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 It looks like time s up, Steve the restaurant critic pointed out. Andrew glanced at the clock
and saw that it was.
 Time to put your knives and spatulas down, folks, he said, sliding back into presenting
mode.  We re going to judge this course-by-course, tasting everybody s food in turn. I don t get a vote
on our winner, so those bribes you all paid me earlier are wasted, I m afraid. Another laugh on cue
from the audience.  But I am going to taste and offer comments, since this is my show, after all. Who
wants to bring over their amuse-bouche first?
Andrew was proud of Julie when she stepped forward first, bringing with her a plateful of
what appeared to be tiny meatballs, each covered in an individual sauce.
 Meatballs? Geraldine said with obvious distain.
 With a few extra ingredients, Julie replied with a smile.
The judges tasted first. Lucy said that they were nice, but that they seemed a bit too simple for
a TV cook-off. Steve questioned whether she had a prayer of keeping up with the fine dining from the
other contestants, and suggested that more of a plan might have avoided the problem.
Geraldine put it more bluntly.  It s fast food, and we expected more on a show like this.
Awful.
None of their comments left Andrew with high hopes, until he actually bit down on one of the
meatballs. His taste buds identified two kinds of meat: beef and chicken, while there were hints of
subtly blended spices mixed in, and the sauce& well, the sauce was something else entirely.
Something amazing. Ingredients seemed to fight for space in it before joining forces to blow his taste
buds apart, in the best possible way.
 I don t get what you re all talking about, he said.  This is great.
 Thankfully, some of us know what we re talking about, Geraldine snapped. That earned her
more boos that died down only when the rest of the cooks came forward one by one. They d prepared
the inevitable fine dining combinations, and Andrew had to admit that several of them tasted very
good, but to his mind they weren t in Julie s league for originality. For passion. Naturally, the judges
disagreed.
It was the same story with the first course. Some of the other contestants did elaborate things
that were nevertheless exactly the same dishes Andrew could have gotten from any restaurant in the
area, and which would have been much better in the case of The Glass Square.
Julie, on the other hand, served up what seemed like a simple tortilla wrap, until she
explained that it used a mixture of pork, Thai-style spices, oriental vegetables and lime. The other
judges couldn t see past that tortilla outer shell.
 Are you trying to make fun of this whole process? Geraldine demanded.
Andrew tasted it. He didn t bother to hold back his smile.  It s perfect. The audience broke
into spontaneous applause while Geraldine glared at him.
Julie s main course was a hot dog. Except that it was a venison hot dog, stuffed with herbs,
homemade spiced bread, a combination of sauces that had absolutely nothing to do with tomato and
mustard, and celeriac fries.
Geraldine described it as,  Simply awful. The worst so far.
Even Lucy seemed a little less inclined to be forgiving.  I m sorry, she said,  but this is
really an unexpected combination for a hot dog. You re a long way behind the others now, Julie.
Steve nodded.  Frankly, your dessert is going to have to be the best thing anyone has ever
tasted just to give you a chance. I just don t see it.
Andrew laughed then.
 What s so funny? Geraldine demanded.
 Frankly, I just can t see how three people can be so wrong. This isn t just a hot dog. One by
one, he went through the elements in it, ignoring the judges, facing the audience.  What I m trying to
say, he explained,  is that this is easily one of the most delicious hot dogs anyone has ever
produced.
Julie s dessert was a big concoction of chocolate, cream, and whatever else had been laying
around. Normally even Andrew would have dismissed it, but he couldn t this time.
Because he recognized it: she had perfectly recreated the dessert they d come up with together
the night she had spent with him.
 Awful, Geraldine declared again.
 It is a mess, Lucy said.
Steve shook his head.  It looks like you ran out of time and threw everything on the counter
into a bowl.
But for Andrew, there couldn t have been a more perfect finish to the meal. The first three
dishes had been Julie through and through, a perfect mix of simple and complicated. Basic, working
food reinvented with flavors that had never been intended for them. Each one had been a risk, but had
come straight from the heart, as well.
And her dessert? Well, that was such a clear and direct message that Andrew wanted to yell
cut just so that he could rush over and kiss Julie.
God, how he loved her. Now, he just had to wait long enough for everyone to leave so that he
could& oh, who cared if they were on live TV?
Andrew strode across the stage, pulled Julie into his arms in front of the studio audience and
crew, and kissed her.
Chapter Seventeen
The judges deliberated. Andrew had finally let Julie go to stand with the other contestants
waiting for their verdict and she knew her face held a special well-kissed glow that every woman in
the room had to be envious of.
 In third place, Lucy said,  we have Mitchel Crane.
He stepped forward to applause from the audience. Julie joined in politely, but her eyes were
on Andrew. For his part, he barely even pretended to play his part as the gracious host. He was too
busy staring right back at her, that gorgeous smile along with the heat in his dark eyes sending
shivers through her.
 In second place, it s Natasha Smith.
More applause, but Julie couldn t stop thinking about their beautifully unexpected kiss. What
did it mean? Was it enough? Was she ready for
No, she wasn t going to go down that road again. She was going to stop questioning the magic
between her and Andrew, once and for all.
What mattered was right here, right now. She loved him, and she couldn t see any way that
was ever going to change.
Especially when he had believed in her even before she had believed in herself.
 And our series winner for the grand finale of Edgy Eats cook-off is& 
The judges dragged it out, of course. That was more or less obligatory, designed to ratchet up
the tension according to the TV show handbook. Julie didn t worry one bit about who the winner was
going to be. After the comments from the judges, there was only one way it was going to go.
 & Elaine Neilson! [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]