Mr. Bakshi and Mariana began firing questions at Piper. First, Mr. Bakshi asked, “What features of a dish make it interesting to you?”
Piper had no trouble answering that one. “Food that surprises you in fun ways,” she said. “I love when food looks like one thing but tastes or smells like another.”
Next, Mari asked, “What is one of your favorite meals you’ve ever created?”
“Hmmm,” Piper said, pondering. Finally, she blurted out, “The first meal I got to work on from start to finish at Helping Hands. I felt like I was a part of something that really mattered.”
Frankie’s voice chimed in: “Which of your family members do you most love cooking for and why?”
Piper laughed. “My sister, Finley, because she likes to eat silly stuff!”
They didn’t have to ask very many questions before Piper’s ideas shook loose. In the course of their discussion, Piper remembered something she had read once: tomatillos have a lot of pectin. She had practiced using pectin in the animal-shaped fruit jellies she had made for her sister a few weeks earlier! Pectin was a bit like the glue of the food world. Maybe there was some way to play with that pectin and turn her main pasta dish into something more memorable….
There wasn’t much time, but Piper began instructing Mariana how to simmer and cook the soupy sauce, telling her to use far more tomatillos than Piper had originally planned to include. The sauce would be a little more sour than she liked, but she had a feeling she’d need a ton of tomatillos if she wanted her idea to turn out the way she was imagining it. “Here’s what I’m thinking,” she told Mari through her earpiece. “If we cook the sauce for the perfect amount of time, and it has time to cool a bit, we can mix the pasta and sauce together and serve it in a gelatinous mound. If this goes according to plan, the Kitchen Wizard is going to get to eat an edible pasta brain.”
“Ew!” Mari said, giggling. “That sounds disgusting…and super fun!”
Piper agreed. This dish would be creative, it allowed her to play with science techniques, and it fit the theme of the show. It might not taste that great, and it could be a total disaster, but it was worth a shot.
Success or not, Piper knew she would have no regrets. This was a dish she would be proud to serve up as a signature Piper food-science specialty. It was time to get cooking.
When the Kitchen Wizard announced that time was up, Piper and her fellow chefs all stepped out of their zombie-proof pods. Piper raced to her workstation to see how each of her dishes had turned out. The flatbread looked good—slightly brown and crispy. Mari had executed her instructions perfectly. The pies looked scrumptious.
Her pasta brain, however? That was a mushy, melty, globby disaster.
“I’m sorry,” Mariana said, looking devastated. “I cooked the sauce until it started to thicken, and then I put the bowl in the blast chiller to set, like you told me to. I don’t know why it didn’t work.”
“It’s not your fault,” Piper said, laughing as she poked at the blobby mound of tan noodles swimming in lumpy green sauce. “I wouldn’t have done anything differently myself. At least we went for it, right?” She gave Mari a big hug. “You were amazing.”
All three chefs delivered their finished dishes to the Kitchen Wizard and Mr. Bakshi, who were sitting together at a long table. Slowly, the two judges tasted everything and asked the contestants a number of questions about the products they had used to construct their dishes. When the Kitchen Wizard got to Piper’s noodle brains, she laughed. “Very creative,” she said, “but not especially appetizing—even to this zombie.”
“My brain fell apart,” Piper said. “I was trying to play with the pectin in tomatillos, but something went wrong.”
“To fully set,” Mr. Bakshi told Piper, “pectin needs more time to cool. Your idea was inventive, and with just a bit more time it could have been brilliant. A great idea, even if it didn’t work the way you’d planned.”
While the two judges deliberated in front of the cameras, the contestants and their sous-chefs waited backstage. They all got to sample the other chefs’ creations. Frankie’s fruit pizza was beautiful but not especially tasty or exciting. And she hadn’t finished her main dish; she confessed that she had cracked under the time pressure. Jack’s creamy bean and vegetable stew tasted fresh and delicious, and it was almost impossible to believe he’d made it using only canned and dried food. “This is amazing!” Piper gushed.
While everyone munched on the other contestants’ dishes, Piper told them about Helping Hands. Both Jack and Frankie seemed really excited to come and help out in Duck’s kitchen. “I could use some practice cooking stuff that’s not cake,” Frankie said.
“And I wouldn’t mind getting to work in a kitchen where my dad isn’t in charge,” Jack said, laughing.
They made plans to all go and cook there together. Piper couldn’t wait to show her new friends the ropes at her favorite place!
After they were done taste-testing, each of the chefs did one-on-one interviews where they talked about their experiences during the show. As soon as they’d finished, they were called back to the set.
The judges had made their decision.
When the cameras were rolling, the Kitchen Wizard announced, “Please help me congratulate the winner of today’s challenge…”
Piper took a deep breath. This was it. She gazed past the lights and cameras toward her family and friends in the audience. They all waved at her, and Finley held her glittery sign high in the air.
“Jack VanDries!” The Kitchen Wizard stepped forward and presented Jack with the champion’s golden spatula.
Piper and Frankie both clapped and cheered as Jack blew kisses toward the cameras. After a quick bow, he pushed Marguerite forward and urged his friend and sous-chef to take her own bow. In the front row of the audience, Arlo VanDries stood up and waved regally, acting like he was the one who had won the competition—not his son.
“Congratulations,” Piper said, shaking both Jack’s and Marguerite’s hands. She was surprised to discover she wasn’t disappointed that someone else’s name had been called. After looking at and tasting all the other dishes, she and Mariana had both agreed that Jack VanDries deserved to win. He’d created the best dishes and executed them flawlessly.
As soon as the director hollered, “Cut,” Piper’s cheering section rushed to the stage. The Daring Dreamers Club enveloped her in hugs and congratulations, Duck patted her vigorously on the back, and her family beamed with pride. Everyone poked at her mushy pasta brain and gushed about her creativity and courage to make something so strange. In that moment, surrounded by friends and family who all loved and supported her, Piper knew she’d won in all the most important ways.
Of course it would have been nice to hear the Kitchen Wizard say her name, but sometime during the course of the day’s competition, Piper’s focus had shifted away from being crowned champion. This experience had been about so much more than $10,000 and a golden spatula. She knew she’d succeeded in the ways that mattered most to her—by pushing limits, taking risks, and learning something for the next time.
Because there was always a next time. And Piper couldn’t wait to cook up a new adventure.