Page 15 of Mistaken Impression

Ella nods her head, and Ruby wanders to a door in the corner of the room, which I hadn’t noticed until now. She opens it, revealing yet another kitchen.

“What’s that for?” I ask.

“It’s for your personal use,” she says. “You’ll be spending a lot of time in here, so if you want to make a coffee…”

“We can’t just make it over there?” I nod towards the professional kitchen and she smiles, shaking her head.

“It’s gonna be best if you keep that for rehearsing… for the show.”

I’m not sure I understand why, but I go along with her. She seems to know what she’s doing. There’s not very much more to see in here, and although I can tell Ella is itching to spend more time in the kitchen, there seem to be other things that Ruby wants to show us, and she makes her way back to the door, clearly expecting us to follow.

Ella picks up her folder again, and I wait for her to pass through the door, closing it behind me.

Outside, Ruby takes us through yet another set of double doors into an equally wide corridor, with just two doors; one on either side.

“We’ll be filming in here,” she says, opening the door to our right, and letting us into what is essentially a large, very dark, very empty room.

“Where’s the kitchen?” Ella asks, getting in the obvious question before I can.

“Unfortunately, the studios are used for filming other shows during the rest of the week, so we’ll install it on Wednesday evenings, in time for filming to start on Thursdays… and then take it out again on Fridays as soon as everything’s wrapped.”

Ella frowns, but remains silent, and so do I, even though that sounds like an inordinate waste of time to me. Ruby reiterates how tight the schedules are, which I feel has been said a dozen times already, and I turn around and almost gasp out loud when I see the banked seating behind me.

“I—I know Kennedy said the shows weren’t going out live, but we’re not recording in front of an audience, are we?”

“No.” Ruby shakes her head. “Each show will probably take the entire day to shoot, and they’ll be full-on days. It’s going to be stressful enough as it is, without throwing a live audience into the mix.”

I’ve never felt so relieved in my life. Acting in front of an audience is one thing… and I’m quite used to it, after my experiences in the theatre. Playing the role of an alcoholic chef was challenging. I got by, though. It was how I landed this part. But cooking for real, with people actually watching me? I’d be terrified…

I’m all for adventures, but even I have my limits.

Chapter Three

Ella

Is it me, or does it seem really dumb that the person who has to create the content for theses cookery shows, and who bears the title ‘culinary consultant’, gets no say in what will actually be cooked?

I understand that Kennedy’s choices might make ‘good television’, but based on the first one, they’re going to be pretty damn hard to make interesting… or even watchable. And if they’re all like that. The next ten weeks are going to be a lot more challenging than I’d expected.

Kennedy’s responses seemed uncalled-for, and even if Ruby and Blake tried to be kind about it, I wasn’t really in the mood for kindness, or for discussing it anymore. I hope neither of them thought I was being dismissive. Because I wasn’t. I was just trying not to cry. It wouldn’t have looked good on my first day, and although there were tears in my eyes, I kept them at bay, and with any luck, neither of them noticed.

One thing I couldn’t fail to notice was how differently Kennedy behaved toward Blake. Sure, she was a little testy in her replies, but she was nowhere near as scathing to him as she was to me. Was that because he’s the ‘talent’? He so clearly is, judging by the way everyone fawned over him in the meeting, and the makeup artist doted on his ‘perfect’ skin, and ‘beautiful’ eyes just now. And while I’m not saying he doesn’t have perfectskin, or beautiful eyes, I’m feeling belittled and humiliated, when the reality of the situation is his skin and eyes won’t count for anything, if I can’t come up with exciting content for the shows.

As I look around the studio, I’m still struggling to understand why they’d bother to deconstruct and re-construct the kitchen so often… but I’m not about to query their decisions anymore. I’ve learned my lesson.

Blake is looking around too, while Ruby repeats the mantra she’s spoken several times so far this morning, about the schedules being tight, and I wonder for a moment why he introduced himself as ‘the presenter’, rather than ‘the chef’. It seems like an odd way for him to have described himself, but maybe he was concerned about there being two chefs on this project, and didn’t want to appear to be stealing the limelight… not that it matters to me. I always knew I’d be working with someone else. It was my primary concern when I was interviewed. I had no desire to appear before the cameras, and I still don’t. It’s never appealed to me, and I told Kennedy that when she interviewed me. I was still in Paris at the time, and was reeling from the fact that one of my tutors had recommended me for this job. Pierre had never seemed that impressed with my abilities. In fact, he’d been quite dismissive, and I’d assumed he’d thought of me as a waste of space; someone who was only there because she couldn’t think of anything else to do… a poor little rich kid, I guess. When he told me he’d been made aware of this opportunity and had put my name forward for it, I was speechless… grateful, but speechless. I was excited too. Despite my training, I had no interest in working in a hotel or restaurant. The hours really didn’t appeal, and neither did the atmosphere. It wasn’t until I’d thanked Pierre that I started to worry… would they want me to be on camera? The thought was terrifying. It was the firstquestion I asked Kennedy during my interview, and she was very reassuring. My role would be strictly ‘behind the scenes’. It would be my responsibility to create the menus and recipes, cook the dishes that would be used on the shows, and assist the chef. She used the word ‘chef’, even though Blake didn’t, and I suppose it was that, and her insistence on so much secrecy, that made me wonder if the ‘chef’ might be a celebrity.

Except it seems not, because I don’t recognize Blake at all.

One thing Kennedy didn’t mention at any point, was scriptwriting. I have no idea what that might entail, but I find it odd that I’m not allowed any input into deciding which questions will form the content of the shows, but my ‘culinary knowledge’ is evidently going to be ‘invaluable’ in writing the scripts.

Go figure…

“I—I know Kennedy said the shows weren’t going out live, but we’re not recording in front of an audience, are we?”

For the first time this morning, it’s Blake’s turn to sound nervous and I turn to look at him. He’s frowning at Ruby, and I can see why now. Behind him, there are rows and rows of seats… probably enough for at least two hundred people.

Ruby shakes her head, seemingly as patient with him as she’s been with me, even though I get the feeling he’s much more experienced in the ways of a television studio than I am. “No. Each show will probably take the entire day to shoot, and they’ll be full-on days. It’s going to be stressful enough as it is, without throwing a live audience into the mix.”

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