Underground Oven - Festive cooking competition!

[Unicorn]

Welcome to the ‘Underground Oven’!!

To celebrate the upcoming Thanksgiving and Christmas seasonal holidays, BA’s RP section is hosting a cooking competition. Yes. Cooking. (Don’t wail).

In a mysterious brick warehouse, there are rows upon rows of gleaming polished wooden tables with the latest kitchenware + appliances. Just walk in, choose a table and you’re good to go!

- Each contestant will be given a ‘Treasure Box’ of 3 primary ingredients.
- At least one ingredient needs to be showcased in their dish.
- Each dish needs to be a tribute to the Thanksgiving + Christmassy season.
- There is an open storeroom with every possible available ingredient – help yourself.

Spoiler

Treasure Box
Eggs.
Pumpkin.
One Turkey.

Ready? It is oven-mitts and aprons at 10 paces. May the Best Chef win!

***

General notes:

1) RP bonus points will be given for participating.
2) This is a cooking contest, Masterchef style.
3) You can enter as many characters as you wish – but it has no effect on the RP bonus points.
4) The RP’er with the winning dish will receive extra points.
5) Interaction between characters is encouraged.
6) Comedy and light-hearted moments are very welcome.
7) No physical attacks on other characters.
8) Ingredients can be traded, with the other character-owner’s consent.
9) Feel free to ask questions if you’re not sure.


Judging:

1) In-character – did your RP character react to the challenge according to his or her personality / actual cooking skills?
2) Creativity + effort – how your character thought about the dish, sourced the ingredients, went about cooking it. And handling the resulting disasters (if any).
3) Matches the theme – is the presented dish really a tribute to the holiday season? Does it really showcase one of the 3 ingredients?

 

[Zanjutsu]

Contestant 1 - Shiruga Juzen

Juzen marched confidently inside the large brick warehouse with the wooden tables lined up. He put his kitten mittens on one of the central tables along with the House Shiruga crested apron, that he had had his tailor make for this sole occasion. Juzen had never been a great cook, and the closest he had been to making his own food was when he was a child and used to bother his mother by throwing things in the soup which weren't in the recipe. Well, that's not quite right, but his cooking skills were more in the line of "enthusiastic" than "masterful".

Never the less Juzen stepped up to the table confidently while looking around the room. It seemed like he was the first to show up, but that didn't matter, as preparation could be the key to winning the contest. He tightened his hair in the usual pony tail and tied his blue bandana around his head as to keep sweat from spoiling his vision - and the sauce. " Hmm... What to make..?" Juzen thought to himself while scratching his chin before hearing the next contestant entering the room.

 

[Unicorn]

Saku (Shinigami, 4th Div officer)

It was just his event! The gods were looking down at him kindly and he would not waste this chance, or forget his cookery items, or sleep in or otherwise be late for this. He was so involved in properly preparing for this cooking event that the poor man did not even sleep a wink - he had been up all night packing and worrying about being late.

The bespectacled healer rushed in carrying a massive rucksack that clanked with every breath he took. It sounded like he was carrying a suit of armor - something which he promptly proved wrong as the shinigami chose his bench and proceeded to swiftly unpack the rucksack.

Pots, pans and plates of every description appeared on the table, along with whisks, measuring spoons and weighing scales.

Saku was so single-minded in unpacking the backpack that he didn't notice anyone else in the room.

His dish:

Spoiler

A carrot and pumpkin cake.

=====

Nyarle (8th Espada, tigress)

Apparently the Christmas season had rolled around again. It was incredibly difficult to go past all the velvet-and-white-fur-themed decorations everywhere. So the kitty had indulged.

She strode into the vast underground room confidently, wearing an expensive outfit of a wine-red velvet bustier and matching miniskirt, both trimmed in real ermine fur and gold thread embroidery. Heavy gold jewelry set with rubies accessorised her arms, neck and ears. Knee-high black boots with little red-and-white pompoms completed the look.

Nyarle looked completely out of place in a kitchen environment, but she had never let such things faze her before. The chance to experience new things was always a good thing.

She was not the first occupant in the kitchen - a little pout sat on her lips - before she realised that all the appliances were absolutely boring. The other occupants were vastly more interesting.

Strolling oh-so-casually around the kitchen, Nyarle made her way to where Shiruga had set up. Golden eyes trailed across his bench - noting the kitten mittens - and then across the shinigami - noting some sort of family crest.

A noble. How nice.

"Greetings, Shinigami." She purred, stopping within a few inches of the man and leaned her hip against the bench. "I am glad to know that you favour the feline race." This comment referred to the kitten mittens.


Her dish:

Spoiler

I have no idea. Kitty cannot cook.

===

 

[Seraphina]

Reihaii Hitomi (fifth division, Vice-Captain)


Team Hitomi was out in force, and it did not look as though they were willing to take any prisoners.

The strong backs of Yukimura and Shadrin had been used to heave an impressive range of cooking implements, pots and pans; with Byleth the Deceiver perched upon the peak of Yukimura’s load. Having beaten his loaded backpack into something resembling a chair-shape, she rode upon it like a palanquin, one foot rested upon each of Yukumura‘s shoulders as she directed him forward with an elegant pointing-finger.

None of the other group members made quite so grand an entrance; Hitomi, Junshin, Shingen and Suzume all in attendance also. Each carrying their own smaller loads of cook books and other paraphernalia to help in the upcoming challenge. With Hitomi barking crisp, militaristic orders, the sextet (and Byleth) began setting up their workstation in a hurried fashion .

“Apron me!” Hitomi called, her expression rigid and her jaw set as she raised her hands overhead. In a flash, Suzume had tugged an apron around the young Vice-Captain’s person and securely tied it at the rear. As the remainder of her support team (minus Byleth, who had already disappeared into the crowd in search of mischief) arranged dishes, pots, pans, spatulas, ladles, measuring jugs, funnels, basters, colanders, egg whisks, at least one cookie cutter and knives of every description, Hitomi offered Junshin a solemn nod; signalling her fellow squad five member to open the cook book he carried with him.

“I am the Captain, you know….” Junshin offered as a single, brief objection, that was silenced almost immediately under the weight of character relevance.

As Hitomi selected an appropriate dish, Shingen appeared to have been entrusted with unsealing the ‘treasure box’ and inspecting its contest; a role he earned by unceremoniously face palming Yukimura out of the way before the latter could eat the box’s contents. His expression grim (although not necessarily more grim than it ever was), the seventh division’s fourth seat scanned over the items contained therein before turning sharply, snapping his heels together with a smart click to indicate his readiness to report in.

“Reihaii-san,” he spoke with all the gravitas of a man reporting enemy positions, “initial recognisance confirms eggs, a single pumpkin and the uncooked corpse of some kind of avian.”

“Turkey,” Yukimura corrected, speaking around a mouthful of gummy bears that he had apparently smuggled in alongside the cooking gear.

“Alright,” Hitomi nodded matter-of-factly, her eyes narrowing in concentration as she read through the various recipes before her. “Thanks for the help everyone….I guess I’ll get underway.”

As the remainder of the team departed to watch from the sidelines (although Shadrin and Junshin at once set off in search of Byleth to ensure that the Arrancar did not decide to kill any of the other contestants in the name of ‘helping’), Hitomi settled upon a turkey and sweet leak pie.

Rolling up her sleeves and exhaling a long, low, steady breath, Hitomi got to work, firing up her cooking station’s oven for the exhaustive process of cooking the turkey.

Spoiler

Hitomi’s dish: Turkey and sweet leek pie.

 

[Zanjutsu]

The many highly capable contestants had Juzen feeling the pressure. Not only was this a matter of personal honor, but also the honor of the 6th division and his own clan, so if only Yoshifumi could hurry a bit with the cooking items so he could get started. Juzen took a deep breath and tried to size up the competition. One shinigami had quickly filled his table with all kinds of pots and pans and Juzen felt a bit outgunned by all his equipment. "Shit, he looks so determined and focused, I have to do perform at my very best!" Juzen said to himself as to focus himself more, before turning his gaze the other way, where he saw nothing less but a small circus apparently all working for the red haired shinigami girl getting her apron put on. If Juzen was nervous before, it was nothing compared to what he felt when looking at the almost militaristic precision of her team.

But as Juzen tried to locate the last of the contestants he saw coming in, he found himself not being able to locate her. But suddenly felt someone very close by and he turned his head in an instant realizing that the last contestant had managed to sneak up on him without noticing, now standing mere inches from him. "What the..?" Juzen exclaimed as he instinctively jumped a few steps backwards from the perceived threat before noticing the tall, elegant woman with the blonde hair and yellow cat-like eyes. Juzen opened his eyes wide. That... Wasn't exactly chef's clothes and were very revealing of her bodily attributes, which instantly made Juzen uncomfortable thinking of how close to him she had placed herself.

"Feline race..?" Juzen didn't quite get it at first, but after a brief moment of confusion, he looked at his own mittens with the kittens on. "Oh... I guess you mean these. They're just... Well, I got them a few years ago, so they're nothing special..." Juzen said, but quickly corrected himself to sound less impolite. "But certainly, cats and the feline race are very elegant creatures... and can make you jumpy at times..." he said, finding himself gazing at the seductively, attractive woman in front of him. Juzen blinked with his eyes a couple of times and quickly snapped out of it. "But if you're here to cook, then what are you doing at my bench anyway?" Juzen asked with a hint of curiosity, though he hoped that it was just a mistake, and she would return to her table in an orderly way, as to avoid any more awkward exchange of words.

Spoiler

Dish: A grand bowl of soup (if he escapes the tiger's claws...)

 

[Unicorn]

Nyarle

Good, the shinigami was a little jumpy around her presence. And he was praising felines as elegant. A very promising prospect.

She was enjoying being around this man. Whether or not he felt the same way about her was another matter altogether.

"But if you're here to cook, then what are you doing at my bench anyway?"

"Cook? I don't believe in... cooking. Raw meat is much more refreshing, don't you think?" Nyarle murmured, a crooked smile on her lips.

She took one step closer to Juzen - bringing her within touching distance but she did not lift a hand. Instead, the kitty leaned closer to bring her mouth closer to his ear, her breath brushing against his neck as her next statement emerged as a throaty purr.

"You are welcome to show me... all... your talents."

Spoiler

I still don't know what she is going to serve up. {/spoiler]

...

Saku

After arranging all the appliances to his liking, Saku then investigated the large 'Treasure Box' on his bench, discovering eggs, pumpkin and turkey. His decision was almost instantaneous - a sweet dish. A cake. No-one could resist a cake.

The presence of pumpkin inspired an idea of a carrot-cake, full of good vitamins and vegetables. Instead of one vegetable, why not two?

Singing christmas carols under his breath, the healer was getting right into his groove. He quickly emptied the 'Treasure Box', grabbed the largest bowl he could find and practically ran to the large pantry room. Like a hummingbird, he made a beeline for the baking staples - flour, sugar, spices. And carrots.

...

Alex (Quincy, human)

She really didn't know who kept on coming up with these dimension-skip things. It wasn't as if she had nothing else to do, or a real-world business to run to earn money. A human couldn't survive on energy particles alone.

It was safe to say that the Quincy wasn't too pleased with where she'd found herself. But there were many others who seemed to be extremely busy over their tables... bah humbug.

Sighing, the human chose a table at random and opened the single box sitting there - only to find eggs, pumpkin and turkey. Yeah, she could work with those. Something basic, but relatively well-accepted in most countries.

No-one she'd ever met had ever objected to meat, bread and fried eggs.

Looking around again for someone to ask what was going on, Alex gave up and began settling down into the competition. Choosing a knife and a cutting board from the selection, she hauled the turkey from the box and began cutting fillets off it.

Spoiler

A turkey burger, topped with cheese and fried eggs

 

[Zanjutsu]

What the arrancar did next, was not retreating like a polite person would do, but rather she leaned in closer and spoke directly into his ear. If Juzen didn't know any better, he would have thought she wasn't talking about cooking, but something completely different! "Eh... yeah well..? Talents! I get it, we should start the cooking, right? Juzen said in order to change the subject. "Here, hold this! My assistant is late anyway, so you can be my helping hand... ehh paw... something!" Juzen said, well aware he was acting somewhat nervously with her around as company. Juzen quickly glanced at the open pages in the cooking book, starting to chop up a lot of different vegetables, as in the background his assistant, also from the 6th division, Yoshifumi, came into the grand hall carrying a huge cast iron on his back, which was large enough to cook a horse. "Shiruga-sama! I'm... I'm sorry it took so long, but the pot wouldn't go through the front door!" Yoshifumi complained, sweating like a waterfall while carrying the pot. "Who... who is that, Shiruga-sama?" Yoshifumi asked a bit perplexed about Nyarles presence, and seemed a bit skeptic to her intentions.

 

[CrayonsToChaos]

Kana knelt before the household shrine, where the divinity that protected house Asakawa was venerated, and solemnly swore to the kami that she would do her very best to uphold the honour of her house. “And, please, if you would be so generous, grant me your assistance, kami-sama.” ”And if onii-san is participating, let us beat him into the ground,” added her younger sister's echoing whisper inside Kana's head.

She headed to the warehouse, and entered the arena armed with a large stack of books that completely obscured her body and face. Only the tiny, shuffling steps and the long black hair that fell behind her gave away that this was Kana Asakawa who had arrived. She gasped, hearing the voice of none other than Kiyoko Junshin-sama (who in her absense had been promoted to Captain no less) and blushed a deep shade of pink behind her book stack. Immediately she diverted her course to her own workstation and approached the table of her 5th Division comrades. She stopped before it, placing her large stack of books on the floor beside her, kneeling and bowing until her head touched the polished floorboards. “Ah! Kiyoko Junshin-taicho!” and she guessed the formidable red-haired woman she had caught barely a glimpse of before diverting her eyes respectfully was “Reihaii-fukutaicho! I apologise for having the impudence to compete against you and hope you will forgive this unworthy person. Let's all do our best!” Having bowed an over-abundance of times, she retreated to her own kitchenette area to start work.

Her captain and vice-captain were both here, and that meant … should she win, she might cause them to lose face, but if she should cook badly, she would cause the division to lose face! This was a challenge indeed, a far more fierce one than she might have thought. Lining her stack of books up neatly at one side of the table, Kana tied a hachimaki headband around her forehead. Bearing the rising sun symbol in the centre it also displayed the word “konjo” - perseverence. She tied her sleeves back with a tasuki cord, and then, she was ready. She let her eyes survey the room without seeming to, ostensibly reading one of her cookbooks. Was that an arrancar? How disturbing! Well, she didn't seem to be competing, just talking to – or maybe distracting - one of the other contestants. It was a shinigami she hadn't seen before, handsome and charming, surely a noble … not as good looking as Junshin-sama, and maybe a bit too outgoing - who just chats and laughs with an arrancar? Very strange. She was letting herself get distracted by all this other activity, and that was against the spirit of “konjo”. Kana opened the treasure box and sat down to think.

She had little knowledge of these festivals, this Christmas was originally some heathen celebration practiced by barbarians, and was traditionally celebrated in Soul Society by queuing for hours and eating a bucket of KFC (Konpaku Fried Chicken). Thanksgiving... well, she could guess its meaning although she knew nothing of its customs. She would be giving thanks to her household kami herself once the contest was over by offering it a portion of everything. What would the household kami prefer? Something traditional, naturally.

Kana cooks:

Spoiler

Rolled omelette (tamago) nigiri sushi
Pumpkin korokke
Konpaku deep-fried turkey, with Kana's recipe of seven secret finger-lickin' herbs and spices, served in a paper bucket

 

[Unicorn]

Nyarle

"Eh... yeah well..? Talents! I get it, we should start the cooking, right? Juzen said in order to change the subject. "Here, hold this! My assistant is late anyway, so you can be my helping hand... ehh paw... something!" Juzen said, well aware he was acting somewhat nervously with her around as company.

The shinigami was nervous in her presence - an intoxicating smell to her predatory senses. The kitty's lips curled up in a bigger smile, only to be abruptly replaced by a surprised yowl as the man pushed a... book... into her hands. Then began chopping non-meat items. Yuck.

Foiled at her attempts at unbalancing the shinigami, she wasn't given the chance to try again as yet another man huffed his way into the room. Carrying what seemed to be the metal roof off a small building.

The new shinigami wasn't appealing, and Nyarle was suddenly quite bored with the whole situation. Cooking was a terrible waste of time, in her opinion. What was wrong with eating fresh raw meat?

"Greetings, shinigami. I am called Nyarle. Perhaps we shall... meet again soon." She purred towards the newcomer (Yoshifumi), offering a sharp little smile and then shoving the book into his arms.

Blowing an air-kiss towards Juzen, the arrancar turned on her elegantly booted heel and left to explore the other benches.


Saku

He didn't intend to spend alot of time in the pantry, really he didn't. All he needed were specific ingredients which were readily available.

But like a nesting bird who distracted itself with various shiny things to decorate its nest with, Saku got quite happily lost exploring every corner of the pantry shelves.

As a result, the healer's 'shopping trip' turned out to be too much for his intended single carrying bowl. Way too much. In fact, Saku had carefully emptied out (and rearranged) a sack of potatoes, then used the sack to carry his haul of groceries back towards the bench. Sugar, flour, spices, candied fruit, tiny silvery decorations, baby carrots, oranges...

In a flurry of arms, trying to make up for lost time, the healer began chopping up the pumpkin and carrots into cubes. After which, he drizzled oil and spices over the top, and placed the trays into the oven to roast.

Once that was out of the way, Saku grabbed his weighing scales and began measuring out quantities of flour, butter, etc... to make his cake. The not-so-secret ingredients were, of course, finely grated pumpkin and carrot.


Alex

A turkey was, essentially, a very large chicken. And therefore it gave many fillets. Alex just cut as many portions as she wanted, and laid the meat into a tray of milk to soak and soften.

A burger was essentially a big sandwich with some salad and meat. The salad was basic, usually made up of lettuce and tomato. The meat therefore needed to be a highlight. She could go with a simple pan-fry, or perhaps a deep fry. There was a fancy gadget just for deep frying, and Alex itched to try it out.

She put aside the turkey carcass tidily, washed her hands and then went off to search for burger trimmings.

 

[Zanjutsu]

The whole ordeal about cooking apparently didn't suit the arrancar girl, and as quickly as she came, she was gone again, blowing finger kisses towards Juzen, with he received with a forced smile and a relieved sigh as soon as she turned around, waltzing towards her next "victim". Juzen looked at Yoshifumi. "I really... don't know who she was, she just came over and said a lot of things about "my talents" and starring intensely at my mittens." he said and looked dumbfounded. "She didn't seem to care much about cooking, so maybe she's one of the judges?" Juzen asked himself and scratched his chin, while Yoshifumi gave the arrancar a sceptical stare telling her to keep away from his superior.

"But you brought my cast iron pot! That's great, then we can get on with preparing the soup! Were you having problems bringing it here?" Juzen asked Yoshifumi, his subordinate in the 6th division. "Yes, Shiruga-sama! Initially it was too wide to fit in through the door, and the doorman said I couldn't bring it! But thanks to the 6th division rule book, I convinced him to widen the door with a swift little hado, after having preached for him in 15 minutes straight. Some people just doesn't understand the authority of rules and why you should comply without question!" Yoshifumi said and pushed his chest forwards. "Hm! Great work, Yoshifumi-san!" Juzen said, and put his hand on Yoshifumi's shoulder in a fatherly way, giving him a proud look, which made Yoshifumi stragithen his back. "You make me proud! Now let's get this rolling!" Juzen said, as Yoshifumi answered promptly. "Oss!"

Juzen looked at the ingredients from the treasure box. "Hmm... an egg soup does sound delicious, but maybe a tad too... experimental... I think we'll go for a turkey and pumpkin soup with onion, mushrooms and... ehmm... some of these nice spices!" Juzen said proudly, though he didn't quite know what spices would fit that particular dish. "Yoshifumi, prepare the turkey!" Juzen commanded, as he rolled up his sleeves and started chopping vegetables as if his life depended on it and then filling the cast iron pot with water... which could take some time. While pumping the water up into the pot, Juzen noticed another competitor having joined the competition. A slender, black haired woman, who apparently was with the 5th division, judging by the way she bowed and greeted the table with the 5th squad captain and vice-captain first thing before going over to her table. "Hmm... Intriguing..." Juzen thought, looking forward to the increased competition from the 5th division. "You see there, Yoshifumi? More 5th squatters wich means increased motivation to show them why we are superior not only in number but in raw cooking skills!" Juzen yelled at Yoshifumi, who looked twice as motivated now, though it probably mostly had to do with the fact, that the superior whom he idolizes was feeling more motivated himself.

But upon closer inspection, the way she moved and dressed... could she be another noble? Juzen was sure he could remember the name of her clan... Asahawa, Ashakawa, Kasawaha..? Damn it, it had slipped his mind, even though he had sworn he was going to become much better at remembering other people's clan since it always ended up being troublesome when he forgot it. Should he ask her? Juzen looked at Yoshifumi fighting getting the turkey inside an oven that was surely a bit too small for that bird and again at the girl with the shy personality...