The Heartbeat at the Tip of the Tongue | LK Adaption

Chapter 29 : Hell's kitchen

"Pepper, her name is Lisa. The pronunciation is similar to the French bread. Today she'll follow you. she's a newbie, so don't have too much expectations towards her speed. I will personally teach her some methods of cutting simple ingredients, you delegate some work to her."

Lisa was a little 囧, it seemed like many people had to compare the French bread to the pronunciation of her name.

Pepper nodded: "Yes, chef."

Iris nodded, and demonstrated in front of Lisa on how to cut potatoes, onions, carrots and other vegetables. Although it was only cutting things, from Iris's agile movements and the unique position, her skills had deep foundations.

"Remembered?" Iris looked at Lisa.

"Remembered." Lisa nodded.

Iris lifted the corners of her lips slightly, in her eyes, Lisa saw slight mockery. She didn't believe Lisa had remembered. Or what she'd remembered and will execute was far apart.

"You try." Iris pushed an onion to Lisa.

The onion had already been soaked. Lisa pressed in on the counter, and cut it vertically from the middle. Then, she put one of the halves on the counter, and started slitting. Lisa noticed, that Iris's method of slitting onions was very quick. She knew that once she slowed on her cutting, it will be very easy to get chocked. And in the busy back kitchen, there was no extra time to let her soak the onions.

She could only bite the bullet, and cut as fast as she could. Especially under the watch of Iris, Lisa felt a thorn in her back.

When the first onion was cut, Iris reached out her hand to grab Lisa's onion, and let it fall through her fingers. She examined them, and said unhurriedly: "even though the actions were slow, and the thickness of the onions cut are not uniform, at least the method isn't wrong. Continue like this. Pepper, watch her well. The things that she cut, make sure to give it a once through."

"Yes, chef." Pepper nodded.

When Iris left, the whole kitchen started getting busy.

Pepper's knife skill was quick, arranged the little potatoes on the counter, and pressed with his hand, one knife down, and all the little potatoes were split.

Lisa also followed and tried, but she couldn't press onto so many at once, and only tried it on three.

Pepper only glanced at Lisa, didn't give extra explanations.

At first, Lisa cut really slowly, gradually, she got affected by the Pepper's speed, from holding the potatoes to pressing down on them, then to cutting them along the edge of her finger, to throwing them into the plate, even Pepper turned his face to look at Lisa.

Not even half an hour later, the little potatoes were all cut.

"You are really fortunate to not have cut your finger. You had no need to catch up to my speed."

Pepper turned around, and took out onions from the freezer. Only Lisa stood dazedly at the original spot.

Only then did she realise, she had actually caught up to the chopping speed of Pepper, this veteran of the back kitchen.

She lifted her hands and had a look, and thought about the feeling of the blade pressing onto her fingers while it passed, and had cold sweat start up.

A few onions were pressed in front of Lisa, Pepper's voice sounded: "Continue."

Lisa took a breath, and according to Iris's method, started cutting onions.

She tried her best to not let herself be influenced by Pepper who was at her side, and before every cut was made, make proper preparations. For example, the thickness released by the fingers, for example the angle of the blade going down, once it was confirmed, she cut without hesitation, and did her best to ensure that every slice of onion was of the same thickness, and still not spoil water content the onions carried.