Chapter 33 - 33. Master Chef
Once they had all placed their votes for recipes next week Mr. Smith led the way to the kitchens. "Everyone will need to roll up their sleeves and put on an apron along with what. Food safety is a key to staying healthy in the kitchen. How terrible would it be to make someone ill by not following the proper sanitation standards?" Without a pause Mr. Smith moved to a hand washing sink and started to point out the proper way to wash hands and how long they should wash them for.
Jane was watching intently as she wanted to make sure she did her best to learn it all, she would be making tacos for Asher and she refused to make him sick by accident. "Now I left a recipe on each counter. They are very simple to follow but I expect questions. Please get in to groups of your own accord. I don't care how many people are in one but if you make a large group you do not get to make more cookies than a single batch.' There were a few groans of protest but there was nothing they could do. One batch per group was the expectation.
Asher, Jane, and Art made a group of three happy to split their creations among themselves. Asher read the first step and set the oven to preheat. "Umm Asher, why did you just type three thousand five hundred in to the oven? It only gets up to five hundred." Art was looking at Asher like he had just witnessed a major fault.
"What? No that's three hundred and fifty." Asher argued back causing the two to get in to a dispute. Fortunately Jane was following the recipe to a t and did not hesitate to start to mix the batter. She read the measurement for chocolate chips and was not happy about it.
"Mr. Smith, can I add more chocolate chips than this?" Their teacher came over to double check the amount then look at the batter Jane had made so far.
"Your batter looks perfect. The formula is made with the proper balance for the chocolate chips here. If you wish to add more you can but you are responsible for the final product." He knew that most of the students would do this whether he told them no or yes so just let them make their choices.
Jane heard this and decided to double the amount. 'Asher will definitely like them more with double the chocolate.' She hummed along as she mixed in the chocolate chips and spooned them on to a baking sheet.
Meanwhile Art and Asher had somehow started to mix their own batter. The two were fighting over what amount of sugar to put in. "It says one quarter cup not one quart! Asher it will come out terrible if you do that.' Art was trying to hold Asher back but as he saw the mountain of sugar start to fall he knew he had already failed. The entire quart of sugar was emptied in to a whole pound of butter. Art was starting to feel his heart ache knowing that this food would be wasted and lost to him forever.
"That's it, i need to be in my own group. Good luck with your monstrosity." Art dashed for the remaining unoccupied over and started to mix furiously. He turned the oven on to the proper temperature and started to carefully measure out the ingredients as he watched Asher completely decimate the flour storage.
"Ah no!" Asher dropped some flour causing a white cloud to envelope the classroom. Jane was instantly blinded while walking to check her baking cookies.
"I can't see a thing!" She bumped in to the table and the tie in her apron caught on it causing it to tighten around her waist. "'I'm blind!!! Asher why did you do this!!" She yelled out at Asher wondering why he had thrown the flour everywhere.
"I'm stuck in here too." He coughed a few times realizing that he had inhaled a huge mouthful of flour. Art just watched the chaos form across the room. Mr. Smith just looked further down at his grading tests pretending he did not see this coming.'No way am I going over there to clean that up and get blinded too.'
While the flower cloud died down Asher looked up to find a flour coated Jane giving him what he assumed was a glare while she tried to detached her apron from the table. However as soon as his eyes drifted he found that the tie on Jane's apron had become very tight and been forced up to below her chest. "Umm uh Jane...Your um...Apron is a bit…" He tried to form a proper sentence but he was instantly made to be a bumbling fool.
"Asher get over here and fix this I'm stuck and can't get this stupid tie detached." She pulled at it making it even tighter under her chest. Asher was feeling lightheaded from this grand sight before him.
With the time ticking down on Jane's cookies baking she gave up on Asher for help and took the nearby scissors and cut the tie off fully. With a release of pressure she returned to her normal apron wearing self only to find that Asher was a statue staring at her. 'Is my mask off?' She checked and felt that the mask was still attached properly. "Why is he so red? Is he really that embarrassed for dropping the flour everywhere?'
Asher was snapped out of his trance when Jane's kitchen time went off. He nearly jumped a foot in the air but easily recovered himself. He grabbed a broom and cleaned up the flour all over the floors before Mr. Smith realized anything. 'I'm so lucky he didn't notice. He's really focused on those papers.'
Mr. Smith was instead thinking, 'Please don't ask me to help clean' This was the ideal situation for him and he didn't want to be involved.
Art was putting his cookies in to the over having made the recipe faster than anyone else had. Asher on the other hand was mixing his chocolate chips in to his massive hunk of batter. 'This looks a little bit different than everyone else's. They really should read the recipe better.' The other students had taken notice of Asher's antics now and all looked away for fear that they would lose their intellect by watching him.
Jane sat there dusting herself from the flour while her cookies cooled. They were nearly covered in dripping chocolate. 'These look the best. Everyone loves chocolate, the more the better!'
Art smashed his hunk of dough on to a sprayed cookie sheet. 'Why would I divide it up when a whole giant cookie is better?' He flattened it out and tossed the whole pan in to the oven. 'I should turn it up so that it cooks faster.' Asher turned the temperature up again putting it on four thousand five hundred. Art saw this and shook his head knowing that Asher might just be a lost cause.
Art was mixing up a second batch of cookies even though Mr. Smith had said one per person. Mr. Smith was watching this and surprisingly gave him the thumbs up. They had shared a knowing glance before Art returned to his cookies.
The smell of oven roasted cookies had filled the room, yet there was another smell cutting through everything else. "Why does it smell like something is burning?" Jane was the first to notice this and looked at Asher who was standing by the oven's window watching his cookies bake. As she approached she saw that his were indeed burning. "Asher they are burning take them out!" She threw oven mitts at him.
Catching the mitts Asher made no move to remove his massive tray of cookie. "It's called charring, it adds flavor. I saw it on the cooking channel, cookie bake off final episode." he shook his head. ' I really am the only one that knows how to cook here.'
If Asher could see the pained look on Jane's face he would know he was committing a huge baking sin. By the time the timer for Asher's cookies went off the tip of the chocolate chocolate chip cookies was like coal. Without hesitation he flipped the tray over and dropped his massive rectangular cooking on to a cooling tray. Half of it was still raw sticking to the bottom while the top was burned to death. "This would totally win a bake off."
Jane watched in horror as he said these words. She said silent prayers to any cooking gods that may exist that Asher never be allowed near a kitchen after today. Unknowing to her every single student and their teacher were saying these prayers in their heads as well. 'May Asher never be allowed to try and cook again in his entire life, for none may survive.'