Read Delicious! for Free Online Page B

thinks you’re wasting our time. But what you’re really wasting is your talent. Sal’s right about your palate, and I bet you’d be an awesome cook. Not my business, of course.”
    How could I even begin to tell her?
    “Anyway, it’s not you.” Diana had sensed my discomfort, and shelooped back to Maggie. “She’s always mean to Jake’s assistants. You’d think she’d be over him by now; it’s such ancient history.”
    “They used to have a thing?” Google hadn’t mentioned that. I looked to the far end of the room, where Maggie was standing next to a man I assumed was Paul, pointing down at something he was stirring in a pot. She was a lot younger than I’d thought at first, probably in her fifties, and she had great bones. If I tried hard, I could see her as one of those artsy beatnik girls who wore black turtlenecks, black tights, and black ballet slippers.
    “It was a long time ago.” Diana had followed my gaze. “Back around 1980, when Jake was really hot. They even had a restaurant. I think it was called Maja. That’s all I know, but you should ask Sammy when he gets back. He knows all our secrets, and he loves to gossip. You’ll see; we have much more fun when he’s around. He—”
    She broke off as someone shouted, “Taste!”
    Tossing me an apologetic look, Diana joined the other cooks as they descended on a dish that had just emerged from the oven. Then they all began to talk at once.
    “Have you tried roasting this beef at a lower temperature?” It was Lori, the stylist. “I’d bring it down twenty-five degrees.”
    “Put more liquid in the pan, Paul.” One of the cooks was poking at the bottom of the pan. “Your onions are dry!”
    “I’m not sure about the seasoning.” Diana pursed her lips. “Marjoram with beef?”
    “I like the marjoram,” said another cook—I still couldn’t keep them straight—“but what’s the other flavor in there? The one that’s closing my throat?”
    “Fenugreek.” Paul held out a handful of tiny rust-colored pebbles. “Too weird?”
    I listened, thinking how lucky I was to have landed in the one place on earth where recipes were taken this seriously. The cooks tested these dishes almost to absurdity, redoing them again and again, using a pinch more of this or a tiny bit less heat, trying to make each dish asperfect as possible. They were all dedicated to getting it right, and when I was here among them, it made me wish I were cooking again. But although the panic was letting me be for now, I knew it wasn’t gone. I could sense it out there, always waiting, and I was not about to invite it back into my life. For now, just being here was enough.
    “Okay.” Maggie took control. “Try it again, Paul. Lower temperature. More liquid. Reconsider your seasonings. Got it?”
    The taste was winding down. I whistled for Sherman, who trotted toward me, tail waving like a flag. No point in giving Maggie another opportunity to attack.
    BACK ON THE SECOND FLOOR , I went into Jake’s office, trying to decode his expression. Irritation? Should I not have taken Sherman to the kitchen? Maybe I’d been away from my desk too long?
    “I was just asking Maggie for help with a recipe.”
    “Good idea.” Jake nodded. “She’s a font of
Delicious!
information.”
    “But wouldn’t it be easier if you gave me the key to the library? Then I could look things up.” And stay away from Maggie.
    Jake shook his head. “Not going to happen. In the old days, they had a full-time librarian. But long before I got here, that position was eliminated. The place was a shambles: People’d been taking books and not returning them or just leaving them in piles on the floor. It was such a mess we decided to lock it up. And it’s going to stay locked until we can afford another librarian. Which,” he added gloomily, “is not likely to be anytime soon.”
    “I’d put everything back where I found it,” I said.
    “I’m sure you would.” Jake gave me a conciliatory