Love Recipe

The Contest

I have spent quite a long period of time planning this story out. I just thought I should bring it to life and let all my fellow readers enjoy reading this story. Hope you all might find it fascinating:)

Cooking is an art and patience a virtue… Careful shopping, fresh ingredients and an unhurried approach are nearly all you need. There is one more thing - love. Love for food and love for those you invite to your table. With a combination of these things you can be an artist - not perhaps in the representational style of a Dutch master, but rather more like Gauguin, the naïve, or Van Gogh, the impressionist. Plates or pictures of sunshine taste of happiness and love.

~ Keith Floyd

The Contest

“In order to win this contest, every contestant has to hand in a small piece of work that looks dulcified to the naked eye. Sweet, hard, and decorated beautifully. Make it sweet to the soul of each living spirit.” Steven read the directions out loud and Oscar went straight to work pulling over a white apron on top of his plaid flannel shirt. Oscar’s keen eyes examined the kitchen and found nothing useful. Oscar is a young man with slightly dark wavy hair that is calmly brushed towards the side. His dark eyes shimmered as he tried to think of an idea.

“Kevin!” Oscar called out to his co-worker, and Kevin barged into the kitchen, carrying his sleepy head inside. Kevin is known as the ‘material boy’ because he’s the person who is in charge of all the ingredients for the contest. He has curly, shaggy hair that is always messy and lays untouched.

“Bring me a bag of sugar and corn syrup,”  Oscar demanded, and Kevin went straight to the cabinet below the oven and pulled out a bottle of corn syrup, setting the materials on the table and hurried back out to do his work.

“What are you going to make?” Steven asked looking down at the two heavy materials on the counter.

“Hard, sweet, and beautifully decorated…Hard, sweet and beautifully decorated.” Oscar mumbled over and over again, looking down at the walnut-colored cutting boards of all sizes. He pulled out a medium-sized board and pushed the others to the side.

“East Asia!” Oscar’s brain lit a light bulb, and Steven scratched his head.

“Please don’t tell me that’s what you’re going to make.” Steven raised his eyebrow and fixed his glasses. Then, Oscar made a lopsided-smile while looking at his best friend.

“In East Asia, there is a handmade candy on a stick. It only requires sugar and time, but we need to be careful while drawing it out.” Oscar tried to remember what his professor had said when he was back in school a year ago.

“That sounds really easy.” Steven laughed and Oscar slowly shook his head.

“The hard part is taking the melted designed candy off the plastic and putting it onto a stick…Here, I’ll show you.” Oscar pulled out a pot, turned the fire high, and added a half cup of sugar into the sizzling pan while Steven prepared the transparent plastic cover on the counter top. After fifteen minutes of waiting for the sugar to slowly dissolve in the pan, Oscar used a silver ladle to scoop out the caramelized honey.

“What’s your favorite animal?” Oscar asked keeping his serious gaze fixed on the sugar in the spoon as it started to cool off.

“Tarsiers.” Steven answered sternly, looking down at the ladle, waiting for Oscar to make his move. But Oscar kept quiet and turned his head towards Steven with a confused look. Steven had always worn thick glasses since he was a young child, and had straight brunette hair that always looked slightly messy.

“Who?” Oscar asked ignorantly, and Steven almost burst into laughing.

“Wolf.” Steven replied, and Oscar drew his hand across the plastic, creating light squiggles with the ladle. The tail was soon drawn out with a smaller spoon and the illuminated doodle filled the inside of the wolf’s body.