The Cook

As far back as she could remember she had a passion for cooking. The people who knew her personally weren’t at all surprised by her popularity boom when she opened her restaurant. 

Opening week was amazing. Everything went better than the cook could’ve expected or dreamed. Her menu was garnering rave reviews throughout the city, and there were even rumors of TV shows interested in working with her. She could not be more pleased with the outcome; this was a dream come true beyond anything she imagined.

When she was asked what her secret was, she simply explained that she used the freshest ingredients she could find locally, and that her family-owned butcher market provided the finest cuts of meat in the state. Every morning before going to work at the restaurant, she would stop by the family butcher shop to get her choice cuts for meal service that night. It was important to her to not only provide the best quality cuts, but also the freshest to her customers.

The cook always used the back entrance of the shop, greeting her brother and father who owned the business. She would look at the meat hanging in the walk in fridge on the meat hooks and pick her favorite cuts. The sides of meat she had a strong preference for were marbled with beautiful swirls of fat, because that fat would render down nicely during the cooking process imparting a deeper flavor. Occasionally the cook found herself salivating at the thought of freshly seared fatty pieces of meat.

Standing in the butcher’s area, she saw a nice piece of meat that caught her attention. It was plump enough to have a lovely swirl of fat marbling throughout, while still being lean enough to be a hearty and thick slab. She inquired with her brother about when and where they found this beauty. With pride, he smiled ear to ear and explained how he picked up this prime side of meat when he was out hunting.

He described the hunt in great detail to the cook the way any proud hunter would. He detailed how he saw her, the prime specimen, in her habitat gallivanting with others at a blues club wearing a very fitted mini skirt. Her round rump caught the butcher’s attention, and he knew he had to get her to the shop for the cook. 

The cook was pleased with her brother’s work and told him, “She’ll taste great with a marsala reduction and pearl onions.”