Julian Thorne woke up with a pounding headache and a foul taste in his mouth.

He rolled over in his king-sized bed, wincing as the morning sunlight pierced through the sheer curtains of his penthouse apartment. Beside him, Serena Croft was still asleep, her blonde hair splayed perfectly across the

"The problem with Julian's duck breast wasn't the duck," Clara said, pacing in front of a massive glass whiteboard. "It was the cherry reduction. He insisted on using a port wine base because it sounded expensive on the menu. But it overpowered the meat. If we swap the port for a tart black plum and

"Read it again," Julian Thorne snapped, his hands gripping the edge of the stainless-steel prep counter so hard his knuckles were white.

Paul, his newly promoted executive sous-chef, swallowed hard. The young man looked terrified, holding an iPad like it was a live grenade. "Chef, I really don't t