Hell's Smitten (Gordon Ramsay x Reader)

Chapter 19- Breakfast Challenge

Saturday, June 29th, 2013

COCK-A-DOODLE-DOO!

What the...?

Is that a rooster?

My eyes slowly open just as I hear a second piercing call.

COCK-A-DOODLE-DOO!

Good God, is this what farmers have to put up with every morning?

Groaning, I get up from the bed and head to the common room. There on the tables are two cages, both of them containing a full grown rooster. One of the roosters gives another call, which causes me to wince. These things are so loud!

Christina and Scott stand behind each cage, grinning from ear to ear.

"An all-natural wake up for you guys today!" Christina laughs, taking hold of one cage while Scott grabs the other.

"Come on downstairs, Chef has a challenge prepared for you all. Don't keep him waiting," Scott says before he and Christina take the roosters back downstairs. As they descend the steps, one of the roosters lets out another loud crow, followed shortly by Christina's laughter.

After a little time getting ready, we line up next to the stoves as per usual.

Chef Ramsay smiles as we come closer. I return the smile warmly.

"Good morning everyone!" he says cheerily.

"Good morning, Chef!" we respond.

"I've woken you all up for a special challenge today. As you know, here at Hell's Kitchen we like to honor our service people. This morning we have a very, very important set of customers gracing our dining room." He motions to the front entrance.

Jean-Phillipe opens the doors and slowly the dining room fills with men and women wearing scrubs, doctor coats, and other assorted medical outfits.

"When you get injured, the people you depend upon are the people sitting in front of you now. These are our most amazing emergency room staff from the local hospital. Cindy may even recognize the nurse who helped her with her stitches." Ramsay motions towards one particular brunette woman near the front. She waves at Cindy and Cindy waves back.

"Today we will be serving one of three breakfast options to start off our emergency staffs' day properly. We have the classic," he holds up his hand and indicates his first finger with his other hand, "pancakes with eggs and bacon," he indicates his second finger, "omelet with bacon," he indicates his third finger, "and finally, french toast with sausage!"

"Each team will be competing to feed their side of the kitchen. The first team to feed all of their patrons will, obviously, win." He shrugs while scanning our faces. "So don't fuck up, right? You wouldn't want them to fuck up on you. Red team, please choose two people to sit out today, to even out the teams. Now, get ready because your first tickets are about to come in!" Ramsay turns to the pass while we scramble to get set up, each of us choosing a station.

Red and I take the pancake station, Cindy and Gina take the omelet station, Kalyani and Bella take the french toast station. Taylor and Gail sit out (though not without grumbling).

The tickets start to flow steadily. Our team is banging out dishes one after another, so much so that I hear Chef Ramsay shout to the blue team that we are leading by three tickets.

Of course, our success can't last forever. Gordon holds up a wimpy, black, shriveled piece of bacon with a disbelieving look on his face.

"Who thought this mangled piece of charcoal was good enough to send out to people who save lives regularly?" he growls at us.