Neil Flambé and the Crusader's Curse (3) (The Neil Flambe Capers) - Hardcover

Sylvester, Kevin

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1442442867 ISBN 13: 9781442442863

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2012

Synopsis

The sudden disappearance of Neil’s skills in the kitchen is the real mystery in this culinary caper. Is a curse to blame?

World-class chef—and royal pain in the neck—Neil Flambé is used to serving his dishes to resounding applause and overwhelming approval. And Neil’s super-sensitive nose does more than enable him to cook sophisticated meals and run his own restaurant; it also allows him to help local police solve mysteries in his spare time.
     Then things start going wrong. His plates are returned. A group of critics visit the restaurant and leave completely dissatisfied. Worse yet, Chez Flambé is closed by an order of the Department of Health!
     Suddenly, Neil finds himself amid the cook-off of his life—and his entire reputation is at stake. Then he discovers the root of all his problems: a dark curse that has plagued Flambé chefs for centuries. Has Neil finally met a mess he can’t smell his way out of?

About this title

About the Author:

Kevin Sylvester is an award-winning writer, illustrator, and broadcaster. His books include the MiNRS trilogy and the Neil Flambé series. He lives in Toronto, Ontario. Visit him at KevinSylvesterBooks.com or on Twitter @KevinArts.

 

 

Kevin Sylvester is an award-winning writer, illustrator, and broadcaster. His books include the MiNRS trilogy and the Neil Flambé series. He lives in Toronto, Ontario. Visit him at KevinSylvesterBooks.com or on Twitter @KevinArts.

 

 

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.:

Neil Flambé and the Crusader’s Curse Chapter One

Four and Twenty Thousand
Black Birds

Every night, around dinnertime, all the crows in Vancouver fly east, abandoning downtown for the surrounding suburbs and their hills. It’s an amazing sight, a sky filled with cawing black birds, moving over the houses and parks like an enormous living storm cloud. No one knows for sure why they do this. Some believe they sense night is coming on, and bad things happen in the city at night.

Neil Flambé, on his fifteenth birthday, burst out of the back door of his kitchen and into the alleyway behind his restaurant, Chez Flambé. He was hyperventilating. His eyes were wide with panic. A crow gave a loud caw and Neil glanced toward the sky. As he gulped desperately for air he watched the birds pass over his head, momentarily blocking out the setting sun. He felt a chill run down his spine, but it wasn’t the cool evening air. The dark murder of crows seemed to match his mood perfectly.

Neil took a deep breath and tried to calm down. He could hear the Soba twins back in the kitchen calling in more dinner orders. Neil shook as his sense of rising panic returned. He prided himself on running the kitchen like a finely tuned clock, but it didn’t take long for orders to back up—one more disaster he couldn’t deal with right now. The crows continued to stream overhead. His foot tingled. Maybe he could just run away? No. Yes. What was going on? “Calm down!” he yelled at himself.

His birthday had not gone well. He’d gotten into fights with his girlfriend, Isabella; his cousin, Larry; and his mentor, Angel. Of course, that wasn’t so different from an ordinary day. But what had just happened was so shocking he could scarcely believe it.

The first group of customers had arrived early for their dinners at the grand reopening of the newly (and expensively) renovated Chez Flambé. They’d arrived to new tables, new engraved silverware, new linen, new dishes, and wonderful food.

Neil had cooked and served them a dozen of his latest creations, perfectly balanced and chosen for the occasion: mouthwatering mushroom risottos, succulent zucchini flowers stuffed with ricotta cheese and fried in olive oil, perfect pesto and Manchego cheese pizzas. He’d even allowed himself a smile at the thought of the compliments that would soon come flooding back through his gleaming stainless steel kitchen doors.

Instead, what had come back to the kitchen were at least half of the plates.

The customers had sent their dinners back.

Neil had to say it out loud to himself again now to actually believe it. “They sent their dinners back. They sent my dinners back.”

Amber and Zoe, his twin waitresses, had barely whispered the complaints.

“Too salty.”

“Too sweet.”

“Something tastes off.”

“Tastes like a can.”

“Over-seasoned.”

What? These dishes were prepared by Neil Flambé, not some hack with a hot plate! Neil had sniffed each dish closely. His incredible sense of smell—his secret weapon in the kitchen—had told him that his dishes were exactly as he had intended them. He even stuck his wooden spoon into the risotto and scooped out a huge mouthful.

It was, as he expected, sublime. “Those idiots must be drunk,” Neil said.

“I thought the customer was always right,” Neil’s cousin, Larry, called back from the sink where he was busy washing some carrots and zucchini.

“I thought the sous-chef was always quiet,” Neil shot back.

“Yes, chef.” Larry sighed and turned his attention back to the vegetables.

Still, Neil had to admit Larry had a point. Customers paid his bills, and those bills were huge. Neil gritted his teeth. “Tell them I’ll send a fresh order out ASAP,” he hissed to the twins.

Neil prepared the dishes exactly as he had the time before, sniffing at each tiny step to be certain that the dish was up to his exacting standard. The twins carried out the dishes with Neil’s assurance that they were perfect.

About this edition

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 1442442867
• ISBN 13: 9781442442863
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 304
• Illustrator: Sylvester Kevin