"Right … " Lou says, screwing his eyes up skeptically. "But you want to build a restaurant, not just sell local fruits and vegetables. You can do that at a farmers' market."
"Yes," I say, still grasping at straws as my nerves go into overdrive. "But those are just the ingredients, the foundation for the menu. See, the problem is that most restaurants here don't celebrate what's great about this place. If you walk into any nice restaurant in the city you'll find caviar from Iran, imported stracchino, kobe beef from Japan-all prepared according to recipes the French and Italian invented."
"I don't know," Andre says, laughing. "Caviar and Italian cheese sounds pretty good to me!"
"Wait," Lou interrupts, even more concerned now, "is this going to be some kind of farm-to-table, organic food thing then? Because that doesn't sound very exciting. We've seen plenty of that around here."
"No," Tony says quickly. "This is nothing like those quasi-healthy fast food quinoa joints."
"Actually, the local organic thing isn't too far from it," I say, ignoring the look of panic now on Tony's face. "I only cook with ingredients I like. And that means stuff that's sustainable, fresh. Not frozen in the back of a truck for a two thousand mile trip."
Tony shakes his head at me, then quickly turns his attention back to the investors.
"The organic food thing is just a base-level thing. It's not the selling point! The selling point is the fact that we're the best chefs in the state. Our menu's gonna be … innovative."
Andre and Lou look at each other and laugh as if we're putting on entertainment.
"Really now?" Lou says.
"Yeah," I say, getting a little irritated and somehow gaining confidence in the process. "It is. And we are."
Seeing the sincerity in my face, and hearing the firm confidence in my voice, both of their smiles fade immediately.
"I've worked in the best places in the city," Tony says. "I'm not some naïve debutante-I know exactly what our competition is because I've cooked with most of them. And I'm telling you we can blow them out of the water. You've heard of Knife, yes?"
///
"Sure," Lou says. "Cole Chambers, right? We've been there a couple of times. The place is flawless."
"Then you've already tried Willow's food, probably," Tony says with a poker hand smile. "She's one of the best chefs there. Sure, Cole Chambers is the pretty face at the front, the guy who takes the credit, but who do you think is actually cooking the food in the back?" Tony points a sly finger in my direction. "And let me tell you, she's given him more than a few ideas, too."
Now I'm the one looking at Tony like he's crazy. What is he talking about? I didn't even tell him about the Basque burgers …
His bluff seems to work though, as Andre and Lou exchange a glance, uncertain of how to take us, no more entertained laughs now. Lou clears his throat, wringing his hands.
"I'm not really seeing it still. It's gonna be high-class like Knife, but it's gonna have organic, local food? It's gonna compete with Michelin starred restaurants but it's not gonna have things like caviar on the menu?"
"Fine," I say, smiling as if I care much less than I really do. "If you wanna do the whole ‘bourgeois, faux-European dining experience' thing then there are a thousand chefs that could do that for you. You wanna make a restaurant that's just like Knife? Just like a dozen other places in the city? Go ahead. But don't be surprised if people still choose to eat at Knife."
"Right," Tony says, pointing at me, strength in his voice now as he finds his angle. "We're gonna do something totally unique, totally different. And we're gonna do it so well that you'll never want to eat caviar again."
"Imagine this," I cut in. "You go to dinner at Knife, where you stand in line for forty minutes before getting seated at a cramped corner table where you spend the next two hours in the dark just so you can have the ‘privilege' of eating a teaspoon of overpriced imported caviar and a miniature steak drowning in heavy sauce, with-of all things-fried potatoes on the side. You go home, you feel heavy. You feel like you overpaid. And the worst thing is: You're still hungry."
Lou nods gravely and Andre rubs his chin thoughtfully. I feel like a total jerk throwing Cole's restaurant under the bus like this, but sometimes you have to exaggerate things to get your point across.