Chapter 569: Academy"s Cafeteria Reform
The cook, Noritz, showed up looking a little p.i.s.sed off, but after listening to him carefully, I found out that he was actually very interested in the curry.
His tone of voice made him sound like he was angry, but the words that came out were a request to eat the curry. A tsundere old man. Good grief, that wasn’t moe at all!
He really wanted to try my curry himself, and he was angry at us for causing a scene, but the smells are so delicious. He was a little offended by what the students were saying, but he was interested in the unique dish.
It seemed that such a mixture of emotions resulted in his tsundere response.
「Ugh… This is delicious, isn’t it? This must have used a lot of spice to make it…」
Noritz a.n.a.lyzed various things from the curry Fran had given to him.
「As expected of the one who developed it, they are two of three steps ahead of the recipes they sell」
「You know about the curry recipe?」
「Yeah. They sell it at Lucille’s Trading Company. I’m also interested in the fact that it was developed by a silver-ranked cook」
Apparently, Noritz was a member of the Cooking Guild. It was not a very big organization, but most cooks from big restaurants were members.
And when he learned that the developer of the curry was a Silver Rank member of the Cooking Guild, he decided to buy it.
「I was shocked by it. However, if I make it by following the recipe, the cost would be quite high…」
Noritz said that the most important thing he paid attention to when he cooked was nutritional balance. Next is quant.i.ty. The last is taste. Of course, he does not want to serve bad food. However, there was a limit to what he could do within his budget.
There may be many ways to make this at home, but they have to make food for thousands of people with a small number of people. They also don’t have enough time or labor for even a small amount of innovation.
「By the way, what is the cost to make this?」
「It was――」
When she gave him a rough idea of the cost and the ingredients used, Noritz put his head in his hands. The soup stock was made from the bones of magic beasts, and a variety of their meats were used. Magical plants were used lavishly too. So it was probably not something that could be served in a school cafeteria.
It seemed that Noritz was also trying to make a good and cheap curry, but it just didn’t seem to be working. If he reduced the number of expensive spices, it becomes just like a soup with a few spices.
In the first place, spices were expensive in this country. Well, since Barbra was a port town, it was particularly cheap to buy there. So if he used such spices as in the recipe, the cost will inevitably go up.
Seeing Noritz so distressed, Fran seemed to feel sorry for him. She could tell that deep down he wanted to make sure that the students had the best food possible.
(Master, can we do something?)
『Hmm, I actually had an idea』
Noritz’s mistake would have been to try to replicate the taste of the recipe based on the one sold at Barbra. I guess it’s because he had an a.s.sumption that that was how a curry should be… But with a limited budget and ingredients, it was impossible to do so even for me.
「…I have an Idea」
「Huh? Could it be, you want to help us?」
「Nn」
「Oooh! Thank you! Then, what should we do?」
「Let me use the kitchen」
「Understood!」
Fran then cooked and prepared the dish according to my instructions. Naturally, it was Fran and Urus.h.i.+ who were the first to taste it.
Seeing how well they ate, Noritz followed suit and took a bite of her cooking.
「This is… It is curry, but it’s not the curry I know. However, it’s cheap and delicious」
「It’s Curry Mapo Rice」
「Mapo? What an interesting name」
「It’s a little different from curry, but it’s delicious」
What we made was a curry Mapo with fewer spices and more sansho (j.a.panese pepper). In this country, a variety of sansho could be obtained inexpensively. After all, they grew naturally everywhere.
But Noritz and the others never thought of it as something they could use for the curry. They never thought that the inexpensive sansho, which they usually used in large quant.i.ties, would be a good subst.i.tute for expensive spices. The smell was quite different too.
I took advantage of that and made a curry-like version of a dish that originally existed in this area, a dish similar to Mapo seasoned with sansho, soy sauce, and sugar. The spiciness of this dish was different from that of curry, but I’ve tried to make it addictive.
In terms of cost, it’s not so different from what we’ve done in the past, but it’s a recipe that we, with all our cooking skills, really thought about. Moreover, by using even a small amount of spices from abroad, we were able to create something new. I’m sure the students would love it.
「If you change the seasoning or the thickness a little, you can put it in steamed bun or sandwich」
「I see what you mean! We can freely change the ingredients! You’ve taught me something good!」
In addition to that, I’ll teach him how to arrange existing dishes, like curry fried rice. With Noritz’s skills, I’m sure he can make the cafeteria’s food taste even better than it already does.
「Thank you. With this, now I can give the students a good meal. But, about your reward…」
「Nn? I don’t need it」
Fran refused the reward. Well, this is half as an apology for making a scene, and half for the sake of the other students.
Besides, we’ve seen Noritz and the others making tearful efforts to keep the cost of ingredients down. If we were to receive a reward for the recipe, it would be meaningless for us to teach them how to make it cheaply.
When she told him that, Noritz said that he couldn’t accept it for free and that he would pay for it out of his pocket.
And after a short discussion, we settled on asking him to write a letter of introduction to a business a.s.sociation that does business with the academy. After all, I also wanted a lot of sansho for our future use. So, it’s just right.
We finished our work at the cafeteria, but then, we had an unexpected encounter. It was when we were heading for the exit to leave the cafeteria.
「…!」
「?」
It was a brown-haired boy who looked to be only about three or four years old. The boy came running into the cafeteria with a smile on his face as if he was really looking forward to eating, but he stopped moving the moment he saw Fran.
「「…」」
Fran and the boy looked at each other. The boy’s smile had changed and he was now glaring at Fran. There was strong anger in his eyes and a slight hint of fear. I never thought a boy like him would look at her like that.
After a few seconds of staring at each other, the woman who was with him gently touched the boy’s shoulder.
「Romio-kun, you’ll disturb everyone if you stop here」
「…I-I’m sorry」
「Shall we go then? Hmm?」
「Yes」
As we pa.s.sed each other, the woman bowed her head apologetically――while Romio was still staring at us. She must be a caretaker.
『So that was Romio』
「…」
『Fran, don’t overthink about it too much』
(That eye… I feel like I’ve seen it somewhere)
『Eh? You mean, from Romio?』
「Nn」
I thought she was depressed because Romio was staring at her, but actually, she had something else on her mind.
『You’ve seen it somewhere? You can’t remember?』
「Nn…」
We had never met Romio before. So I’m not sure if the hostile and frightened look in his eyes was the same as the one we used to fight with.
「But where…?」