Yay! It reads much more smoothly now, and has a clear plot. Awesome.

--TheOtherSean

You win the Fast Readers Award.

Not on topic, but I've been reading Black Point. Was Ebsa an alternative philosopher for 52 seconds?

:) I just plucked that number out of thin air, with no one in mind. No, I don't think it was Ebsa. He didn't have enough popular support to qualify.

Excellent. Still, why did the chef go off on Ebsa? Until he started swearing in front of the Ambassador's children, he had done nothing worthy of firing as far as I can see. Apart from ignoring him, what had Ebsa done?

The Master Chef has been snooty to people eating in his restaurant, deliberately messing up orders, was a better than mediocre chef, with an inflated ego . . . and has suddenly realized that his job is teetering on the edge . . . and if he can't prove to the ambassador that he's the better chef, he could be fired.

_Of course_ he blames it on Ebsa. Otherwise he'd have to admit he was . . . a better than mediocre chef and ought not put on airs.

I'll add that in.

If she has someone she can trust to run it (under supervision), I think that Ebsa's mom should open a second location of her restaurant on Embassy. Think of the brag points. Think also of the opportunity to be the first inter-brane restaurant chain (Embassy would not be the last world to get one). Now think of the spying opportunities that that would create. It is almost her patriotic duty to do it. She might even be able to get Ebsa and company assigned to set each new one up and train up the permanent staff.

They could cry to her about the problem of not being able to find a coffee shop that doesn't serve just fab food. Maybe she could get Ebsa to set it up and train chef? Call it Ebsa's.

A great read. The only reference i didnt get was Dr. Storm. was that a Dr. Who reference?

Nope. Time Loop.

https://www.amazon.com/Time-Loop-Pam-Uphoff-ebook/dp/B07455ZCZD/

Lots smoother.

The only serious difficulty I have is figuring out the logistics of how many servings Ebsa actually makes, since Ebsa does all the cooking and meat chopping, and the fair is only open for a max of 36,000 seconds (10am to sunset, say 8pm).

Ebsa bought 550 kilo of meat, which is 19,400 oz, or about 6500 servings at the recommended 3 oz serving size (about the size of a bar of soap). Of course, Ebsa is serving "bites", but in the story he tends to put multiple "bites" on a plate.

Cooking rare steaks (2cm thick) takes 2-3 minutes per side according to my reference. In 10 hours there will be time for at most 150 batches of steaks to be cooked. Hence each batch has to be about 16 steaks of 8 oz each in order to use up all the meat. Ebsa is *busy*. And this does not count the time that Ebsa wanders around the fair without cooking.

I don't see how Ebsa could possibly use 50,000 unicorn plates. Even adding in the the vegan plates, I would say 10,000 would be a more reasonable number. The booth has to pass out more than one plate each four seconds for the entire 10 hours straight in order to use up 10,000 plates.

-TomR

He ordered ten thousand plates, received more, as Mike wanted to clear out his warehouse, then Unsa took two boxes . . . And no doubt Ebsa hasn't run out, and will drop the extras off with the Ambassador's wife to use at parties.

And yes, Ebsa will be crowding on the steaks and chopping them up quickly. Then his helpers will assembly line three chunks on each plate, a splash of sauce on each, a tooth pick into one and out to the pickup table or a serving tray.

The fifty thousand number was a bulk buy cheap plain paper plates. Which probably never got used.

I've read all of Pam's published books, and enjoyed them. I've read several of them more than twice. This is the second of her books that I've had the privilege of beta-reading, and the learning experience has been unbelievable. I can hardly wait until the next one is available!

A little scary, seeing the rough draft? :)

But when you hear experienced writers telling the new writers "Get some Beta Readers" this is why. Multiple eyes on the pages, different fields of knowledge, dueling grammar nazis . . .

My friends tell me I'm unusually thick skinned for a writer. It's more fun that way.

You kind of skipped by this early in Cooking Hot, but you mentioned the notion of a school for the collected kids from the various embassies... I mean, imagine being the poor guy who has been invited to be the acting principal for this school? Or the school nurse? Or worse, the classroom teacher facing a mixed bag from across the various worlds... What could go wrong? Let's see, you could call it The Little Schoolhouse on the Plaza? Or... something for you to think about, right?

The poor teachers. They're used to normal Oners, well brought up and disciplined, trained to shield, not use their abilities.

Xen's Oner kids would fit in fine. The Rip Crossing quartet? Umm, they'll be 15 in _Children of a Foreign God_. Plus any Purps or Arbolians with power genes. Yes . . . I will definitely need to write about the first Freshmen class in the New High School.

On the other side of the City, the Other New High School will cater to the non-magical. There will be rivalry and snobbery.