‘I really liked her too,’ Emma said. But she couldn’t get rid of the heavy weight in her chest, which had been present all day.
Chapter Twenty-Five
It was the biggest week of the competition and, after the events of the previous week, Jay couldn’t have felt less prepared. Today the rest of the team were looking to him to lead them. He’d had every intention of working out a time plan for them all, but he’d been too overwhelmed with everything else. Now it was all he could do to remind them of the dishes they’d elected to cook and let them get on with it.
‘Are you okay?’ Chloe startled him out of his reverie.
‘Yes, I’m just...’ He faltered, not sure how much he should reveal to her. ‘I’ve just had a busy few days and I’m not as prepared as I’d like to be.’
‘Well, we’re all in this together today. So let’s just focus on our own dishes first and then we can all help each other out later.’
Her words were comforting and just what he needed right now. He smiled down at her, glad that she was in this competition with him. And although they were competitors, he did feel as though he was in a team with her.
‘Thanks, Chloe.’
‘What for?’
‘For being so supportive.’
She squeezed his arm again. ‘It works both ways, Jay.’
The judges came in and Chloe went back to her workstation. He watched her for a moment as she calmly set things straight on her workbench and wondered what it would be like to work with her outside of the competition. Then he shook his head in frustration. He was getting away with himself.Come on, Jay. Focus.
Time was limited and he had a lot of prep to do before he would be able to help anyone else. He needed to concentrate on his own dish first. He’d chosen to make almond shortbread withbalsamic strawberries, lavender cream and strawberry coulis. If all went well, he would garnish it with frosted basil leaves. It was a simpler dessert than the ones he’d previously made, but, with the reduced time and the numbers they were catering for, he felt that a simpler, well-executed dish would score more points than something over-complicated. The downside was that he would have nowhere to hide. He began by making the almond shortbread so that it would have time to rest in the fridge before rolling out and baking it. The strawberries worked well together with the lavender, and both were staples that his grandfather had grown on his allotment.
With the shortbread resting in the fridge, he concentrated on making the strawberries and balsamic filling so that too could chill before he had to plate the dish up. Then he made the coulis and prepared the basil leaves.
As he placed the strawberry mixture in the fridge, he looked around the team to see where everyone was up to. Rav was still prepping the vegetables for the Bengali chicken curry he was making for the main. He looked worried, so Jay went to join him. ‘You okay?’
‘Bit behind, to be honest.’
‘I’ve got some time. What can I do?’
‘All those sweet potatoes need peeling and chopping ready to go into the stuffed parathas.’
‘Pass them over, then.
‘Thank you, Jay.’
‘No problem.’ Jay clapped him on the back. ‘We’re here as a team.’
He took the tray of sweet potatoes back to his workstation and began preparing them. The judges soon wandered over.
‘How’s the blue team doing?’ Philip asked.
‘Okay so far,’ Jay replied. ‘I’ve prepped the main elements for my dish and I’m just helping Rav with the filling for theparathas. Then I’ll roll out the shortbread and get it in the oven, and make my lavender cream before checking if the others need any help.’
‘Good work,’ Angela said. ‘Nice to see you working as a team. And that you have it all under control.’
Jay smiled as they moved across the kitchen to speak to the red team, who didn’t seem to be faring quite so well. Judging by the sounds of banging and crashing from their side of the kitchen, Jay could only assume they were starting to panic. The judges lingered to ask more questions and Jay heard Philip say, ‘Well, you need to crack on — you’ve got a lot of catching up to do.’
Jay knew the key to this task was to remain focused and work efficiently, and that was exactly what he intended to do. He took the sweet potatoes back to Rav, who thanked him and tipped them into a large pan of water that was coming up to boil. Jay then began to roll out his shortbread. He tried to make it as thin as possible so that, when he plated it up, he’d have a round of shortbread on both the top and the bottom of the dish, with the filling in between.
Time sped by and Jay looked up to see Chloe waving at him. He rushed over to her side.
‘My sauce has split for the fish and I can’t get it right no matter what I do.’
‘Here, let me,’ Jay said calmly. ‘Can you whip up some cream for me?’
