Ragini - Cupcakes, Football and Maybe Love

CHAPTER 30 - Chop, Chop

"Coming through, hot hot hot." I heard Jessie say as she passed from behind me.

I took my mango mixture and poured it onto a tray. I picked up the tray and went to put it in the freezer along with the tray that had the mixture that chef Sabina had spread out for our mango cheescake.

"Heavy heavy ,behind you, watch out." I said as I made my way towards the freezer.

This type of communication is absolutely necessary when you are working in a kitchen and there is lunch prep or dinner prep or any sort of service you are working on.

I poured my chocolate mixture in their ramekins and tapped each and every one of them on the counter so that there were no bubbles inside the chocolate mixture. I had only filled the mixture about half way through the cup, because the strawberry coulis needed to be put in the middle and then I had to fill up the remaining chocolate mixture in the cups. I took out the strawberry coulis that chef Sabina had prepared in the meanwhile and then poured it inside the cup. There were dried,cryatalline bits of strawberry that I placed inside the cup on top of the strawberry coulis and then covered the remaining half of the cup with the remaining chocolate mixture. And I did the whole procedure again atleast 35 times more because we are expecting at least 50 guests during the lunch service and from the previous lunch services we could predict atleast 30-32 of these Choco Lava Cakes flying out along with the other desserts. After I poured in the last of the mixture into the cups, I took them to the oven to bake.

I put the 5 huge trays of my Choco Lava Cake cups and then placed them on a trolley and moved them towards the huge oven . I picked up one tray and placed it on the lower rack , and as I was about to pick another tray, sous chef Hugh came near me.

"Need any help?" He more so stated than asked as he picked up the next tray and placed it in the oven rack. We did so alternately and then hi-fied each other and went towards our working stations.

Chef Sabina had prepared the filling for the cheesecake, so now we started working on the Eton mess. For that , we had to prepare the meringue first. She guided me through the procedure of making it. Making the meringue is a tricky aspect of the Eton mess, and a good way to check if the meringue is rightly prepared or not is by taking the bowl in which you have whisked your ingredients for the meringue and then.... taking the bowl up in the air and putting it upside down over your own head. Yup! If it does not fall , that means it is the right consistency. It has to be creamy, light , fluffy and thick .

"Common, check it, check it." Chef Sabina said as I finished whisking the meringue mixture. I took the meringue mix's bowl and took it over my head and turned it upside down, while also closing my eyes a little bit, though now on I was more confident about my mix more than I was some months ago. And, it did not fall.

Chef Sabina and I said a cheerful, "Yes" while we hi-fied each other.

"You are getting better now kiddo." Chef Sabina said while she took my meringue mixture and poured it onto a tray. She flattened it with a spatula and made small mountain like structures on the meringue. She then put it in the refrigerator and then we looked around us and saw that almost everyone had gone to have their lunch.