The food was served on time for the customer to not be waiting for too long.
Once he took a bite out of the fish skewer, his face lit up with delight all of a sudden and commented. "This.. this is delicious. Someone of your skill should really reconsider associating with such a failure. Someone like him will only bring you down. How about I make a recommendation to my boss?"
Pixel shook her head and answered him calmly. "No thank you. I am only here for a couple of days so I just want to use one of the cooking spaces while I am here."
It meant that she would be there and could use the facilities to cook and sell what she made but once she had finished, it was likely that things would return to normal if the owner did not learn from her during the time that she was there.
The owner was clearly unskilled in cooking and served overcooked or burnt food but it was unknown how unskilled he was or how much instruction he had been given from others.
He could have just watched others and was cooking according to the recipes to allow him to reach his present state while others would have been training properly under someone more skilled that was guiding them.
Sometimes it was better to place people on smaller chores so they could get more familiar with the routines in the cooking work space but to also watch how others performed.
If they were perceptive enough and worked hard then they could improve themselves enough to graduate from small tasks to a trainee chef or a regular part of the team.
Even during the preparation of the ingredients, Pixel performed several different knife skills on the different ingredients so that each of them turned out well presented and perfectly ready to be arranged or added onto the main ingredient to further enhance the appearance and flavour.
Each of the ingredients were neatly chopped, diced, sliced and minced into almost identical shapes.
Those being placed on the skewer were on a cube shape while there were some that served as additional garnish or dressing that were finely cut into thin matchstick shapes, miniature cubes or even smaller shapes.
The skewers were placed on some disposable containers along with the additional ingredients and a small amount of sauce that the skewers could be dipped into.
If the owner had been watching from the beginning to end then he would have learned a lot but he had already fallen asleep in the corner.
Pixel did not care too much about how the owner spent his time so long as she could continue using the space but she felt that it was a shame that he did not even try. 'Oh well.. it is none of my business anyways. He will be getting paid once I make back those berries that I lent from Cleo.'
Pixel set aside the prepared skewers for to be sold and set a sign near them as they were on a low heat to keep them warm. 'Hmm.. for now, I should just set the average price that this guy has set then I can raise it once I start using my own ingredients and make some changes to the menu.'
Pixel had taken a look through the island's cooking books and found that many recipes were seafood based more than anything.
The island thrived on fishing, trade from ships that docked and ship building so they relied heavily on the sea to bring in trade and developed most of their businesses around that.
There were shops that were focussed towards trading goods suited for sailors or pirates to provide extra comfort or protection on board a ship while others had stalls for food and drinks.
Pixel had seen the recipes and had some grasp over them so she did not have a difficult time producing a simple dish that was the fish skewers.
Her keen sense of smell could pick up on the ingredients used and the approximate ratio of them so that she could apply that to her cooking.
When she was tasting and smelling them during the preparation, she was able to figure out what was missing that would improve or complete the recipe so that it would come out better than before.
The first ones were just a test using the ingredients left behind by the owner so Pixel had some confidence that she could do better with what had been purchased by herself.
The attractive smell spread further and the skewers did not have long enough to go cold before there were other customers that had shown up.
A teenage girl came forward and asked timidly. "H..how much for a skewer?"
The drool at the side of her watering mouth had been dripping down which she wiped away in embarrassment.
One cabbage had been purchased for one hundred and fifty berries and other ingredients varied but a serving of food from a stall could cost anything from two hundred to five hundred berries.
Some places could be much higher depending on the overall quality and ingredients used then there were highly popular restaurants that could charge around thirteen thousand berries for a full course meal per person.
At a lot of stalls, they were selling things like cotton candy or other single servings for five hundred berries while others would sell them for more.
It depended on how valued they were and how much the customers were willing to pay for what was cooked.
Pixel pointed to the sign. "The first batch of skewers will be sold for two hundred and fifty berries."
The original price was already very cheap and was worth the price of a single ingredient so it barely covered the costs unless the quality of the ingredients were much lower.
Some bad ingredients were pushed aside or were cut around the bad parts so that what was still usable could be salvaged but it was clear that the owner had been getting by with cheaper ingredients so that he could afford to keep up with the lower prices he had to sell for.
Unless his reputation grew and he started attracting attention of others that wished to keep purchasing from him, there was nothing that could be done about making improvements to his ingredients and his selling price.
The continued harassments had further made him fall into a more difficult time that made him close to having to give up on the family business.
The girl was surprised and delighted to be getting such tasty food for such a cheap price so took out the two hundred and fifty berries. "One serving please."
Pixel took it with a cute smile on her face. 'Ah.. my first paying customer.'
She started placing the skewers on the disposable container along with the additional side ingredients and sauce then sealed it.
It was placed on the counter and another customer came upon being attracted to the smell and the reaction from the girl which squealed as she placed the sauced dipped skewer into her mouth and took a bite. "Sho..good!"
Pixel was so caught up in serving new customers that the skewers were disappearing very quickly and she had to prepare for her own menu that would follow up.
Once a crowd started to form to watch her cooking performance live, Pixel started to get a little overwhelmed so she called over towards Misty, Liquorice, Harley and Old Swifty. "I need a little help with preparation. Leave the rest to me."
Harley and Old Swifty were the most skilled in blade and sword techniques so they were useful for even handling the less difficult chopping tasks while Misty had been used to dealing with different herbs so she adjusted quickly and Liqorice had helped with the cleaning.
Cleo and Micah had sat a little further away while watching the show.
Micah smirked as he asked. "Do you think she can pay you back and gain the berries she needs for the next couple of days this way?"
Cleo shrugged. "Only if she raises the prices a little more but here.."
She stuffed a skewer in his face which forced him to take a bite out of it. "See? If this is her barely trying with what that guy was using then what she has brought should have far better results."
Pixel and the others did not know that there was a human customer among those that paid for two servings was someone that had been paid and instructed to retrieve some for someone else so it could be brought to her grandfather.