Mistakenly Eaten

4. Secret Chef Hunter's Society

Seeing the little red flag post on her mailbox lifted up, Althea was jested and boasted with excitement.

Thinking, hoping and praying that her mailbox consisted of that one letter that she was yearning for, for the past one month, ever since the admission letters and the application forms for the Secret Chef Hunter’s society closed up and other applicants had started receiving their letters of acceptance and or rejection.

Althea had no idea where she stood up in the line that year.

She had come to know about the Secret Chef Hunter’s Society about three years ago when she had joined different forums for amateur chefs, after she came to make peace with the fact that as long as her sister was in college, she would not be able to attend a culinary school.

For that purpose, she went online and searched for similar stories and she did find many, where felt at peace and at home.

Having people share their experiences with her and having a platform where she felt heard and voiced, she felt extremely happy, getting to live in her own little bubble.

But then one day, she came across the group on f*******: called, Aspirants of Secret Chef Hunter’s Society or as they liked to acronym-ed themselves ‘ASCH’.

The group was administrated by an old aspirant who got to attend the Secret Chef Hunter’s Society, or at the least that was how the admin of that group had introduced himself.

Althea got intrigued, reading the introduction and ended up joining the group, after answering a bunch of questions, about why she was interested in cooking. It was the usual parade for her to go through such questions, whenever she requested to join a group. Once her request to that ASCH got approved Althea found herself yearning one step closer to her dream.

She was always worried if a school would ever take her after having such a lousy background of working as a waitress, since her request to join Master Chef Europe got rejected multiple times, due to her lack of culinary education.

But once she was in ASCH and learnt about people’s experience she found out that there was a Secret Chef Hunter’s Society in Europe that carried out an underground cooking competition in Europe. The Society was ran by a bunch of old amateur chefs, who also never got the opportunity to attend any culinary school, due to the lack of necessary education and their circumstances but they built themselves up from the ground and had become the top chefs in the entire world.

Having such a weak and meek background they started an underground cooking competition by hunting chefs through the world. They had been carrying that program for the past fifteen years and initially they would accept whoever would apply or hunt chefs their owns selves.

They particularly targeted chefs, who were too good and cooked on the streets or in secret and Althea’s heart immediately lit up with hope, since she also had to cook in secret and anonymously at her uncle’s restaurant.

She read all the experiences of the people who had attended the competition and apparently, one of the chefs had a private island of his own somewhere in Europe and he took the participants there and held the competition.

Over the past fifteen years, the competition had grown up and had become quite tough. Since, a lot of skilled people had begin to apply in it and were selected by their anonymous recruiters.

The application process was simple. One person had to apply at their website, fill out their simple form and explain what and where they cooked and under which condition. An anonymous recruiter, who could be anyone – a person that blended easily in the crowd would show up at that place, taste the food, judge it in appearance, which was the final step in the process and then finally give their opinion and review on whether that person would be selected or not.

Althea had been applying for the past three years, ever since she learned about it.

It wasn’t just her dream and her jest to have a culinary title in her name but also the price money.

It was around half a million euro and with that kind of money, not only will she get to live freely and out of her uncle and cousin’s tantalizing reach but also be able to afford her sister’s college fee and help her mom stay at a better place, peacefully without having to work in the fields every other day.

The last two years unfortunately she got rejected but this year she was determined to get in to the competition and had asked the former participants about what the recruiters might look like, so that she could recognize them and cook for them.

She had made sure to cook for anyone, who even slightly looked like the described recruiters and would order the Gragnano Pasta, since she had mentioned it in the application, that it was her signature dish.

She cooked it, risking her life against her uncle by cooking that pasta for whoever asked for it.

And she had high hopes that, that was going to be the year when she was going to get in to the competition.

She opened up the mailbox, expecting a letter to be in there but all of her hopes vanished away and the bright and hopeful smile on her face turned in to frown, when she saw that there wasn’t any letter inside the mailbox and the small wooden box that rested on a single sledge was entirely empty.

She pouted her lips in disappointment but didn’t lose hope.

She straightened up and turned the post on the mailbox down, huffing in disappointment and walked further towards her house.

She hadn’t lost all hope because she had not received her letter of rejection yet, which she had for the previous two years.

“No letter doesn’t mean not accepted it also means not rejected.”

She told that little chanter to her own self, trying her best to keep a positive attitude towards her life. That one competition and the hopes of getting in to it, where she got rejected over and over again and the way life had thrown bricks at her and pushed her down back and back again – but she still had not lost her trust and hope in life.

She just wished, worked hard, stayed true to her own self and her dreams and never lost hope.

Walking the separated stone pavements that were placed over on the soft grass, Emilia walked up towards the small cemented structure that had one small window on the left side and a door on the left side. Opening up the mahogany single wooden door, Althea entered inside the small house, that had a small round table placed on the left, where she put her bag and her keys and on the very right was a small open kitchen that opened up directly in to the living room, which was a three seaters sofa couch and a single one placed in a L-shape in front of a small flat TV screen, put in front of the square window that had its curtains drawn on, giving the inside of the house a much calm, yet a little sadly dark essence.

Walking up towards the window which was placed in the middle of the wall, Althea drew the curtains off from it and smiled, looking at the view in front of her.

The white chirping birds, flying on the yellow growing mustard fields right in front of her eyes, soothed her eyes and even if she ever were to move out of that place, she would always be grateful for that view, since it was among those things that helped her stay sane.

Turning back towards the kitchen, she went first towards the large refrigerator, placed right by the entrance of the kitchen and opened it up, taking out the three large containers that she had placed inside it.

They contained the prepared fillings, marinated meat and other stuff for the food that was going to be served at her sister’s engagement party.

She closed the door and smiled to herself, watching the invitation card for her sister’s wedding, attached on the fridge door through a round magnet.

She took it off from the fridge and waved the card in her hands.

In cursive, over the firm card paper, that had its edged smudged with paint, giving it an expensive look, was written.

You are cordially invited to the engagement celebration of Irene Ferrara and Peter Como.

RSVP – Ricci Como and Gustav Romano

Althea scoffed reading that RSVP names over and over again.

It should’ve been her mother’s name on it but who was she kidding.

Who was she even going to complaint at that point.

She felt like she had no control over her life and those things that she could’ve done with others or share her plans with others, where by she could complaint and fight for her rights, she just couldn’t do that. She didn’t have the liberty over her own opinions.

But there were just two people in the world, who always made her feel safe and at home.

The door to the house opened up and inside chimed in Althea’s two best friends, who always made her feel happy and sane about herself.

Seb and Lur or as their parents named them to be Sebastian and Luna.

But their cut their names short because they had free will and also the spirit to live on their own.

The two twin brother and sister, had a complete hippy look.

Their looks were almost emo.

Sebastian’s hair were dyed dirty blond, a small goatee grown around his chin and his hair and beard both styled in spikes, with his body covered in tattoos that were smudges at distances from each other, each being meaningless and stupid to Althea, as he wore a lose tank top to show off his skinny abs and lean muscles.

His sister Lur – Luna was actually someone who kept her natural thick and black hair but had their cut up in a emo style, with her front fringes running thick in a side puff over her forehead and falling in to her eyes, whilst a small piercing rested over the corner of her lips, something that many men found sexy about her.

Both the siblings had almost the same features with their eyes light blue and their noses straight and sharp and their jawlines, structures and curved in a perfect L.

“You guys are early! I didn’t tell you that I got off early from the restaurant.” She told the two siblings, who joined her in the kitchen.

Lur hugged her from behind and placed her chin over Althea’s shoulder blade.

“That is because we thought that you would be getting off late from work and we thought to come here earlier and help with things as much as you we could.”

“Really?” asked Althea and Seb nodded.

“Yeah! We really came to see what we could prepare, since you have thought us some cooking and…”

“You guys came here to practice for your performance this Sunday right?”

The two siblings shared a skeptical look, and Althea could tell that she had immediately caught them.

Just like Althea was an aspiring chef, the two were also aspiring musicians and they had met over an open mic night at a local bar, where the two siblings performed and Althea got over on the mic and shared her dreams with everyone.

They saw a light and positivity in her that attracted them towards her and made them become extremely close friends.

But majorly also because Althea announced over at the mic that night that she had a small side catering business where she catered at parties and was looking for partners, who could invest a little with her and also help her with catering at parties. It was a win win for the two.

Since, Seb and Lur didn’t have a sky rocketing music career they decided to give Althea’s business a try and so far, they weren’t facing any losses.

Althea’s sister’s engagement party was also a part of their catering venture.

“Just take out the sheets, I placed in the fridge last night and start filling them in cone shapes with this one. I have to go and take a shower and then, let’s just go to the venue, I will prepare the barbeque there.”

With that Althea left for upstairs, jumping through the railing less cemented stairways and the two siblings huffed in relaxation, that they had gotten to the house just in time before Althea could.

“Thank God! We came before her.”

Lur cooed.

“I know right? Thankfully, we got the idea to just check up on the food preparations. Had we just come a little late, she would’ve gotten the letter.”

They had actually come earlier to get her but once they were there, they saw the flag on the mailbox up and since Althea had told them that she had applied for secret chef hunter’s society that year again, they knew that her letter would have arrived.

They immediately opened it up and had just gotten the letter out when they saw Althea walking towards the house, so they immediately rushed and hid behind the house.

They watched while hiding behind the house as Althea noticed the flag up and the two bit their tongues in regret that they had forgotten to turn it down due to their haphazard movement.

But luckily Althea didn’t think much about it and had moved on from it and the two also joined her inside the house.

But even they didn’t know what was inside the letter and with Althea gone, the two stood holding the letter inside their hands, about to read what was inside it and if Althea’s life was going to take a turn for good or for bad, as they were going to find out if she had gotten accept or rejected by the Secret Chef Hunter’s Society.

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What do you think had Althea gotten in or not?

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