Jo Ann asked Bill to put two hamburgers together and make her a chopped steak. She watched Bill as he washed his hands then took two of the patties and made the steak. He did it efficiently, quickly, so adeptly that she asked him how many times he’d done it before.
“Really?” Bill said.
“Really.”
“Thousands.”
“Looks like it,” Jo Ann said.
“I’ve done all of this thousands of times, give or take. Never made frogs legs before, but you sautéed one item, you can sauté any item.”
“You can carve too.”
“Why you surprised?”
“She’s surprised,” Edelgarde said coming up to the open-hearth window, “because you should have seen some of the cooks that tried out before you.”
“Really?”
“Apparently, it’s not so easy to find a good cook,” Jo Ann said.
“You’re a good cook,” Edelgarde said.
“Thank you ma’am,” Bill said.
He greased the grills on the broiler and cleaned the spot where he set down Jo Ann’s chopped steak. While the two girls stood watching, he waited a bit then turned it to diamond-mark it, then he flipped it. Only then did he walk away from the Garland.
Jimmy G had disappeared soon as it slowed down. He went off to the main kitchen, to see his cousins. Only the banquet chef and Victor were still working, but Bill wouldn’t learn this until he and Jimmy G went on their rounds back that way.
He had other orders while he cooked Jo Ann’s dinner. He had a deuce with just two prime ribs and he had a four-top with three steaks and a broiled filet of sole. Edelgarde left shortly after her brief part in the conversation.
“You are a good cook,” Jo Ann said. “Personally, I hope you’ll stay around.”
“I just got here,” Bill said.
“You gonna work banquets too?”
“That’s what the banquet chef wants. Me, I want to work. I want to make money.”
“Well there’s plenty of work here. They have banquets all the time. Wait till you do the grand ballroom ones, sometimes like five or six thousand people.”
All the while they spoke, Bill went about working his orders. Caesar was watching from a distance, listening to the conversation too. When he’d had enough, or at least that’s what Bill and Jo Ann figured, he came by the window and scolded Jo Ann for standing around. She told him she was finished and waiting for her own dinner, but Caesar said he didn’t care, that he didn’t want her hanging out. Jo Ann gave Bill a look before she went out to where Kalista was. Kalista had made her a salad.
Jimmy G didn’t come back until after 10:00 when it was just about time to start the cleanup. Bill had finished up all the tables and had cooked both Rosie’s and Edelgarde’s dinners. Jo Ann had cut out. She’d come back in her civvies, tight jeans and crisply-starched, lacy blouse.
“That chopped steak was good,” she said. “Thanks.”
“You look nice,” Bill said. “No flirting or anything, just you look nice.”
“Love you too, hun,” Jo Ann said. She stopped over by Rosie and Edelgarde and Bill saw them all together dealing with their tips.
Edelgarde and Rosie ate together, late, when they had served all their customers and no new tables had come in. Rosie asked if Bill would make them sole meuniere. He said sure, and he did a really nice job of it, finishing it off with the classic lemon-butter sauce.
Like almost everything he prepared, thanks to Mr. Jim who taught him to aim for perfection, which meant aesthetics in flavor and appearance, their plates were gorgeous on top of being delicious. When Rosie picked them up she smiled at Bill told him they looked great. He’d fixed the plates with mashed potatoes and vegetables.
“What did you do to Millie?” she asked him.
“What do you mean?” he asked back.
