When asked what he hopes to do in the next year Riddle says that he would like to get better at cooking, having recently realized “how much room (he has) to grow in that arena.”
Riddle explains being impressed by a lunch that Trey made from what he had been able to find in a refrigerator:
“For me cooking has always meant deciding what to make, then gathering ingredients and following a recipe step by step…It made me realize that memorizing recipes is not enough. I need to get more experience. One day, when I’ve left my home and dorm behind, I imagine I’ll find myself living alone, and will need to cook for myself. If I can avoid wasting ingredients, I’ll have less shopping to do as well. So, to temper my cooking skills, I plan to be a regular participant in the Culinary Crucible.”
We Riddle participating in the Culinary Crucible (Master Chef) course, where he is assigned cabbage rolls. As the recipe does not specify what size of leaf to use he considered cutting it into a handkerchief-sized square, and then condors arranging the leaves by weight in grams, as they are not all the same thickness.
He also asks a chef ghost what volume of water to use for parboiling, and tries to measure the meat he minces to a width of 1 to 2 millimeters with a ruler. When asked why he signed up for the course Riddle says, “I figured that a housewarden should be the best at both academics AND cooking.That and…it makes sense to get a head start on living independently. Better still if it rewards both money and experience.”
Silver says that he joined the Master Chef course because Riddle invited him, saying, “Cooking requires constant focus. Perhaps it would instill some discipline and help you fix your dozing habit.”
Riddle’s eyes begin to tear up when he chops onions and he asks Silver, “How do I make it stop?!,” only ro then rub his eyes and make it worse.
Riddle insists on preparing the filling of his cabbage rolls in equally sized portions but a ghost chef tells him, that, once he is done, he will not be able to tell them apart. When asked about his takeaways from the event Riddle says, “I memorized the recipe front to back, but I still got stumped at several points when it was time to go hands-on…It made me realize that some things, you have to develop a feel for through experience.”
Silver says, “I guess even an ace academic like you still needs lots of training when it comes to mastering the ins and outs of cooking,” and Riddle responds, “Even beyond cooking, there are plenty of things in this world beyond the limited aggregate of my experience. Today was a good reminder to stay humble.”
Malleus is Riddle’s judge, and his initial observation is, “They vary quite greatly in size. These two are so lopsided next to each other, it’s like a parent and their tottering child.” (Riddle: “Your assessment is as biting as it is accurate, I’m afraid.”)
Malleus describes the cabbage rolls as “edible,” but then adds, “This is a meal prepared by Riddle, the student with the highest marks in the entire sophomore class. I was prepared to be blown away by a masterful display of technique. But the flavor and plating are both entirely pedestrian. Perhaps I expected too much.”
Riddle thanks Malleus for his “honest feedback” and declares, “One day, 1, Riddle Rosehearts, will reign supreme as the finest cook on campus!”
In a vignette where Trey catches a cold after going on an errand for Riddle, Riddle decides to make a soup to help soothe his symptoms (“If I don’t do something to help, my competence as a dorm leader will be called into question”).
Riddle meets with Lilia in the library who tells him that “Mild, cold-busting soups are so simple to make that cookbooks never bother detailing them,” and volunteers to teach Riddle how to make one, but the advice he provides is adding four spoonfuls of soup stock per cup of water and adding foods that Riddle likes, such as strawberry tarts, bananas, and yogurt (Riddle: “You put that in soup…?”).
Riddle concedes that “it IS important to maximize nutrient absorption,” but describes the final product as “giving off a rather…pungent odor.”
Riddle presets his soup to Trey, who tastes it immediately, and later says that he ate the entire batch. (Riddle: “…You’re an utter fool, you know that?”)
Riddle tells Jamil about struggling in a potionology class where Riddle explains that no one in his class had been able to brew certain potion successfully, as “at the last stage, no matter how hard you stir, the ingredients stop mixing together entirely. Instead, they separated very quickly.”
The solution is revealed to be a process used in cooking: emulsification. Jamil explains, “It clicked for me the moment Riddle said the components weren’t mixing. They weren’t being properly emulsified. That’s a common mistake for beginner chefs.”
Riddle goes to Silver for help with peeling onions during the Master Chef event, but Silver explains, “You just peel them by hand.” Riddle responds, “That’s…not what I was asking. It’s hard for me to tell how much of the onion is the outer skin…So just remove the brown parts? I’d rather not leave divots in it like some kind of barbarian.”
Riddle is also confused by cooking during the NBC event: when Sally explains adding “a spritz” of frog’s breath he replies, “How much is a ‘spritz,’ exactly?!…The point of a recipe is to be reliably reproducible. How would one even measure the volume of a gaseous substance? Wouldn’t that mean results that differ by each individual frog?”
Idia observes, “I wasn’t expecting the taskmaster to be so singularly bad in the kitchen.”
Riddle has a voice line of, “Tell Riddle to add a smidge and he dumps in spoonful after spoonful. What is his deal?,” while Riddle says, “I enjoy mixing chemicals. Unlike cooking, all components must be added in precise amounts,” and, “I may study potionology, but don’t expect much from my cooking. I am trying to improve, at least.”
Riddle also says, “When something says ‘a suitable amount,’ how much is suitable? Shouldn’t they be specific?,” while Silver has a voice line of, “I knew Riddle was meticulous, but I wasn’t expecting him to get up in arms over a tenth of a gram.”
Twisted Wonderland Reference Note 