Chapter 9

“What do you want to eat tonight?”

As Muaz was passing through the corridor, he heard a man talking on a phone. The voice was familiar as that person was his coworker who also had a higher standing than him in their workplace.

Muaz was not the type of person who loved listening in to someone else’s conversation. So, he continued walking without much care.

Still, it was an empty corridor and the guy was talking a bit too loud. That echo made him able to hear the conversation.

“Lobster? Sure. We will eat that tonight,” the guy spoke and it was silent for a second before he added, “I love you too!”

Muaz entered the kitchen again as he had finished his rest time. Everyone in the kitchen was busying themselves with their work.

It was past the lunch hour and thus, there were not many orders coming in. Thus, many of them were doing other kinds of stuff like prepping the ingredients for the evening.

Muaz was a chef. Due to his love for his dad’s side dishes, he aspired to become a chef.

When in school, due to their love of their mom’s kuih and dad’s side dishes, they learned the recipes and became good at making them. Although incomparable to the true master (mom and dad), they were considered only second to them.

Even though the three learned to make the kuihs and side dishes, Muaz was the only one who wanted to go the path of cooking.

When he applied for University, he took the culinary course to become a chef. Maisarah took accountancy while Marwan out of nowhere took Pure Science.

Maisarah’s path did not go well as she failed to become an accountant and ended up becoming a QC worker in a small confectionery factory.

Marwan’s future looked bright as he proved that he did not choose the wrong course. He was a smart student in the Pure Science course and his exam results were the proof.

As for Muaz, before he landed this chef job at the hotel, he opened a restaurant with his wife, Aleeya.

After Muaz and Aleeya graduated, they both got married immediately. There was no sketchy reason for this marriage. They just felt it was time for that and went on with it without much thought.

While Muaz learned culinary at University, Aleeya learned business. Thus, after they got married, they opened the restaurant with the help of their parents.

Be that as it may, not everything they plan came to fruition. The restaurant failed miserably. Although Muaz’s cooking was good, it was nothing special, and also due to Aleeya’s inexperience in business, it led to the restaurant's demise.

This failure taught them a hard lesson. The duo’s ambition to own a business was still there but they decided to take a detour for a bit by learning the ropes from other places.

Aleeya applied to work at many companies. Due to some help from her friends, she was recruited into a big company and was put in the secretary's office.

On the other hand, Muaz landed a job as a low-level chef in a big hotel. Although in a low-level position, he was satisfied because he could learn a lot of stuff in that big hotel.

The duo had been working at their respective workplace for almost four years now. They might not be in a higher position even after four years working there but they had learned a lot.

Aleeya had a lot more about business while Muaz had honed his cooking skills a lot. Their chance of success would be higher now if they were to open a restaurant.

Be that as it may, they did not rush into this. They had learned their lesson and decided to be more careful.

Muaz got to his station and prepared to take over the prepping job from his coworker when he heard a shout, “Muaz, come here!”

He recognized the voice as it was the big boss of this kitchen, the head chef, Chef Fuad.

Chef Fuad was a man in his mid-40s. He was a big man but it was not because of fat. He was built big.

“Yes, chef,” Muaz came to Fuad and waited for his order.

“Izzudin will take a few days off. So you will take over his task checking on the stocks starting today,” Fuad gave his order.

“Okay,” Muaz nodded. “Is he okay?” Muaz asked about Izzudin. Earlier this morning, Chef Izzudin accidentally cut his palm while preparing the ingredients.

How did he hurt his palm? He was chatting with someone else and accidentally put his hand on the chopping board without realizing it.

It sounded dumb but it happened. He was younger than Muaz and a talented one too. Chef Fuad took great care of him but the guy was too careless. He wanted to chat so much that it caused this blunder.

He was sent to the hospital immediately and as a low-level chef, Muaz did not know what had happened after that. Everyone was too busy with their job.

“Sigh…” Chef Fuad sighed. “His injury is quite bad and the chance for him to fully heal is hard. After It heals, he will need to do a lot of therapy, and even after that, his hand will not be as good as before.”

Muaz was shocked. Hands were important to chefs and Izzudin’s hand function would not be as good as it used to be. This was bad news for the young man.

“Still, he will be fine. As long as he can taste and smell, with practice and subsequent treatment to his hand, he can still be a good cook. Also, he only hurt one hand and the other is fine. If he is determined to become a chef, he will learn to make his other hand as good as his injured hand.”

Muaz nodded as he agreed with that.