Page 22 of Culinary Chaos (Hotel Bombshell #1)

Chapter

Seventeen

“ C hef, do you have a minute?” Bowen wrung his hands nervously as he stared at his toes.

“Yeah, sure.” Hope managed not to flick her gaze toward the cameras. “In private?”

“Yeah.” He nodded, still not really looking at her.

“Sure.” Hope wiped her hands on a towel and nodded toward Kyle. “Let’s go out back.”

Hope led the way through the kitchen and out a little back door where most of the kitchen staff took their smoke breaks and hid out when John or Nova came in—or Angelica lately.

Hope hadn’t missed that fact. While it wasn’t the quietest place, they would have relative privacy from anyone inside, and she trusted that Kyle and his crew would keep everyone out.

The cameraman followed them, the camera always recording and picking up just about anything that Hope had to say through the microphone strapped to her waistband and wrapped against her skin under her chef’s coat.

Softening her stance, Hope wanted to make sure that Bowen understood he could tell her anything he needed.

“What’s up?” Hope asked as soon as the door was shut behind the crew.

“I uh… some of the guys and I have been talking…” he trailed off again, that nervous glance down toward his shoes not boding well for any kind of conversation that Hope was going to have with him. Were they all quitting?

It might be better in the long run if they did.

For them. Not for the hotel. But everything had been awkward and tension-riddled since Angelica had made her threat of pulling the entire show.

It was as if everyone was walking on eggshells to try and keep Angelica happy, when that hadn’t been the point.

Hope held her tongue, maintaining as much patience as she could. She needed to make Bowen comfortable, not scare him like Angelica had.

“…we don’t think John and Nova are going to listen to Ms. Shields.”

“You don’t,” Hope repeated, frowning. She’d had the same thought, and she was damn sure Angelica had too. In fact, she was pretty sure that everyone on set was thinking that. But then why were they there?

Bowen shook his head. “Look, we’ve seen this before. They’ve hired consultants to come in or they’ve hired a new manager to make changes, and then changes are made and then two weeks later everything goes back to the way it was, and the manager or consultant is fired.”

Relief flooded him as soon as the words left his lips. How long had he been holding that in? Hope held herself together, knowing that she had to tread carefully because whatever she said was going to end up on camera. But it was a huge risk for Bowen to even be talking to her about this.

“I just don’t want you to waste your time…or money,” Bowen mumbled the last two words. “For something that isn’t going to change.”

Oh that thought just broke Hope’s heart. She wanted to help him, because he was such a good kid. And he was a kid, barely in his twenties and thrust into a position that he had no right to be in. Hope sighed heavily, trying to think of the best solution that she could, and what exactly to tell him.

“Why are you still working here?” she asked instead, needing a quick stalling tactic. “What keeps you here?”

“The paycheck,” Bowen said. “I couldn’t make this money other places.”

“Because you wouldn’t be the head chef there?” Hope asked, and Bowen nodded.

“All right. Here’s what I’m going to do.

I don’t think that John and Nova are going to make changes, but who knows, they could surprise me.

I’m forever an optimist. But we’re going to set up two different plans.

First, we’re going to work on continuing to shape up this joint.

I’m going to teach you how to make three meals. Three. That’s it.”

“Okay?” Bowen seemed confused, but Hope wasn’t going to stop now. She needed to get this out in the open.

“We’re going to put systems into place, we’re going to start cooking with real ingredients, and not just heating up old leftovers that were made a year ago.

I’m going to teach you the skills you need to use in the kitchen—at least what I can in the three days that we’ve got left here. How does that sound?”

“Like a dream, if I’m being honest.” Bowen scratched the back of his head, pulling off his ball cap and then sliding it back in place. “Like it’s not going to happen.”

“That will happen. I’ll make sure of that.”

“But then what? When you leave?—”

“When I leave, and when Ms. Shields leaves, that’s when we start the second plan if everything goes back to the way it was before.” Hope squared her shoulders, never more sure of what she was about to tell him.

“What’s the second plan then?”

“How you quit and where you go from here. Along with everyone else who works in that kitchen, and probably the entire hotel staff. But the last part is out of my sphere of influence.” Hope looked Bowen dead in the eye.

“Do you still want to be a chef? Run your own kitchen? Actually have the tools to cook?”

“Yeah, I do.”

“Good. Then we’ll make a plan. Now’s the time to start looking for another job, or better yet, where you might want to go to school. And you need to be ready for when it’s time to pull the plug on working here, and you need to not be scared about leaving.”

As they continued to talk, the energy in the conversation picked up.

She could tell that Bowen had found his equilibrium again and that they were making the right decisions.

She might not have agreed with Angelica about the way she’d brought this all about, but Hope had to hand it to her, the threat of pulling the plug had been effective in making sure they could get the rest of the work done that needed to get done.

Perhaps she should trust that Angelica knew what was what a little more often than she had so far.

They’d finally finished dinner prep, and Hope took a deep breath to ready herself for the rush that she knew was coming.

The promotions department had done an amazing job at making sure the dining room was filled every night they’d been there.

The problem was that she had nowhere near the staff to even begin to serve everyone.

At least tonight would be a shortened menu, and she’d spent all day teaching Bowen how to make the three dishes like she’d promised, so she’d have at least half an extra hand when she was making up the orders.

She was just about to call out the first one, when John stepped into the kitchen, a glower on his face and all that anger directed at her.

“Are you telling my employees to quit?”

Hope’s stomach plummeted. How the hell had word gotten back to him so quickly? The kitchen was already hot, but with the cameras and now this aimed at her, she was really starting to sweat. What the hell was she even supposed to say to him?

“Well?” John pushed, his voice ringing through the kitchen. Was he loud enough that people in the dining room could hear him?

“Yes,” Hope answered honestly, keeping her voice softer than she wanted it.

But she was taken so off guard by this newest attack on his part.

She was used to dealing with employees when she had some actual control and power over their fate.

If he was one of them, she’d have no problem putting her foot down.

But could she actually do anything to change the fate of this hotel?

No.

“So instead of coming in here to fix my hotel, you’re coming in here to ruin it?” John stalked forward, his face red with rage. He towered over Angelica, but Hope had several inches on Angelica, so they stood nose to nose.

Hope looked around, desperately trying to find someone or something who would step in, but she couldn’t. It was just her and him, and she was the last line of defense for the kitchen staff. And she wasn’t going to let him bully her any longer.

The kitchen door opened and closed, the squeak that Hope had come to expect every time someone came in and left. It had annoyed her at first, but now it was the least of the things that irked her.

“I gave your staff all of their options, and no, I’m not going to hold back on what I think’s in their best interest.” Hope put her hands on her hips, curling them into fists as she found her footing and stuck it.

“And if I think it’s in their best interest to leave here and find a better job, then I will absolutely push them to it.

I’d do that with my own employees if I thought they’d outgrown what I had to offer. ”

That was a low blow, because in reality Bowen and the others hadn’t outgrown Chateau Orleans. Well, aside from their emotional and intellectual maturity, which was saying a whole lot.

“You’re going to leave me with no one here to work.”

“No, that’s not on me. That’ll be on you and how you treat your employees.” Hope was firm on that point.

“I treat my employees with respect!” John’s voice reverberated through the kitchen. “I treat them like family!”

Hope’s eyes widened. If this was how he treated family, then she would hate to know how he thought he treated employees. And she hated that metaphor anyway. Everyone treated family worse than coworkers. There was greater trust, which meant there was more opportunity for greater failure.

“Then I’d hate to be a part of your family.” Angelica’s voice shocked Hope.

When the hell had she come into the kitchen?

John spun around, finding Angelica staring at him with her arms crossed, lips pursed, and a look of pure hatred on her face. When he tried to move into her space, Angelica didn’t budge an inch. Hope was impressed. She wished she had that kind of control most days.

“I came in to see what the holdup with dinner service is. Now I know.” She stared at him. “Tell me, John, how often is it that you hold up dinner service like this?”

John’s jaw dropped.