Let's Start A Bakery!

Chapter 11

I guess I'll just walk around and hope I find someone. I thought to myself as I started walking down the hall.

I headed towards the dining hall, where I remembered a guard was stationed.

As I came closer to the door that opened up to the dining table, the guard noticed me walking by myself.

He looked a little bit panicked and asked, "Lady Corvalia! What are you doing without your maid by your side."

"Hm?" I asked, "I want to visit the kitchen by myself. Can you point me in the right direction?"

"Well... yes, it's down that hall and the first door to the left," He said while pointing down the hall. "But, should you be traveling alone? Would you like me to call for a knight to escort you?"

"I'm good, but thank you for asking," I said. I gave him a short curtsey and continued down the hall.

In the reflection of a mirror displayed on one of the walls, I saw that the knight wore a shocked expression on his face but quickly composed himself and continued to stand straight in front of the door.

The door to the kitchen was closed, but I could hear people moving around inside. I opened the door and most of the kitchen staff turned to look at me in surprise.

One of the cooks stopped what they were doing and bowed to me, saying, "It is an honor to have you here Lady Corvalia. Is there anything you needed from us?"

The rest of the kitchen went silent, and the only thing I heard was the crackling of the hearth in the center, which had a bubbling cauldron of some kind of stew over it.

"Yes, I do need something from you all," I said. "I would like to get a tour of the entire kitchen, and have someone explain to me the cooking process that everything goes through."

"R-right now?" the chef asked.

"Yes, right now. I'm interested in learning more about food, and the culinary arts in general."

"I'm sorry, what are culinary arts?" The chef asked.

"Er.. what?" I was startled by the question. I came up with a random answer as quickly as I could.

"Well...culinary arts is just the art of cooking, but a fancier term that I made up because it sounds better," I said while trying to maintain composure.

I better watch what I say in the future, I didn't know that the term 'culinary arts' didn't even exist yet!

"Ah... yes well, I will show you around the kitchen then," the chef answered me.

He turned around to the rest of the kitchen and shouted, "And the rest of you, it's time to get back to work! We still have a meal to prepare!"

"Yes sir!" they said, as they all hurriedly turned back to what they were doing before I interrupted.