BREAKING: KITCHEN CLASH TURNS UP THE HEAT
It seems Carlisle's culinary world is positively aflame this week. A certain sharp-tongued food critic has crossed paths with a most brooding British chef, and my sources assure me the encounter was anything but cordial. Sparks have been spotted, tempers have boiled over, and if the whispers are true, the city’s dining scene is about to serve a dish far hotter than anything on the menu. I trust you can keep a secret… because I’m about to break mine and tell it all.Chloe
Speed dating was an unmitigated disaster. One bloke told me his favourite past time is collecting match boxes, another asked if I’d be up for moving to Milton Keynes immediately. So yes, I may have let my frustrations spill into my latest column. And maybe I was a touch harsh about the lasagne. But I stand by it. What I don’t expect is to walk into the Carlisle Gazette and find an irate chef in our lobby, flinging insults and brandishing the review like it’s a personal attack. He’s tall, intense, and clearly furious, and somehow still manages to smell like a very expensive herb garden.
Tom
The restaurant’s barely staying afloat. Every booking matters. And now some critic has torn apart my signature dish and made my restaurant sound like one of those soulless chains with laminated menus and sad salad bars.
I head to her office to make a point, not a scene, but the second I meet Chloe, all bets are off. She’s maddening. She’s mouthy. And she has no idea what she’s started. This is war. Definitely war. Not flirting. Not even a little.
They’re both stubborn, passionate, and desperate not to admit how much they’re enjoying the fight. But when late-night arguments turn into steamy encounters and the kitchen becomes a playground for more than pasta, it’s clear this feud is about to get very, very messy.
Fair warning: there’s a cheeky dose of adult content inside. Set in England and written in British English.