection as he could only remember snipets of the final judgement. Of all the thing he recalls, he remembers the judges telling the contestant that brought out the rack of lamb that doing such a dish in such a short amount of time caused his dish to be undercooked. The judges berated the other three with harsh comments of the food being bland, unseasoned or that the flavours presented did not go well together. As for Renard's dish, the judges berated him mainly on the fish itself being "somewhat bland" but that the sauce helped to give it at least a little flavour and that his plating was clumsy and childish.



After the judges did their rounds and gave each of the contestants their thoughts on the dishes, they grouped back up a whispered among themselves. The silence, along with the nervousness of the contestants, caused the tension to build up as they awaited the result. Once the judges finished deliberating, they lined up and the head judge started speaking. "This might just have been the worst showing so far." The square jawed judge spoke. "Each one of you have made very beginner level mistakes that even an amateur would avoid. However, we must say that the best dish, though with a very small margin, belonged to Renard Godspell. Now, all of you, leave!" He said coldly and with an air of finality which caused each of the contestants to exit the venue to enjoy the rest of the festivities.

[Exit]

W.C.: 1036
T.W.C: 2065