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Volume 1, Chapter 6: I check out the kitchen.

The Claude mansion is very big. Although I haven’t seen every room, the room that they are letting me use is already about 30 mats1.

There seem to be many more rooms of that size in the Claude mansion. The 1B1B apartment I lived in would probably only qualify as a walk-in closet.

It’s only expected, though, as the Claude family holds the title of marquis. The current family head is apparently Gil’s older brother, so this is the branch family mansion. Usually Gil would not receive a marquis title since he is from the branch family, but he was granted a new title in light of his large contributions to the kingdom.

It seems the standard for nobility is quite strict in this country. Nobility pay heavier taxes than commoners, and have their title stripped away if they refuse to do so. In addition, contributions to the country, such as proceeds from their land or technology research and development or even political achievement come under intense scrutiny. This is probably how Feliformia has long upheld their constitutional monarchy. Essentially, with great power comes great responsibility, and one would not survive if they only enjoyed the benefits of a noble status.

…But I digress.

The head maid Mary directed me to the unexplored kitchen of such a Claude family. There was a six burner magic stove, a commercial-looking magic refrigerator, a commercial-looking magic freezer, and a magic water supply. The space and equipment lacked nothing.

“Mary, who usually makes the food?”

Speaking of which, I had never asked her this.

“Whoever is on cooking duty for the maids. However, they are only in charge of the soup and main dish. Bread is brought in from the bakery that is also the purveyor to royalty.”

This fossil of bread is baked by a royal purveyor!?

So the king of the country also eats rock hard bread…It’s remarkable how even the person with the most power has no problems with it. How strong are these peoples’ jaws!?

….Anyways, it’s best not to be shocked by the food in this world.

All right, I’ve decided I will become the pioneer of food in this world. This is all so that I can eat good food. After strengthening my resolve, I asked Mary to get together some ingredients for me. She was very excited and willing, and proved a great help to me.

No Japanese person would see Mary and think she couldn’t cook. With her slight chubbiness, Mary looked like she would fit right into a cafeteria somewhere with a cook’s apron. She also looked like she would quietly sneak a few extra pieces of karaage2 onto your plate, too. Oh, I would like some karaage. Let’s make some next time.

Anyways, right now I need to think about what I can make for lunch, which is happening in 2 hours.

I would really like to start with the bread, but that would take too long as I would have to start from making yeast. The milk porridge-like stuff seemed to have wheat grains, so either rice isn’t common here or it doesn’t even exist. They did tilt their head and say “rice?” after all.

By process of elimination, then, the main dish will be noodles.

Noodles, huh…udon, soba, ramen, pasta. There is no soy sauce, so udon and soba are out of the question. Ramen requires lye water (something necessary for ramen. If you don’t have lye water, you can’t make ramen), which I also don’t have.

The last one is pasta. Wheat was used in making bread, and I saw something that looked like eggs in the soup, too. Then I just need…salt and water. Okay! I choose you, pasta! I mean, I can only make pasta!

While I was thinking about these things, Mary led in the maids, Reid, the gardener, and some other servants of the Claude family into the kitchen with their hands full of ingredients. I am so, so grateful that they are doing all this for a freeloader like me.

I will make good food!!

“Mary, ladies. We will be making something called pasta today.”

“Pasta?”

Mary and the maids all tilted their heads as they mulled over the unfamiliar word.

“It is quite easy, so let’s make it together.”

“Yes!”

“I’ll try my best.”

I smiled at their perplexed expressions, to which Mary replied with gusto. The others followed her lead and crowded around me.

First, I dumped a mountain of wheat flour onto the work table. I flattened the peak, cracked an egg into the resulting crater and mixed it in. Then I added some salt dissolved in lukewarm water into the mix and kneaded for around five minutes. I told Mary to follow my movements, as we would need a lot of dough to make enough pasta for everyone in the Claude family.

Then we let the dough rest for twenty minutes. There is no plastic wrap here, so I put the dough in a bowl and placed a wet towel over it to prevent it from drying out.

During those twenty minutes, I taste tested all of the ingredients that everyone brought in for me. I asked Mary and the maids to teach me their names while I took a nibble on each of them for taste. The ones I will use in the pasta today are mallow, a red eggplant-looking vegetable that tastes like tomato, and zelana, a gingko-shaped vegetable that tastes like spinach. Lastly is toto, some kind of poultry. Toto is a very common meat, and the eggs used in the pasta also comes from the toto bird.

The honorable mention goes to a conspicuous coconut-like fruit the size of a basketball, called milkfruit. True to its name, the juice tastes like milk. It seems the fatty content of the milk also increases as it ripens, so I was jumping for joy at the thought of being able to make butter, cream and cheese. It was a little frustrating that the maids couldn’t understand what I was so happy about.

There were many other ingredients, but that’s a story for another day.

After a while, I flattened the rested dough and cut it into around 3cm (1.2in) squares and pinched the middle so they would form a butterfly shape. This is farfalle pasta, also known as bow-tie or butterfly pasta. It is very easy to make, so I often made it at home.

The maids who had been confused by the mountain of flour and everything else were immediately taken to the cute shape of the farfalle, and busied themselves to happily making more pasta. It seems girls are attracted to cute things no matter where you go. Thanks to their help, we made a lot of farfalle pasta, which I then dropped into boiling water to cook.

Time to make the sauce while the pasta is cooking. I cut the toto and zelana (mock spinach) into a suitable size. I scalded the mallow (mock tomato) to peel off their skin and cut them into around 2cm (0.8in) slices.

I added the toto covered in wheat flour to an oiled pot. Once they looked cooked, I added the zelana and lightly fried that too. Finally I added the mallow in to stew until it began to come apart, and added some salt and pepper to taste. The sauce is done! All that’s left is plating.

Actually, my adding mallow to the pot caused quite a stir among the maids. They were shocked to see me cook a fruit that they usually eat raw. Hearing that, I rushed to taste test the mallow sauce and was relieved that it tasted like a slightly sweeter tomato sauce.

Anyways, I will finally get to eat a proper meal after coming to this world! It’s amazing how moved I am over (pseudo) pasta margherita…

The maids helped me bring the finished pasta to the dining room. Gil and Tasia were already seated and waiting.

“The smell was so good, I simply couldn’t wait~”

“My, I was also led here early by the wonderful smell.”

Nervous and hoping that the excited couple would accept it, I placed the pasta on the table.

I roughly explained the food.

“This is a food called pasta. The butterfly-shaped objects at the bottom are a type of pasta called farfalle, and they are categorized under the noodles I talked about earlier. The sauce on top is a mallow-based sauce with toto and zelana.”

“So this yellowish thing is called pasta?”

“Yes.”

“It’s so pretty! Let’s hurry and try it!”

Although Gil wanted to ask more questions, Tasia seemed more than ready to dig in and shushed him.

Instead of the usual “itadakimasu3” that the Japanese say before eating, people give thanks to the Goddess and the spirits in this world. The two of them rushed through their prayer and excitedly took a bite.

“Delicious!”

The two exclaimed in tandem, and the table fell silent as they continued to eat.

Relieved that they were enjoying it, I also took a bite of the pasta. Mmm, it tastes the same as the pasta margherita with chicken that I always made.

I had only finished half of my plate when Gil and Tasia were completely done. They began giving their thoughts while their mouths were still covered in mallow sauce.

“This is the first time I’ve had something so tasty!”

“The pasta is slightly bouncy in texture, and it goes very well with the sauce. I’ve never had mallow prepared this way, either! It’s positively scrumptious!”

Hearing these exclamations and seeing the satisfied faces on the couple, the maids who had helped in serving couldn’t help but fidget as well.

“We’ll be fine here, go ahead and have some.”

Unable to watch them, Gil urged them to go, and they quickly left the room to eat lunch.

Afterwards, Gil and Tasia would not stop with their admiration and compliments, and I flushed and accepted them humbly. Starting with the maids who ran to try the pasta, the servants also showered me with praises. I was officially appointed as the chef in the Claude family.