Published: July 26, 2025
The kitchen where ingredients are handled was thoroughly cleaned over several days. At the same time, cooking tools and tableware were brought into the kitchen, and firewood and ingredients were steadily moved into the underground storage. Through Benno, arrangements were made to have chefs work in our kitchen.
From the day I found the kitchen, I started making natural yeast at home. If professional chefs could bake it, I wanted to eat fluffy bread.
Benno taught me to buy glass containers with lids for storage from a shop that handles glassware. This time, I wanted to try making natural yeast with currants, which are in season now.
After sterilizing the glass jar by boiling it, I washed it and added the currants with their stems cut off, water, and sugar, then sealed the lid. After that, I shook the jar several times a day and opened the lid to expose it to air, waiting for the yeast liquid to form.
It usually takes about five days, but once fully fermented and filtered, the yeast liquid is ready. I then mixed whole wheat flour and water into the finished yeast liquid, let it rest, and made the dough through repeated feeding.
Fluffy bread is rare even in noble households. I had eaten white bread made only with wheat at the Guild Master’s house, but even that white bread wasn’t as fluffy as I wanted.
If I could make properly fermented fluffy bread with natural yeast, it would be a strong selling point. And if I made and managed the natural yeast and dough myself, bread would become a strength that couldn’t be easily copied.
I don’t know if it will go exactly as planned, though.
When I informed Benno that the dough was ready, he immediately came with the chefs to the temple room. There was a man around 20 years old and a girl who was clearly an apprentice, likely in her early teens. Once these two had learned enough, new people would be brought in.
“Hugo, you will learn about noble recipes here. Study well. …Myne-sama, this is our chef Hugo, and his assistant apprentice, Ella.”
Benno introduced the chefs, so I wanted to greet them, but I just nodded silently and let Fran handle all the responses. The reason was that as the blue shrine maiden, I had to act nobly.
“Hugo and Ella, then. Let me show you around the kitchen right away.”
I was told to always communicate instructions to the chefs through Fran, and Fran would read aloud the recipes I had written on wooden tags. The guild members still cannot read, so the interactions with the chefs had to be left to Fran.
“The first thing I want you to learn is hygiene management. Keep cooking tools and tableware clean and sanitary. Maintain the kitchen in its current polished state. Always cleanse your body before coming here, wear washed clothes, and do not enter the kitchen with dirty clothes or body. Understood?”
“Y-yes!”
If I instill strong hygiene awareness here, they will likely accept similar rules when told to do so in the Italian restaurant.
I have no intention of making an Italian restaurant where hard bread is used as plates, leftover food is thrown on the floor, and dogs are fed. While one might say that's just the culture here, I don’t think such a culture belongs in a high-class dining place serving noble meals.
I actually wanted to start with making consomme, but since Benno wanted to eat lunch that’s ready soon, the time-consuming consomme will be for tomorrow. Today, since it’s the first time using the oven, I want to start with making pizza. Or rather, I want to eat it.
“Well then, today we will make pizza. First, light the oven.”
“Yes.”
Under Fran’s instructions, the two carried firewood from the basement and lit the oven. Wood-fired ovens take time to warm up, so lighting the fire is the first task. It’s the same process as lighting a hearth, so they did it quickly.
“Wash your hands before touching ingredients.”
While Benno and I sat at the servants’ table watching, the pizza dough making began. Fran and I had prepared the ingredients in advance and laid them out on the table, like a cooking show.