the celebrity chef • pedro pascal

salted caramel apple crumble

august, 2015

I still had a couple hours before lunch when I pulled up in the driveway, grocery bags sitting on the back of my truck. As I waited for the automatic doors to the lower level garage to open up, I looked up and recognized the car parked further ahead on the driveway, right in front of the main entrance - It hadn't been there when I left after breakfast, but I had seen it enough times during the past months to figure out who it belonged to.

I was walking around the kitchen, putting away the part of the groceries that wouldn't be necessary for today's lunch preparation, when Elvira decided to join me.

"You're making your lobster pasta, aren't you?" She questioned after inspecting the ingredients I had left out on the marble counter top. "Thank god, I've been craving it for the past couple of weeks!"

"I'll make sure there's plenty of leftovers for you to enjoy for a couple more days." I grinned, knowing how much she loved this dish.

"You're the best, Jo." She stole some of the grape tomatoes I had just washed and I was just about to scold her when I remembered she had paid for them and was also paying me. "We also have a guest today, so make sure there's enough for him too, okay?"

"You got it, boss." I nodded as I got started on my lobster stock.

"Hey Jo, are you free on Saturday?" She had spent so long in silence I actually thought she had already left, so her question ended up catching me a bit by surprise.

Please, dear lord, please don't let it be a dinner party. I thought to myself after blurting out that yes, in fact, I was totally free on Saturday. I urgently needed some classes on how to lie, or just on how to say no when you're a freaking people pleaser.

"We're thinking about having a little barbecue party, what do you say?" I was glad I had my back turned to her, otherwise she would've seen the total relief that washed through my features. A little barbecue party sounds way better than a dinner party, logistically speaking.

"I can do that, yeah" I nodded, still mainly concentrated on splitting lobster tails open. "How many guests are we talking?"

"What? Jo, no!" She exclaimed, and I turned around with a frown on my face and an entire lobster in my hands. "We're inviting you, you're a guest!"

"Wait, wait, just listen before you say no," She lifted her hand as I opened my mouth to decline her invitation. "It's really small, just us and some close family friends, I promise! You're a friend, you have to come; and you never stay for dinner and never come up for lunch with us, you owe me! Just this once, come on, Jo!"

"Okay, okay, I'll come," I rolled my eyes, a small grin showing up on my face. "But who's in charge of the food?"

"Each guest is bringing a dish; I was hoping you'd make that amazing salted caramel apple crumble?" She batted her eyelashes at me, and cheered playfully when I agreed to it. "And Oscar will be on grill duty, of course!"

"God no, Elvira. He's gonna burn the place down." I groaned.

###

"Are you hiding in here?" He asked in a teasingly manner.

"What? No." I frowned. I hadn't even been inside for that long, how did he even notice?

Honestly, of course I was hiding. There were at least thirty people outside by the pool and after being introduced to every single person and spending about forty minutes exchanging Kak'ik recipes with Oscar's mother, my social battery was running pretty damn low.

"Not hiding?" He squinted from the other side of the kitchen island. "Then why are you sitting alone down here in the service kitchen on a Saturday afternoon when you're not even on the clock?"

"I was just... checking to see if we had enough garlic for next week's menu, you know?" I sighed, getting up from the stool to go through the produce drawer.

"Not too big on social gatherings, are you?" Pedro leaned on the counter and took a swig from his beer bottle, totally ignoring my lie.

"What makes you say that?" I furrowed my eyebrows together and pressed my lips into a line to hide a grin. "I'm the biggest party animal you will ever meet, Pedro."

I guess it's time to admit that I've never really been, and probably never will be big on social gatherings. I mean - I could do small get-togethers, but parties were never my thing.

In high school, I was just too busy staying in line and studying hard to get good grades to go out partying - looking back, I was basically doing anything I could at the time to get my parent's approval, which explains I was taking the exact opposite path my older sister had taken when she was my age. And honestly, I only had one friend, Maeve, and we never really got invited to anything.

When I got into Kendall College, things didn't really change much. Most part of my day was spent cooking and learning and in my free time I was working as a private tutor. Maeve had decided to skip college and move to LA to work at her aunt's hotel, and while she was sharing an apartment with two random girls and getting introduced to the amazing LA night life - I was still living at home with my parents. They were kind enough to let me stay while I saved money for the future, even though I knew they were a little bit disappointed with my choice in becoming a chef and not a lawyer. I made a few friends and even dated a couple of guys during my time in culinary school, but nothing really lasted long.

A few years later, when Maeve actually convinced me to move here, she dragged me to parties, clubs and bars and also introduced me to a bunch of her friends. Something good did come out of it - Maeve was the one who introduced me to Wren, my current boyfriend. But the constantly going out thing got old really fast for me, seeing as I never really enjoyed it in the first place.

"Yeah, I see that." He gestured to the empty and dark kitchen we were in and we both shared a chuckle. "Is this your safe place or something?"

"Used to be, you know? Before Barbara - and now, you - decided to forget about the upstairs kitchen and just started hanging out here." I jokingly glared at him and he threw his head back with a laugh.

In reality, it felt nice to have some company in the kitchen every once in a while. Sure, Barbara had a tendency to talk too much and occasionally disclosed too much information about her sex life, but she was also very funny and kindhearted. Pedro had become quite the regular visitor during the last month and sometimes got on my nerves for stealing bites of my dishes mid-preparation. He would come in and try to help me out just to end up slowing me down with his terrible chopping skills, but he seemed so pleased with himself that I just didn't have the heart to tell him.