Читать книгу The Essential Ingredient - Love - Tracy Madden - Страница 15

Chapter 12

There was a scheduled breakfast meeting every Monday morning at Montgomery’s when Chilli and Miranda often sampled Sam’s new ideas for the menu. This morning they were trialling a berry and rose jelly breakfast trifle.

Served in a red wine glass, layers of blueberries, strawberries and raspberries were tiered with pale pink fragrant, rose jelly, topped with a dollop of rich organic yoghurt and sprinkled with toasted oats and pistachio crumble. Finally, a drizzle of raspberry coulis slowly made its way down through the delectable combination. It came presented on a plate, delicately garnished with three pink rose petals.

“You know if you added some turkish delight to this it would make a fantastic dessert,” Chilli told Sam, closing her eyes in rapturous delight.

He wrinkled his brow. “Too rich for breakfast?”

Once more, she let the delicate flavours wrap themselves around her taste buds, before answering. “Not at all! Rather decadent, but not too rich.” She then placed another spoonful of the delightful combination into her mouth, savouring it once again.

As per usual, the new menu was crafted around the abundance of luscious fresh produce available at that time of year. Sam still pored over cookbooks, often returning to the ones that his mother had loved and passed on to him.

The main topic of conversation that morning was Jason and Sarah’s engagement party on Saturday evening. Previously, Sam had sat down with the engaged couple and devised a sensational seasonal menu. The theme for the evening was to be white, white and more white. Together, Miranda and Chilli had decided on tall glass vases, massed with white lilies and huge palm fronds.

When the business part of the meeting was over, they moved onto Chilli’s imminent departure in less than two weeks. With much contemplation, she had finally taken Tiffany up on her offer to help out.

“Miranda, what’s happening with Tiffany and Dom?” Chilli asked, nodding her head towards the kitchen, indicating the sous chef. It appeared that Tiffany’d had her eye on him for some time, and he certainly wasn’t backward in returning the compliment.

Miranda glanced over her shoulder to the kitchen and then turned back with a slight huff. She lowered her voice. “I think Tiffany’s decided he’s not her type, due to the fact that he thinks everyone is his.”

“Oh dear. I hope it doesn’t create a problem for her while I’m away. I believe originally he was the main attraction.”

Miranda put her hand up. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll keep my eye on her. She’s already talking about some other guy that she thinks is really hot.” She laughed and shook her head, “You know Tiffany.”

Smiling, Chilli nodded. A thought crossed her mind. “That reminds me you two. I really need to have a serious talk with you both.” She paused, not really knowing how to continue. Spreading her hands on the table in front of her, she spoke slowly. “I guess as a mother, had I been given a little time in the lead up to your wedding, there are many things I would have discussed with you.” The young couple looked at one another. She continued, “Probably because I’m going away and I like to think that I haven’t left anything undone, I want to say…” And she paused again to find the right words.

Sam frowned, narrowing his eyes. “What’s up?” he asked, urging his mother. “Should I be concerned?”

“No, it’s nothing to worry about. It’s just something I have to say, so I don’t have to worry.” She leant forward, “Okay,” she let out a breath. “You both undertook a very important decision when you got married. I just want to ask that you never take that decision lightly. If you get bored or frustrated or lonely, promise me that you’ll always remember why you married in the first place. If you ever decide that the grass is greener on the other side…”

Sam interrupted, “What are you on about?” He glanced around impatiently. “Anyway, do you think that this is the place to be discussing it?” And he pushed his chair away from the table.

Trying to placate the situation, Miranda spoke kindly, patting her mother-in-law’s hand. “Well Chilli, cross this one off your list. I understand what you’re trying to say and thank you for caring, but that is never going to happen.” And she beamed at her young husband.

“More than likely not! But I have to finish by saying, you don’t have to be a certain type of person to do that type of thing, I used to think that, but now I know differently. Plus if ever you need to talk, I’m always here for the both of you. Always.”

“We know that and thank you, you’re a sweetie,” Miranda kissed her on the cheek.

Chilli looked across at her son. “Okay Sam?”

He put his hands up. “Okay! Okay!” Impatiently he ran his hands through his hair and looked uncomfortable with where the conversation had gone.

*

That Saturday night, Montgomery’s looked sensational. The huge scale of vases filled with white lilies and palm fronds created a totally different feel. The impact of 150 people dressed in white was simply amazing. A welcoming cocktail greeted guests on arrival on the front deck. As they stepped through the front doors, there were waiters with trays laden with a spectacular array of canapés.

In one corner of the restaurant, an oyster bar had been set up. Piled high on a bed of ice, freshly shucked, plump and sweet, they were swimming in their own ocean juices. With just a squidge of lemon and a good grind of pepper, they still carried the sharp tang of the sea.

Floating around as an invited guest, Chilli also saw the need to play hostess, revelling in catching up with Sam and Jason’s friends, some she hadn’t seen for quite some time. Eventually she became engaged in conversation with a gorgeous, blonde, blue eyed, rather tall, young man.

He spoke as if he knew her. “Hi, how’s it going? Good to see you again.”

She knew the face but couldn’t place him. “Yes, you too. It’s a good party isn’t it? Are you enjoying yourself?”

“Yes and loving the food. Your son’s doing a great job.”

Chilli knew he wasn’t one of Sam’s friends, but he acted as if he knew her.

He continued, “I told Dad I was coming to Montgomery’s, and he said if I happened to see you to make sure I said hi from him.”

The penny dropped. This was Jeff Bryson’s son Trent, who she had met at breakfast a few months earlier. Really how could she not have recognised him, when he was a blonde younger version of his father?

“Well make sure you say hi back. I was jogging through Dockside last week and ran into him. The Abbracci is sensational isn’t it? I can imagine that you all get a lot of enjoyment from it.”

Trent nodded and smiled. “Yes we do. We’ve been talking about taking it to the Whitsundays and cruising around up there.”

“How fantastic for you!” She noted that he kept glancing over her shoulder. Turning, she followed his gaze, but didn’t notice anything in particular. She turned back to him. “Now tell me, how do you know Jason and Sarah?”

“A couple of years ago Sarah and I both worked in a pub together in London. Later when we returned home, we caught up again and we’ve been good friends ever since. I like Jason, he seems like a good bloke.” Barely taking a breath, he gestured with his wine glass. “Do you know who that is?”

She glanced in the direction he indicated. “Which one in particular?”

“The one in the white dress, God she’s beautiful.”

Chilli wondered if he realised he was thinking out loud, and couldn’t help but smile. “They’re all in white, but if you mean the little one in the halter, that’s my niece Tiffany.” She did indeed look gorgeous in her Marilyn Monroe dress with halter straps, pleated skirt and a huge diamante buckle at the waist. With her curvy figure and lustrous hair, she was particularly glowing tonight and Chilli had noticed that Trent wasn’t the only admirer she had this evening.

Glancing back at Trent, she was aware that he didn’t appear to be able to tear his eyes away.

“Come and I’ll introduce you.”

For dessert, mini ice-cream sundaes were served in cocktail glasses. They were very grown up sundaes with grown up blueberries, Vienna almonds and wicked dark chocolate sauce.

Remembering Sam and Miranda’s version of a wedding cake, Jason had asked that Sam create something similar for them. As was Sam’s specialty, he steered away from a normal celebration cake, and constructed one using his favourite small biscuit of the moment. Tonight’s cake was constructed from soft macaroons with delicate rosewater butter cream. These too, were piled high on a silver platter with white rose petals scattered throughout.

During speeches, Chilli glanced towards Tiffany and noted that Trent hadn’t left her side since first being introduced.

Glancing around, she was able to see that Montgomery’s was indeed fast becoming successful. It wasn’t going to be a fly by nighter! In the last 14 months, the revues in the newspapers and magazines had been truly outstanding.

Two days ago, a national gourmet magazine had contacted Sam and set up an interview for the coming week. That was worthy of a celebration, being noticed by a magazine of that calibre and being read Australia wide.

And last week a revue had stated; ‘By our calculations, Montgomery’s is the hottest spot in Brisbane at the moment. Sam Montgomery rocks our world. He seems to have a gift of creating dishes of unusual design and taste without apparent effort. The only issue we have is, when is he going to open for dinner in the evenings? We want more of Sam Montgomery.’

It made them realise that in the next few months they did have to rethink the evenings. It was only good sense and timely to increase business. Their plan had always been a steady and slow growth. In Rob’s words; ‘to crawl before they could walk’. Rob would be so proud of them all, but especially of his son. It pleased Chilli to see that Sam had a lot of his father in him.

She felt quite happy and content to go on her one month’s trip to France. Between Sam and Miranda, Montgomery’s was in excellent hands, they had well and truly proven themselves.