A Full Course Meal (ziam)

/2/ The Set

Chapter2 : The Set

After a quick touch of makeup courtesy of a very chatty red haired girl, the four Chefs were led to the studio. Liam was not expecting so many butterflies in his belly, he was more the ton of lead in the stomach kind of guy. Maybe what he felt as they walked into the main studio was a mix of both, because the truth is it was exciting, yeah, but also incredibly intimidating.

The access to the studio was through a piece of scenography that resembled a hallway, uniting the studio and the waiting room they had been in before.

The space itself was a lot bigger than it looked on TV, and Liam stared in awe. There were way too bright lights fixed to the ceiling, illuminating strategic spots, and the camera crew was already waiting to get to work, looking bored. Liam felt even sillier, being so nervous about something that seemed to be so menial for those guys, but it was reasonable, wasn't it? He had a right to feel like that. The crew had no idea what it was like, being on this side of the cameras.

At least he had watched enough episodes to be decently aware of his surroundings, despite being actually there for the first time in his life. The center stage were the four cooking stations, lined up one besides the other, already prepped with their own sets of cutting boards, knives, pans, platters and a wide assortment of utensils.

To the right side of the studio was the pantry. It was a large, open space that resembled a small grocery store. In the middle of the space were shelves stocked with a huge variety of ingredients. Around them were two big fridges for the meat and dairy products. Liam had already studied were the important ingredients were located, knowing many Chefs lost precious time looking for things they needed. Still, as Sally instructed, he explored the place for a bit.

To the left side of the studio were the shelves storing several sets of plates they would use later serve and present their food. Those were probably going to be decided on the spot depending on what he cooked, so studying them was not that much of a priority.

Finally, straight in front of the cooking stations, was the judges' table, a long desk that resembled a dining table, with three chairs behind it. It was still empty, which gave Liam the chance to take a little breather and try to relax as much as possible given the situation.

The show's main producer, a tall lanky woman in her forties called Martha, showed each Chef to a station, randomly assigned according to her, and left them to their own devices for a bit, instructing them to check the stations out before filming to get familiar with the tools they had at their disposal.

Liam studied the place for a bit, trying not to get distracted by the rest of what was happening around him. The studio was full of action and noise as everyone got ready to start. The rest of the boys were pretty much doing the same, except for Louis and Harry. They were inspecting their respective stations together, whispering in each other's ears and giggling.

After a while, Martha returned with a clipboard in hand and a headset already in place, Sally running behind her in a huff scribbling things in her own clipboard. She gathered the four Chefs around her and explained briefly how the recording process was going to go. "You guys are going to go outside in a bit through the hallway, and you're going to stay in the waiting room for a moment, okay? While you're in there, our host and the judges are going to take their places to film the intro to the show. Then we're going to roll your intro videos one by one, and Sally here is going to let you know when you have to walk back in and go straight to the station I assigned you, okay? The recording process is a bit choppy, pardon the pun," she laughed, receiving only Harry's laugh in return for her joke. "We'll stop and restart a lot of times to reset things, but we're going to signal you so you know when you're on. After your intros, we'll go straight to the cooking, yeah? Everyone okay?" she asked with a polite smile.