The Chef's Critic

Chapter 2 - The Struggle

It's been 9 months, and she's getting frustrated. She's not making any progress with her career. 9 months in L' Cove restaurant and 5 bad critic review from the known food critic of Manhattan. She's beginning to question herself. When she read the 2nd bad review about L' Cove Restaurant, she knows that this can end her career even before it started. She's seeing her world go down the drain. She was trying very hard, but every time it was her turn to be the interim head chef on their Friday Challenge, she managed to land a restaurant at the bad side of this particular critic. This is getting her really frustrated.

"Uuuuurrrrrrgggggghhhhhhh. If I really meet this writer, I will kill him." She said out loud out of frustration. What's new, she again ended up, on the bad side of this critic. She doesn't know what she had done to deserve this. Her father had called here to his office every time the article was published and each time, she saw disappointment on the eyes of her parents. She feels that she had let them down, her parents, her co-workers.

On her tenth month, she declined the challenge of being a head chef for that week. She was already doubting herself and she doesn't want to further disappoint her parents. She had contemplated to resign from her post. She talked about it with her parents, and they agreed. They thought that she needed a break from all this bad writing.

Maine opted to look for another job in other restaurants that they don't own, but she is always being rejected. Her resume shows that she worked in L' Cove. And because of the negative publicity it got for the past 9 months, restaurant owners were hesitant to hire her. She was already feeling down.

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Richard was having a bad day. He's been from one meeting to another. He had skipped lunch for the nth time. What he had was 3 cups of coffee and 5 meetings so far. He's hungry and frustrated. 'This is not what I want to do' he said to himself. Richard being the son of one of the richest businessman in the world. They own a chain of hotels all over the world but this is not the life he wanted.

Richard was a very good businessman. He has the acumen of a great businessman but this is not the life he wanted for himself. His persuasion power is very good that whatever deal he wanted and tried to complete is a success. His father is very proud of him. Little did his father know that he was living a double life, well, career wise.

Richard is a food lover, and as much as he can he visit different restaurants all-over the Manhattan and some parts of the world. He also loves to write, because of this he contributes some articles to the local newspaper in Manhattan and a magazine. Unknown to many, he is a well distinguished food critic writer and his opinion is very much acknowledged. When he is writing he is always lost in his thoughts and in his element. No one knew this side of him except for his best friend and he wanted it to be kept that way.

However lately he feels restless. He doesn't know but he feels like for the past 9 months, his writing is not giving him comfort of that sort. He doesn't understand but every time he writes he feels like he's hurting someone. He have visited more than 30 restaurants in Manhattan but he do have certain days that he wanted to go a certain restaurant in downtown Manhattan. The restaurant is very comfortable and cozy. But even the place doesn't give her comfort in the past month, which he don't understand. His thoughts were interrupted when his secretary came in.

"Sir, your next meeting will be in 5 minutes. You need to proceed to the board room."

"Thank you Ruby." He said. "Will there be another meeting after this one?"

"Yes Sir. You will have a dinner meeting with some of the managers of our hotels. Then at 9PM, you will have another meeting with Mr. York regarding the renovation of the hotel's left wing."