The three city leaders each looked down at the offerings, looking confused but interested. Forsythe's they mostly understood when he referred to them as Green Tubed-Caviar Rounds. Chef Euclaire had made fried strips of the round plant, battered them with some sort of flour, fried them again, and finally infused them with ground and sweetened nut-sauce. His explanation was much longer and more complicated, talking about the process of turning the rounds into something completely different using certain techniques. Whereas the judges had listened politely to the one sentence Forsythe provided, their eyes began to glaze over as Euclaire continued.
"It looks so good they should eat it shouldn't they?" Idolia actually interrupted the Chef at some point, and the crowd, bolstered by her 'come on' gesture began yelling out in agreement. None of the city leaders had said anything, and none of them looked relieved outwardly, but Amelia was sure that Idolia had probably just privately earned a few points of reputation.
Queen Catherine tried Forsythe's dish and immediately brightened. "Oh incredible, when the eggs burst open they are sweet and salty, a really nice contrast to the cream. The rounds infuse liquid into the mixture and it really makes me salivate." She colored, realizing she had just told everyone her mouth was watering.
King Elairdrin simply said, "well done."
"I could just eat this all day if I had a lager to go with it while I'm talkin' with the lads." Prince Orekin commented. "My wife would be grateful for all the weight I'd lose and I'd be 'appy to eat them. Course I'd have to eat a lot to keep up me strength." Orekin paused, realizing this wasn't really a bad thing. "I could just eat'em all day I s'pose." He started stroking his beard in thought.
When it came to critiquing the other Chef, no one had anything bad to say about him either. They really liked the sweet over the fried and agreed that if anything after sampling both dishes, they were more hungry. There was a general consensus that both of them had completed the fundamental task of appetizers; which was that it should make you hungry for the main course and leave you with room for the entre.
After a moment of silence, the three city leaders continued to sit there, staring pleasantly and placidly out at the crowd as everyone waited for them to determine who had won this round. No one said anything however, simply waited. Elairdrin turned to Idolia with a 'get on with it' sort of motion, prompting her to jump. She had some expectation that they'd say something too, but apparently, they were withholding judgment until both courses were out.
"Wow, we have absolutely no idea who is winning!" Idolia sang excitedly, giving a wry laugh. "Now that is a competition. For the next round, we'll be doing the main course! The ingredient will be…" A quick look down at her paper. "Egg! Fry'em, scramble'em, sunny side up, whatever you want! 20 minutes!"
This time Forsythe had a lot of pots and pans out. His competitor had a few out but seemed to be geared toward an elaborate omelet. By contrast, Forsythe was boiling water, heating oil, and had one pan set to the side that wasn't over flame at all. He took out 4 enormous eggs. They were all easily larger than the size of his fisted hand. He set them aside even as he pulled out a container with strips of what Amelia immediately identified as preserved Leviathan. He threw strips of it in the pan that wasn't over flame and left them.
"W-what are those eggs?" Idolia's eyes were wide as saucers. "What about the meat?"
"Dire eagle, and Leviathan," Forsythe responded. He paused in taking out ingredients and seemed to turn directly to Elisha in the crowd, he motioned to her and began speaking even though no one in the crowd picked up on the fact he was staring at someone in particular. "Strictly speaking most baby birds will push their siblings out of the nest in order to gain a food and space advantage for survival, and Eagles can't count anyway so I grabbed a few from different nests. These probably would have died anyway." He paused again making sure he met her eyes before repeating, "Probably." Elisha started giggling in the crowd but looked relieved, maybe she liked eagles.
"When. Exactly. Did he have time for any of this?" Amelia demanded.
"Before we could logout I guess?" Aidan shrugged. "He would disappear at night, something about things to do."
"I…d-don't even know what to say," Amelia said, realizing that she was trying to talk even though she was utterly speechless. "I can't describe this in words and that's what words do!" She was saved from thinking of something when Idolia pointed out that Forsythe had already started toasting some sort of bread and was giving pieces to Raven.
Time ticked on and after all his ingredients were out and arranged Forsythe wasted no time. He immediately moved Leviathan strips over the heat, poured some sort of fat or grease into the boiling saucepan he had going, and then moved it to a cooler portion of the rack. Eventually, he cracked open the eggs one at a time and began poaching them. He continued toasting bread and using some butter substitute. Probably the stuff he had used weeks ago made from the milk of the whatever it was. He cracked open the last two eggs and began mixing them quickly in a bowl, stopping once to chop a small red fruit in half and adding it to the eggs. He finally started throwing the butter in the last remaining saucepan and melted it, adding it slowly to his mixture of eggs and the red fruit juice.
At the minute warning he added toast to every plate, then the poached egg, then the leviathan strips, then the strange egg and butter mixture on top. He sprinkled salt and pepper very gently on top and stood back, looking satisfied. Forsythe glanced over to see the other Chef was appraising his own work as well. He had made delicious and fluffy looking omelets with some sort of cheese and green garnish on top. It all smelled so good as it wafted through the crowd. Everyone was ready for there to be a winner so they could try the food. They didn't care who it was anymore.
The judges ate quietly, seeming lost in their own worlds, and when they finished both plates they began discussing animatedly on the stage in hushed whispers. Idolia stood nearby, waiting for a decision.
"There seems to be a general consensus that the first round was too tough to call, they're agreeing that appetizers were to tough to call and are a draw," Idolia reported dutifully. "They really liked the strange thing that Forsythe made…"
"Eggs Benedict." Forsythe supplied, eliciting amazement from more than a few Transients. It was kind of incredible, Amelia admitted, that he had attempted something like that with foreign materials.
"...but the omelet is drawing grudging support. A tie!" The crowd groaned and murmured. "Haha, just kidding. The judges just said that if there was a tie there might be a riot so they are continuing to deliberate." Idolia grinned, and the crowd snickered and sputtered back to peaceful milling.
At last King Elairdrin stood.
Idolia smiled and turned, clapping her hands to silence the crowd. "They have reached a decision!"
The King of Brack thanked her and waited for her to back away before he addressed the crowd. The number of people was actually pretty significant for normal events, and everyone waited quietly, a majority of which were of his kingdom.
"The omelette prepared by this man here," he waved at the Chef who bowed gratefully, "was beyond extraordinary. I don't think in my life I have ever had an omelet cooked to such perfection. Everything was melted and burst off the plate, we agree that it is the pinnacle of the egg that all chefs may aspire toward." The crowd began cheering, and Amelia felt her heart sink.
"Forsythe victory," Aidan whispered. He was, of course, smirking. "They always announce the loser first."
"What?" Amelia asked. That wasn't true anymore. Lots of shows had started mixing it up.
"HOWEVER." The King thundered interrupting the cheering of the crowd so he could finish. "This Benedict of Eggs that Forsythe has created will haunt my dreams. I have never had such a complex, precisely prepared consistent barrage of flavor bite after bite. I have conferred with my colleagues and we have all noticed that we feel younger, stronger, and healthier than we have in years. The hidden benefits of this dish are alarming, to say the least. We have unanimously agreed that if Forsythe should relinquish the secret of this recipe to any one kingdom, rather than all three, there may be war."
Amelia felt her jaw hanging open. She stared at the King as absolute dead silence answered his decree. The other two city-leaders at the table were stone-faced however, completely behind this declaration. Forsythe had lost interest already. He was making another one for Raven who was rhythmically making noise by slamming her silverware into the table. Well, he wasn't completely tuning them out yet since he did eventually reply.
"Yeah, sure." Was all he said in answer to the question of the recipe and whether it would be a secret or not. "Hey, who's hungry?" No one moved immediately. "Will you help me?" Forsythe turned to his opponent, to whom he had just dealt resounding defeat, and invited him to help him start making more dishes for everyone else. Shock on his face, he came over and Forsythe began explaining the dish, but eventually as more and more people came and lined up he yelled out. "We will switch to Leviathan steak halfway through. You people are going to destroy the eagle population, you jerks."
Elisha was still laughing helplessly minutes later while she and Hunter were ushered passed jealous people to the front of the line. When people protested Forsythe merely stopped cooking and stared at them until they ducked their heads and went back in line. Strangely, even the city-leaders lined up for another portion; content, apparently, to stand in line with everyone else and wait their turn. It made more than a few people try to give them their spots, but they declined regally. They were not, however, invited to the front of the line by Forsythe. Neither were Aidan and Amelia, neither of whom really minded and just wanted to stay out of this spectacle. Raven never left the table.