Luring Levi (Tarnished Saints Series Book 2) (23 page)

“And please welcome our last contestant, the man who’s cooked for thousands . .  .”

Levi smiled. Yes, he had cooked for thousands at
The Big Apple
.

“. . . that is thousands
all behind bars as the kitchen cook in prison. And now he is Sweet Water’s very own mayor, Matthew Levi Taylor.”

“What?” He couldn’t believe his ears and was
outraged by what they’d just said.

“Go on,” said the man with earphones and he gave Levi a slight shove.

Levi lurched forward, and the bright lights from the set blinded him for a moment as he made his way to the cooking area next to Candace that would be his spot. The crowd started to cheer and then he thought he heard a couple of boos. This was not at all what he’d expected.

“I’m sorry,” whispered Candace. “I had no idea.”

“Yeah, well, I should have known this live taping wasn’t a good idea.”

“Matthew Levi?” she asked, questioning his name.

“Yeah, but everyone knows me as just Levi,” he whispered back.

“All right, contestants, this is how the show works,” said the announcer. “
There are three rounds. The appetizer, the main course, and the dessert round. In the picnic baskets in front of you are four concealed items. You need to use every item in your creation in some way and make sure you get them all on the plate. And when your twenty minutes is up, the judges will taste your food and whichever one of your dishes doesn’t make the judge’s mouths water, will sadly cause you to be sliced.”

“Twenty minutes?” Levi whispered to Candace. “Are they serious?”

“I thought you knew what this show was all about,” she said.

“Obviously not,” he answered, shaking his head.

“All right contestants, let’s open the picnic surprise and feast our eyes on your ingredients.”

Levi opened the basket, looked within and wanted to slam it shut. There were foods in there that he didn’t want to even think of using.

“The ingredients for your appetizer round are . . .” said the host as they took the items out of their baskets one by one. “Goat livers . . . artichoke liqueur . . . orange-flavored gummy bears . . . and chanterelle mushrooms.”

“Goat liver
s?” asked Mrs. Durnsby out loud. “Oh, no.”

Levi chuckled inwardly.

“Your time begins . . . now,” said the announcer.

Levi just stood there for a moment while everyone else ran around like chickens with their heads cut off. He blocked out everything and everyone around him and tried to think what the hell to do. He’d never seen such a bunch of
misfit ingredients that didn’t go together at all and was trying to be creative while still making it palatable.

“Levi, you
’d better get going,” said Candace, picking up a knife and chopping the mushrooms. She then grabbed a pan and put it on the stove with some oil.

He looked over and Enrique was adding spices into his pan already and Mrs. Durnsby was coming back from the pantry with her arms loaded down with ingredients to add.

“Think, think,” he said to himself, opening the package of goat livers. Then he heard the announcer and it brought him back to his competition mode.

“It looks like the mayor was more comfortable cooking behind bars,” he said with a laugh. “He looks like a deer in the headlights now.”

“I learned a few tricks in the clinker that you’ve probably never seen,” said Levi. “And one of them is how to move quickly.”

With that, he cranked it into high gear, searing off his protein and melting down the gummy bears for a sau
ce. He used the artichoke liqueur in the only normal ingredient there – the mushrooms. He made his way to the kitchen and grabbed some herbs and a long loaf of bread and a little garlic and some onions. He walked past Enrique and noticed his food burning in the pan. He knew it was a competition but he told him anyway.

“Fire behind you,” he said, and the man turned around quickly to beat the flames that flared up
. Still, Levi could see it was too late, as the food was already burnt.

Levi used a food processor
to make a pâté and rubbed a little garlic over some toasted crostini, adding the mixture and a drizzle of pesto, some roasted tomatoes and his mushrooms on top.

“Two minutes,” called out the host.

All of the contestants ran over to grab dishes to plate their food. Levi used a sprig of fresh thyme as a garnish over the top and wiped the edges of his plates with his towel.

“Time’s up,” shouted the announcer
, and Levi could hear Mrs. Durnsby complaining it wasn’t long enough.

“Now let’s meet the judges,” said the announcer.

Levi looked up at the judging table for the first time and almost died. He hadn’t expected to see his brother Judas sitting at the table. Along with him was Margery - thank goodness, and also the contest judge from the show, an older man named Barney.

“Contestants bring up your plates.”

Levi looked around and realized his plate looked the best, but Candy’s looked pretty delicious too. Enrique’s was burnt, and Mrs. Durnsby had such a large pile of mess that Levi had no idea what it was. All he knew was that she put everything into the blender and it looked like dog food.

The judges
all tasted the food and gave their comments. Levi was surprised when Judas didn’t say anything bad. But that damned judge from the show didn’t like the fact that Levi had used the sprig of thyme, saying it was inedible as is, which Levi didn’t agree with at all.

“I’m sorry
,” said the host, “but Chef Valquez, your dish was burnt. And so, the judges have decided you are
Sliced
.”

“Tough luck,” said Levi, liking the fact that
the odds were in his favor and getting better.

But
when he saw the ingredients he needed to use in the next round for the main dish, he almost screamed. He didn’t like having to use licorice sticks, rainbow chard, peanut butter and rabbit all together in one dish, trying to make it taste good.

“Not rabbit,” he heard Zeke cry out from the crowd an
d it only made it harder for Levi to want to cook it.

“I can’t cook rabbit,” he whispered to Candace. “Not when I just bought Zeke and Eli rabbits as pets. They’ll never forgive me.”

“You have to,” said Candace. “If not you’ll be sliced. Now just do it, they’ll get over it. Thomas has raised them to be tough.”

“Go
, Dad!” He knew that was Vance’s voice from the crowd and he also knew he couldn’t let his kids down. He needed to win that money to be able to take care of his family. Without it, he knew he was broke and would never feel worthy of asking Candace to marry him.

This round was a thirty
-minute round but it went quickly. Thankfully, he knew to take the bone out of the rabbit to make it cook faster and told Candace to do it too.

Unfortunately
, Mrs. Durnsby also heard and used the trick as well. He was surprised that the judges seemed to like her dog food dish in the appetizer round and he didn’t know if it was true or they were just doing it for good TV. After all, he knew without a doubt that she didn’t know how to make a decent pickle.

“I don’t think I’m going to finish,” said Candace, the de-boning of the rabbit having slowed her down. But if the judges got raw meat, he knew it would be the end for any of them.

Then the announcer told them time was up and he heard a groan from Candace. He looked over and to his horror she had forgotten to put her sauce that included both the licorice and the peanut butter on the plate.

His braised rabbit with peanut butter and rainbow chard with a licorice gastrique was a hit with all the judges except his brother.
He wasn’t surprised, as Judas had always hated peanut butter ever since he and Thomas watered it down and put it in the shampoo bottle and he’d used it on his hair when they were kids.

Mrs. Durnsby m
anaged to pull off another halfway decent dish, and Levi thought she must have been up all night practicing. But he knew Candace was in trouble with the host’s next announcement.

“Chef Kane, y
ou didn’t get your sauce on the plate, which included two of your ingredients,” he told her. “I am sorry but the judges have decided that you’ve been
Sliced
.”

“What
?” said Levi, not understanding what was going on. “Candy, this wasn’t supposed to happen.”

“Just win for us,” Levi,” she said. “Win for me and
the kids, please.”

“I will, sweetheart, don’t worry. I have nothing to fear up against Mrs. Durnsby.”

“We’ll see about that,” the old woman
said, having overhead them. Then she straightened her chef’s hat and smiled. Something about the whole thing seemed a little sinister to Levi.

“Well, we’re
down to the ex-mayor and the ex-con who stole her job,” the announcer said next.

“I didn’t steal anyo
ne’s job,” he said, but the man just kept on talking.

“The dessert round is thirty minutes and consists of chocolate cookies . . . ”

“Good,” said Levi, taking the item from the basket.

“Ma
scarpone cheese . . .”

“Cherry brandy . . .”

“Excellent,” he said knowing this was going to be a piece of cake to beat her as these were all easy dessert items.

“An
d the last ingredient was hand chosen by our judges from the food entries right here at the Sweet Water fair, it is  .  .  .  a jar of award winning, blue ribbon, best of show . . . pickles!”

“What the hell,” said
Levi, lifting out a jar of pickles that looked a lot like the old widow Durnsby’s kerosene crap.

He heard a loud air horn
and looked up realizing since the show was live they were trying to cover up his swear word with a bleep, but it was way too late.

“What a delicious curve ball we’ve thrown to our two competing mayors,” the man said.

“Delicious?” grumbled Levi. He knew that no one in their right mind would ever consider these pickles delicious. The judges obviously hadn’t bothered to try them. They were probably going on the fact they were a ‘best of show’ item, and Levi had only himself to thank for that.

“And what are your plans for the prize money if you should win it?” the host asked Mrs. Durnsby.

“Well . . . oh my,” she laughed. “I hadn’t really thought about it, but now that you ask, I think I would use it to take a trip around the world.”

“And what about you, Mayor?” asked the host. “What are your plans for the prize money should you win the fifty thousand dollars?”

Levi looked up to the host and then out to all the hundreds of eyes watching him, quietly waiting for his answer. He wanted this money so desperately he could think of nothing else. He needed it, for God’s sake. He had two kids to support now and he knew Candace was counting on him. He didn’t have a pot to piss in, and this kind of cash could change his life.

With this, h
e could ask Candace to marry him and he could possibly see about starting his own restaurant again some day. His life was so far in the gutter right now that this money could only make it better for him no matter how he looked at it.

“With the money, I plan on . . . ” He noticed the judges watching him intently, and remembered how the producer had talked about wanting ‘good
TV.’ He knew that saying he wanted it for his own personal use was never going to win him points, even if it was true. So, he did what any desperate man who’d been made mayor out of nothing more than a joke would do. He told them all what they expected and wanted to hear and hoped to hell it was good enough TV to bring home for him that fifty grand.

“As mayor of Sweet Water I plan on using the money to not only build a city hall but for funds to help improve our police station and clean up this town.” He saw Judas smiling and knew that won his vote. “And I’d like to see this town with a full functioning five star restaurant, so . . . I would use some of the money to help the local diner to fix it up and get it back on its feet.” Now he earned a smile from the second judge on the board, Margery. He knew he had this in the bag now. All he had to d
o was win over the show’s main judge. The old crotchety man who didn’t like his sprig of thyme on the plate. “And last of all,” he said, “I think I would use the rest of the money to help pay for cable connections to those who don’t have it, so the people of Sweet Water have the opportunity to watch such wonderful dining network shows such as
Sliced
.”

That earned him a smile from
the last judge and he knew he’d managed to lure them all in now. After all, these shows were not about good cooking, they were about good TV like the producer had said. He’d sealed his fate now. Mrs. Durnsby didn’t have a chance.

He looked over to Candace but unfortunately she wasn’t smiling. He had the feeling he’d said something wrong. But he’d tell her later he only said it for good
TV like the show wanted and that he really planned on using the money for his family.