Chapter 29: Pizza

Chapter 29:
Pizza

There wasn’t a single soul in the royal capital who didn’t know the name Sirius Alfade, the next in line to inherit the Alfade Company. His father, of course, was the current head of the Alfade Company, while his mother came from an affluent family of nobles. So while Sirius was the next in line to inherit the business, he was also a genuine nobleman with the blood of his parents running through his veins.

When he was born, the Alfade Company had already earned the position of purveyor to the king and the castle. Before Sirius grew out of infancy, his uncles were sent to the empire and the duchy to start up branches of the business there, eventually leading the company to further success.

It was about half a year ago that Thomas, his grandfather and the “Restorer of the Alfade Company,” revealed to him a very surprising secret.

For many years, over twenty in fact, Thomas had kept this secret close to his chest, hiding the existence of a certain restaurant that one could describe as the savior of his family’s business. Thomas entrusted the door to that place to his grandson, Sirius.

At first, the young nobleman was positively stunned. As the heir to his family’s business, Sirius had dealt in all kinds of food products. But even he was shocked by just how many unknown foods the restaurant had to offer. Perhaps even more stunning was that they were all delicious. He unabashedly smacked his lips at the meals on offer, never failing to enjoy himself.

And that’s when it hit him. If the Alfade Company further “stole” the flavors on offer at the restaurant, it could advance their world’s culinary techniques even further. However, Sirius was also aware that he wasn’t the only one thinking along these lines.

There was the info gathered from the various Alfade Company locations around the world, and then there was the info that Sirius gathered himself with his own eyes and ears at the Restaurant to Another World. By combining those two networks, it was much easier to see the bigger picture.

He had heard word that an extremely talented, young high priestess in the church of the Lord of Light, the largest of all religions on the Eastern Continent, had established a convent. According to the rumors, in said convent was a priest-in-training with almost zero talent for the job outside of being able to bake delicious bread. Meanwhile, in the restaurant, Sirius frequently crossed paths with a high priestess of the Lord of Light who always brought her female disciples with her to enjoy some pound cake.

Sirius had also heard tales about the Sand Nation from the Western Continent, who had just made inroads with the empire after sending an envoy over. This guest presented them with something called cafa, a drink that was magically cooled and greatly resembled the coffee of the other world. In the restaurant, Sirius often spotted a pair of noble Sand Nation siblings who couldn’t get enough of coffee floats.

Sirius had also heard rumors of the new, deliciously strong whiskey the dwarves had developed. The Alfade Company was still trying to figure out how to reproduce this drink. Meanwhile, in the restaurant, Sirius noted the presence of two rowdy dwarf men who always seemed to be talking about booze.

Indeed, there were a handful of people in Thomas’s world who had the same idea as he. Sirius knew better than anyone that if they put real effort into making those ideas a reality, they would undoubtedly bear fruit. That’s why he couldn’t afford to sit on his butt and watch.

And so, Sirius began to act. He began by doing the one thing Thomas was unable to do before the Alfade Company grew in size, mostly for fear of his secret getting out.

With the Alfade Company now one of the most reputable in all the Kingdom, Sirius had a single, close friend who was exactly what he needed for this mission. It was because of their current situation that this was a trump card he could use.

***

“Young Master, could you please tell me what’s going on?”

Jonathan, one of the Alfade Company’s young chefs, asked Sirius for answers.

“I have something important to talk to you about. Could you do me a huge favor and just quietly follow me, Jonathan?” That was all Sirius told him before leading him to the Alfade Company’s old storage space. There were plenty of large storage spaces in the area these days, so the old one was barely used. Why was Sirius dragging Jonathan here? the chef wondered.

“…All right. It’s about time,” Sirius muttered.

He entered the storage space, and after making sure they were alone, called out to Jonathan. “Today, you and I are going to grab a bite to eat together.”

“…I’m not sure I’m following you.” Jonathan tilted his head in confusion.

Jonathan’s father was a valued member of the Alfade Company, responsible for helping invent all manner of new products. Growing up, since he and the heir to the company, Sirius, were close in age, they’d gotten along well. Up until he became a chef like his father, he recalled running all around the royal capital as kids.

But he couldn’t recall a single time Sirius had ever invited him to a meal. Sure, they’d eaten together at various stands and restaurants while on business trips, but he’d never formally been invited anywhere. And now, when Jonathan finally did get an invitation, it was to an old storage area? What was Sirius playing at?

“Look, if nothing else, I have no intention of going to eat there with anyone other than you,” Sirius explained.

“What do you mean by ‘there’?”

Sirius decided to tell Jonathan the whole truth. The secret that only Sirius and his grandfather knew up until this point.

“As far as I know, it’s a place not of our world. But they serve the most delicious foods…”

Within the storage space appeared a black door with a cat illustration on it. What lay beyond it was the very restaurant that helped the Alfade Company become such a massive business over the years.

“The Restaurant to Another World.”

That day, Jonathan Weinsberg became the third man in the company to become aware of the door’s existence.

***

Jonathan felt like he had been slapped in the face as he stepped through the door, heard the bells ringing, and exited the dark storage space only to reemerge in a brightly lit room.

“Young Master, is this really another world? Wait, wha…?!”

As Jonathan surveyed the restaurant, his eyes met a lizardman’s as the creature dug into a giant plate of some sort of egg dish. He screamed.

“Don’t worry. Some of the customers here are monster folk, but they’ll do you no harm.” Sirius thought back on when he first started frequenting the restaurant and quietly laughed to himself. He led his friend to an empty table.

“Welcome,” he said.

It didn’t take long for the master to appear and quietly place down a menu on the table in front of them. These days, Sirius frequented the restaurant rather often. He typically asked for a dish of spaghetti Neapolitan, along with a dish he’d yet to try. The master seemed well aware of this, so he wasted no time bringing a menu, some lemon water, and a moist towel.

“Thank you very much.” Sirius took the menu as usual but gently placed it off to the side. “But actually, I already know what I’m ordering today.”

He spoke his order aloud.

“I’d like two orders of onion and bacon pizza. One for me and one for my friend here, please.”

“You got it.” The master nodded and retreated to the back.

“What’s this onion and bacon pizza thing you just ordered?” asked Jonathan.

Once the master left, Jonathan asked Sirius for an explanation, as the heir to the Alfade Company cleaned his hands with one of the warm towels. Quite frankly, the chef had no idea what to expect.

“You’ll understand as soon as you take a bite. I know you will.” Sirius responded with the smile of a child who was plotting something.

I suppose asking him to describe food from another world was silly in the first place, Jonathan thought.

Jonathan followed Sirius’s example and began cleaning his hands, thinking back on everything that had happened so far. This place was probably in another world, just as the young master described.

First of all, the restaurant was filled with the sort of customers you would never see even in the biggest city on the continent. The internal decor was comprised of objects that completely defied Jonathan’s understanding. On top of all that, there were customers that were clearly not from the capital. If anything, calling this another world was the only way to explain it all.

Wow, this water has some sort of citrus mixed into it, doesn’t it?

Jonathan absentmindedly took a sip from the glass of ice water while he was lost in thought. He found his mouth filled with refreshingly easy-to-drink ice water and immediately understood something. If this were the sort of classy service this restaurant’s master provided without being asked, he was clearly more talented than your average chef.

Of course he is. If the young master Sirius comes here regularly, he must be good.

Jonathan’s childhood friend was the heir to a massive company that dealt in all manner of food products within the royal capital. He tasted a variety of different foods made by the Alfade Company’s most talented chefs on a daily basis. There was little doubt that Sirius’s palate was more discerning than even royalty’s. That left little room for doubt. The chef here had to be immensely talented and the food incredibly delicious.

With that in mind, Jonathan waited with Sirius for the pizza thing to arrive.

“Sorry for the wait!” It didn’t take long for a young demon girl to come out with a large plate in hand. “Here are your onion bacon pizzas!”

Is this bread with some sort of cheese topping?

The freshly baked food in front of him sizzled quietly as he took a good, long look at it. Covering the entirety of the plate was a round flatbread, stretched wide and cut into six pieces. A red sauce was spread across the top, likely made through crushing some type of red vegetable, along with thinly cut pieces of oranie. But the toppings didn’t end there. The surface of the bread was covered with a layer of cheese, meats, and minced greens.

“Let’s eat, shall we? Pizza is best when it’s still hot.”

And with that, Sirius began digging in. Instead of using a knife and fork, he grabbed a piece of the pizza with his bare hands. This was apparently the correct way to eat this particular dish.

I wonder what it tastes like…

Meanwhile, Jonathan found himself a bit lost when faced with the unknown dish in front of him. Sirius told him he’d understand everything once he took a bite, which meant there was only one clear path for the young chef to take. He reached down and grabbed one of the six slices of pizza.

Hm, it’s quite hot.

It was indeed as freshly baked as it looked. Jonathan watched as the melted cheese stretched and pulled away as he picked up the slice. It was so hot he feared he might burn his fingers. He narrowed his eyebrows at the thing in front of him.

I see. It doesn’t smell bad at all. Wait, this is…?!

A lovely aroma was emanating from the so-called pizza. It was the scent of the cheese and bacon juices melting together. But amidst this medley of scents, Jonathan caught a whiff of something that made him tilt his head ever so slightly.

Never mind. I’m sure it’ll all be made clear once I give it a try.

While he found himself puzzled over the faint fragrance of something that seemed out of place, Jonathan nonetheless brought the slice of pizza to his mouth and took a bite.

Hm?! I knew it!

It was an orchestra of flavors. There was the sharp taste of the melted cheese, the carefully cooked, high-quality meat, the very mild spiciness of the oranie… Then there were the minced greens sprinkled on top with their unique bitterness.

But that wasn’t all. The base of the dish, a thin bread of some kind, was baked in such a way that the surface was nice and crusty, but the inside was fluffy and welcoming. Made with high quality wheat, salt, and water, the bread had a simple and light flavor to it that supported the main actors of the dish.

What surprised Jonathan the most, however, was something else entirely.

“Young Master! This… It’s marmett sauce, is it not?!”

Indeed. In the layer between the topmost ingredients and the bottom crust was what appeared to be marmett sauce, with its slightly bitter yet incredibly delicious flavor. The sauce made from the very vegetable that the Alfade Company had discovered in a small country and worked so hard to be able to harvest within the Kingdom.

This pizza dish used marmett for its sauce, a vegetable still widely unknown outside of those who worked at the Alfade Company.

“Indeed. Apparently, it’s called ‘tomato’ in this world, but yes. This dish utilizes marmett as its primary ingredient.”

Sirius nodded to his friend as though he had been waiting for this very moment. As a chef of the Alfade Company, he’d fully believed Jonathan’s clever tongue would be able to recognize the key ingredient of the dish. He had been correct in bringing the chef here.

“I’ll explain my intentions later, but first, let’s enjoy our meal,” the young man said to his friend, who clearly looked ready and excited to begin his research right away.

“Y-yeah, sure.” Jonathan could do nothing but nod his head and reach for the next slice.

He must’ve peeled the marmett after steeping it in boiled water, then crushed it… No, the process had to have been more complicated than that.

Jonathan, a world-class chef in his own right, could barely conceal his surprise as he tried analyzing the pizza with every bite he took. The base was very similar to the meat sauce he had helped develop in their world. They had created it by preparing boiled and peeled marmetts in a variety of different ways, producing an intensely flavorful sauce. Even for someone as talented as Jonathan, reproducing or surpassing this flavor would require an immense amount of time and research.

And who would have thought one could use bread like this!

The concept of using bread in place of a plate had existed for a long time. But the idea of placing the ingredients atop the bread and cooking them all together at the same time was completely new. Now that Jonathan had seen it in action, he understood why it was effective. By cooking everything together, the bread and ingredients fused in perfect harmony. The thin, crunchy, middle layer would be infused by the flavors of the sauce and ingredients, while the outer, thicker layer would taste strongly of wheat. Both were delicious in their own different ways. The bread wasn’t just a bonus, but rather a core component of the dish.

If I can do some research on this back at the company… Oh, I see.

As Jonathan continued eating, he realized Sirius’s intentions; the true goal.

“Young Master, I’m sorry. Before I could really get a feel for its flavor, I ended up finishing my serving. Do you think I could order another?”

“But of course. That’s why I brought you here. Um, Aletta? Could you get my friend here another onion bacon pizza? I’ll have my usual Neapolitan, thank you.” Sirius chuckled at his friend, who had finally figured it out, and placed their second order with the waitress passing by. A fresh pizza for Jonathan, and his personal favorite dish that had the meat sauce that surpassed even his grandfather’s famous work.

“Absolutely! Thank you very much!” The waitress responded with a bright smile as the two young men continued their meal…no, their research.

***

“That pizza stuff really is quite astounding.”

Jonathan accompanied his thoughts with a sigh after the two men returned to the Alfade Company’s old storage space.

By the end of the meal, Jonathan had eaten not one, but three full onion bacon pizzas. His stomach bulged painfully, but he made it a point to memorize the flavor remaining on his tongue. In fact, he was ready to begin his research that very moment.

“Right? The fact that you can mix and match the ingredients means it can be adjusted for all manner of situations. But I also love that it can’t exist without the marmett sauce in the first place,” Sirius replied to his friend.

While there were all sorts of delicious sauces made from marmetts, the vegetable itself was still relatively unknown, even within the Kingdom. The Alfade Company was the only organization that had easy access to the food, so, in other words, if the citizens of the Kingdom came to know and love marmett the same way Sirius and his grandfather had, the sky was the limit for the Alfade Company.

That’s why the first dish Sirius chose for his friend Jonathan was the pizza. A brand-new recipe courtesy of a new world with all sorts of potential applications. If they could perfect this recipe, they’d have a dish on their hands that could become a showstopper for the next generation of the Alfade Company, replacing the knight sauce entirely. Sirius truly saw that level of potential in pizza.

“By the way, Young Master. About that restaurant…” Jonathan looked at his friend with expectant eyes. He already knew that if he wanted to use that door, he at least needed the permission of the man in front of him.

Sirius grinned at his friend. “Yes, I’ll definitely take you back sometime soon. Though it should be said that we can only go there once every seven days.”

Jonathan was one of the Alfade Company’s best chefs: young but highly trained and capable. Perhaps more importantly, he would never betray Sirius. Due to the rapid growth of the Alfade Company, it had many enemies. That made loyalty like Jonathan’s all the harder to come by. Sirius knew that revealing the company’s secret to him wouldn’t be a mistake.

“Thank you very much.” Jonathan bowed his head, unable to hide the smile on his face.

I bet there’s all sorts of delicious foods over there! Sorry, but I’m gonna soak in every bit of knowledge I can!

Jonathan hardened his resolve, all the while thinking back to the delicious-looking pasta dish filled with marmett sauce that his friend had eaten before his very eyes.