Page 17 of The Signature Dish of the Underworld

Nika gave her a hard stare and then laughed. Actually laughed. It was a shrill shriek that had Rae tensing in place.

“Point conceded, Sunshine. Enjoy.”

Pleasantly surprised with herself, Rae let her shoulders relax as the warmth of the curry and something else invaded her insides. She continued to watch the patrons come and go, all with smiles on their faces that said they were leaving with full bellies and happy with themselves.

Of course, that warmth in her belly turned to anticipation when it was not Nika, but Garth, that bought out the final dish for her to try.

“I wanted to see what you thought of my festival entry yourself,” he said, as he placed not one buttwoplates in front of her. One was a clean white plate that held a single, bright green apple. The other, Rae discovered as Garth lifted the lid, was a small black cauldron, the size of a kylix.

“What do I do with it?”

Garth pointed to the folded piece of paper that sat in front of the apple.

Rae picked it up, flicked it open and began to read.

An Ode to the Most Beautiful: Queen Persephone

Pomegranate: Latin translation: an apple with many seeds

Dip this apple in the cauldron, as our Queen dipped her toe into the Underworld, and fall in love with our world all over again.

Raising an eyebrow, Rae took the apple by its stalk and dipped it in the miniature cauldron. A gasp fell from her lips as she pulled it back out again.

The apple was a stunning, gleaming, ruby red.

“How did you...?”

“Keep going,” Garth told her, his chin now propped up on his palm, his elbow on the table as he watched her.

Rae took the sharp knife that accompanied the dessert and went to slice a section of the apple. The skin of it was hot to the touch, so she balanced her nails delicately against it as the knife cut through the apple like butter, smoke beginning to curl out of the apple in a wonderful show of culinary skill, and ….

Pomegranate seeds spilt out.

Taking the spoon, Rae scooped up a collection of them and brought them to her lips. Flavour exploded on her tongue. The darkest compote – probably the one she had seen Garth’s pastry chef perfecting when she’d been in the kitchen – held levels and depths of taste that made it feel like Rae was travelling down into the Underworld for the first time. Each pomegranate seed was a step further down into the abyss, but as light as a woman’s – Persephone’s – footsteps. It was the perfect combination of heavy and sweet, the smokiness of whatever Garth had trapped inside the apple before you cut it releasing this velvet-like sauce that complimented both the compote and the seeds, the flesh of the apple, and the coating on the skin from the cauldron.

It was … a masterpiece.

“What is the sauce?” Rae asked, a small frown between her eyebrows as she tried to place it.

“Think of it as dried ice meets goats milk that was creamed.”

“Goats milk that was creamed?” Rae said slowly, realisation dawning on her as she sat back in her chair and folded her arms. “I wonder where you got that idea from.”

“I confess,” Garth braced his arms on the table and leaned forward in a whisper, “you gave me the inspiration for that. We changed the sauce recipe on day two of the festival as a result. Your take for this century’s cook-off was excellent. I had one of the waitresses grab us a collection of your apples and bring them back here for us to sample the day your dish came out. What you did with that lotus leaf was genius. And whatever was in that vial … I don’t know what it is or how you got it … but it’s what told me to make this version of the sauce.” He nodded at the sauce still spooling out of Rae’s apple. “So, I have to thank you for that. In fact, I’d like to thank you by offering you the position of sous chef here, permanently.”

He looked at her like the offer was genuine. Theaudacityof the agathodaemon!

“You stole part of my idea, and now you want to offer me a permanent job?!”

“I didn’t steal. I was inspired.”

“And you think that will make me want to work for you?”

“Well, you can’t want to work for old, gnarled Geras for the rest of your immortality. I thought you wanted the job when you agreed to the trial run the other night.”

“You’re unbelievable. You didn’t even tell me it was a job trial!”

Garth frowned. “I don’t understand why you’re getting upset. Ok, so I didn’t tell you it was a trial run. You still did great work, though. You inspired me to do great work. And now I’m offering you a job where we could do great work together. No one would even comecloseto touching us in the cook-off if we were on the same team. I know you’re not usually one to look for help, hell even teamwork, but cutting off that pretty nose of yours just to spite your face seems awfully silly, Sunshine.”

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