Good morning one and all. I’m running a little bit behind and the rain has me a bit stuffy, but otherwise I am feeling just fine on this Monday morning. I am also hoping for a smoothly flowing week. Let’s start by sliding into the first writing prompt of the week. Are you ready? Let’s go.
Oh murder most foul. An excellent start to the week.
Monday, January 30th: Don’t forget to taste your seasoning before you serve.
“Don’t forget to taste the seasoning before you serve,” Chef Michael said. He grinned at the camera and flourished one of his tasting spoons, spinning it around dramatically before dipping it into his sauce. “It is now when you will do the final adjustments with salt if they are needed.” He reminded his viewers.
He dipped the spoon in the sauce. “Perfect viscosity,” he said as he lifted the spoon from the sauce pan. Jake knew that the camera would be doing a close up of the spoon to show the viscosity and then backing up slowly. While they would all watch the chef taste, no one needed to see that in close up high definition. Chef Michael paused to allow the camera to pan back.
Je used is free hand to waft the scent of the newly created sauce to his nose and in haled deeply. His eyes closed evincing total pleasure from the scent. He opened them. “Pure heaven,” he informed his audience. He slipped the spoon into his mouth and tasted.
A brief frown flickered around his eyes, but his lips kept smiling. “I think we did well with the salt,” he said. He smiled and Jake came on high alert. Something was wrong. Michael was still playing well for the cameras but something was wrong. Michael finished his bit, draping the sauce over the meal. He gave his sign off cue and held steady until the cameras stopped rolling.
“And we are out,” was called. Michael’s smile fell instantly.
“Okay which one of you bozos messed with my sauce?”
They were the last words he ever said. A moment later he turned red started frothing at the mouth and fell down to the floor convulsing. By the time the set medic sprinted forward, Michael was still. There was no pulse. An ambulance was called.
“No one touch that sauce pan,” Jake called. “In fact no one touch anything.”
Despite working with Chef Michael for years, Jake’s culinary expertise was limited to making it look good when filmed. As far as he was concerned the food was just another sort of prop. He knew he didn’t have the experience to tell what had been doctored. He scanned the set of Chef Michael’s ‘Home’ Kitchen marking well where everything was. He knew its position and it’s product level. There were other people who arranged the things, but he always double checked the positioning before they rolled film. He didn’t like Chef Michael very much and had often been at odds with him, but the man died on his set and he would do his best to set that right.
Ten til Midnight 