Elena was a girl with one hobby she was great at, she was a great chef. This wasn’t a god given talent or anything, it came from hours and hours of work and perfecting her dishes. Finally, one day, there was an announcement at school about a food fair where all the students could participate and the stall which raised most money would get a special gift from the school apart from the money its occupants earned and the stall with the most creative dishes would receive the same gift with a cash prize of fifty pounds apiece. Of course, Elena was ecstatic. At least something she could get her teeth into! There was one major problem though, it wasn’t individual. You had to collaborate with another two people to make a group of three, and Elena didn’t exactly have a couple of friends who liked cooking and were good at it too. Bigger problem - Those who couldn’t find their own partners were partnered with other interested people at random. How much ever Elena begged her teachers to make an exception for her, to let her have an individual stall, they wouldn’t; rules were rules, they said and regrettably, they couldn’t be changed for only one girl however good she was.
Elena’s food was great though, her speciality was desserts: cheesecake, brownie, truffles, chocolates, pastries, biscuits, ice cream, cookies, you name it. She could make them all. The moment she got home, she began checking through her recipes to find at least three that would suit, and perhaps a couple drinks, maybe hot chocolate and coffee, people loved hot stuff like this during the winter. After a lot of contemplation, she decided on three desserts: Classic fudgy brownie, Chocolate chip cookies with a chewy centre, and a burnt basque cheesecake. People would love those, and also confirmed her choice of hot chocolate and strong coffee, she decided that she was definitely not serving any alcoholic drinks in such a place where kids as young as five were sure to visit. She was all set to win the prize of the most successful fair, but there was just one flea in the ointment, and it was her partners. She had been hoping for a British kid at least but ended up with the worst two, or so she thought. An Indian girl, Prisha, and a Japanese girl Sakura were to be her partners. Cursing under her breath and muttering about what bad luck that she had got these two, she unenthusiastically went to greet them. ‘Hi’ she said with only a smile that looked like it was on her face only for the sake of politeness, but the response was considerably warmer. Both the asian girls smiled broadly and Prisha said, “So we’re to be partners! I hope we’ll all have some good fun in this” with Sakura nodding her agreement to this, both girls still looking at Elena, who said looking appraisingly at them, “Yeah, I hope so too. I hope both of you have planned what you’re going to make, because I want to start as soon as possible”.
She expected both of them to apologise and say that they hadn’t and she’d get an opportunity to yell at them and shut them to one side and do most of it herself. What she didn’t expect, was for both of them to look at each other, smile and for Sakura to say, “Of course we have! We have a detailed plan of what we want, I’ve drawn what I’d like the stall to look like, and Prisha had added to them. We’ve also decided our recipes, and have started making trial batches. I’m making ramen, tayaki, sushi, mochi, dango and boba tea. And Prisha has given me what she’s making, it will be more heavy vegetarian main course stuff. Here’s the list of what both of us are making, these are for you to keep for records, we already have each other’s list copies.”
Taking two chits of paper from her pocket, Sakura handed both to Elena who was feeling slightly stupid. She had planned to be the leader of this, and sidelining these two as much as possible, and expected them to be underprepared, but ironically, she was the one who was underprepared. As it was, these lists were very well made, Sakura had already said what was on hers, so there was no need to look again, but Prisha’s made her jaw drop. Here was her, pretending she knew all about Indian food, having gone to a restaurant and having tried butter chicken, but this list was full of things Elena didn’t recognise: ‘Palak Paneer and chapati, Paneer paratha, Dosa with chutney, Bhel puri, Pani Puri’, she read out aloud slowly, looking slightly confused, but she knew enough to see that this was brilliant. After the names of the food or drink, there was a description Both these girls couldn’t have had more than two hours notice, where they had classes going on too, and yet had been so efficient and organised. “Um, not really” she said, looking slightly embarrassed, “But I’ll give it to you by tomorrow. I’m making desserts, brownie, chocolate chip cookies and burnt Basque cheesecake along with coffee and hot chocolate which I’m planning to make with white and milk chocolate and cinnamon for taste and use homemade marshmallows.”
This was a lie. Elena hadn’t planned anything of the sort for the hot chocolate, but now thought that might be a good idea for it was certainly a novelty. You only got classic hot chocolate at most shops and none of them of great quality. Maybe, she thought, smiling bit more broadly now, It might not actually be so bad to be in a group with these two, they might be great for all she knew, and this might just put them in the running for the mos unique stall as well! She now couldn’t wait for school to get over and get home and make a detailed plan of her own to share the next day.

The rest of school seemed to drag on for way too long for Elena was itching to check her recipes at home and create the stall plan. Most teachers made allowances for this excitement as they understood that the fair was coming up and people would love to visit it or set up stalls and were bursting with ideas, but not Mrs. Beaver. She for some reason didn’t like Elena even though she was a good student and always polite. She scolded Elena for tapping her pen on the table or shaking her legs or fiddling with her stationery, but turned a blind eye to most of the others who were doing the same. Elena was glad when that class got over and almost ran to the bus, bumping into a dozen people on the way, and apologising each time.
The moment she got home, she raced to her room, and checked the white chocolate and cinnamon hot chocolate recipe. It was bit more complex than the normal hot chocolate recipe but surely she could manage this. The marshmallows were also not difficult to make, she could make them very fluffy and delicious and would taste excellent with the hot chocolate. She took out three chits of paper and copied out what all she was making, including a picture of each of the dishes for she guessed maybe they might not know what a burnt Basque cheesecake was or how her cookies looked like. Prisha and Sakura hadn’t asked her to do this, but she would anyway. She decided to draw the stall as a very British stall at first, like a traditional teashop but thought better of it later. Her partners weren’t British, they were Asian, and would like some of their county’s culture to be imbibed into the decor of the stall. It couldn’t be all British classic, they’d probably not say anything but might be annoyed or even offended if the stall was plain British. ‘Ok fine’ she thought, ‘I’ll add some banana leaves and Indian pictures to represent India as well as some bamboo decor and a simplistic design for Japanese traditional style. These two would like that’.
Finally, after a lot of thought, she had a finished plan. The stall would be split into three different areas without a barrier, but a change in decoration. One side would be beige and brown like a traditional British teashop, the middle would be Indian style and the one at the opposite side would be like a traditional Japanese shop. This would look good, she decided, no one could say their stall was found wanting in any way. She was just putting the finishing touches on her drawing when there came a knock on her door. It was her new friend and neighbour Esme. “Hi Lena!”, she said, ”What’s that? Surely you’re not taking up drawing as a hobby now? I thought you were more interested in cooking. By the way, did you hear about the food fair? Apparently your school, mine and around six others are participating in groups of three. Are you?”
Elena smiled. Esme was really charming. “Why yes!” She replied, “How about you? Are you participating with some of your schoolmates? I am, and we’re nearly done!” She said, tucking the recipe lists and drawing into her schoolbag. She unfortunately didn’t notice Esme’s eyes following this, looking very interested. They chatted together for some time about the competition telling each other of their ideas. Elena described her whole plan to Esme and Esme didn’t have any idea yet but wished her good luck while leaving the room and muttered, thinking Elena couldn’t hear, ’you’re going to need it’. After Esme had left, Elena mentally went through all the new information Esme had given her. You were allowed to choose partners from other participating schools too, provided you made a group of three, you had to have a menu of minimum five items, customer service, efficiency and food quality carried points to award the best stall, not just who earned the most (the rules had been changed) and duplicate stalls were strictly forbidden. Any duplicate set up, the better one would be selected there and the other would be disqualified. Now that Esme had left, Elena felt a bit uneasy about giving her full details of her plan. She could be copying it.
No, no, that was silly, she tried to convince herself, ‘She’s my friend and wouldn’t do such a despicable thing and get me disqualified’ but a slight doubt hung on. Firmly pushing this to the back of her mind, she turned on her computer and engrossed herself in writing a letter to Prisha and Sakura, asking them to send their plans and sent hers and her recipe list would be given the next day at school. She also sent that she’d be preparing a sample batch of two of the dishes and asked them to do the same. Then they could check if all of them liked it, and also ask a few of their other friends for their feedback so they could get the menu perfect by the date of the fair. The moment she finished this, she walked down into the kitchen and busied herself with making a mini size of a burnt Basque cheesecake that could be served hot, a few chocolate chip cookies and a chocolate brownie with small chunks of dark chocolate in the dough. This would be delicious, she knew it.
After a long wait of an hour, they were ready. They tasted as good as any professional could have made: the brownie was perfectly fudge and struck the perfect balance between bitter and sweet, the cheesecake had a nice caramelised taste and was so creamy and the cookies were chewy in the centre and crunchy on the outside. She planned to take these to school the next day, and her teammates would be happy with her and she’d get to try out their dishes too.

The next day began well at school. Prisha and Sakura greeted her happily in the morning, saying they saw their letter and they’d share the dishes and plans in the lunch break. It was still boring to wait through class, but she managed it, though she thought that Mrs. Beaver had a satisfied smile on her face while looking at her. ‘Still’, she comforted herself, ’She can’t have done anything that bad, well, maybe cut a couple extra marks in my exam paper, but she can’t do anything to sabotage my plans in the food fair, that is going to be a great event’, she thought, smiling to herself. The next class after that would be games, and she’d be able to burn off some of her impatience or excitement to show her team mates her food and taste theirs. After a long half hour of playing a very energetic game of basketball with her classmates, it was finally lunch, and Elena set up her lunchbox next to the boxes which had her samples inside, reserving two places for the other two. ‘Sorry we’re late’ said Sakura, arriving with Prisha ten minutes later, “We would have come early, but our teacher for some reason chose us to clear up the class, yes, clear up a mess we certainly didn’t make!”, she exclaimed with a touch of indignation. “Don’t you worry about that”, said Elena, “You’ve got the food right? Cuz I want to try it”, looking at the few boxes they had brought. She opened one of their boxes and looked at it, it looked like spinach curry with tofu and was about to drink it like soup when Prisha cried out, “Wait! Are you crazy? No one eats that just like that, we eat it by taking some of the vegetable in the chapati, here” she said, opening another box that seemed full of tortillas, only darker. Prisha demonstrated and Elena and Sakura copied her. This was delicious! Who thought spinach would be so tasty? She really wanted to try some more but it appeared that this was Prisha’s lunch, and she had to finish most of it herself. They then tried Sakura’s ramen and mochi. The ramen was delicious! Spicy, but not too much, just in the right measure. The egg was so perfectly cooked too, and the broth and noodles were both delicious. This time she could finish a whole bowl herself for Sakura had brought three bowls of ramen. The mocha was in three flavours, and apparently Sakura wanted them to choose one. They were all so chewy with one having a centre of red bean paste, one of sweet mango pieces, and the last of a scoop of ice cream. It was so hard to choose, but in the end, she decided, “They’re all amazing, but the ice cream one is the best. People will love to have cold things in the summer fair, and will be tired of walking round and round and round the place. “
Finally, it was time for her dish, sorry dishes, to be tried. When she opened her boxes though, they were all empty! This was shocking! Who would even dare to be mean enough to the extent of stealing others’ food? She watched the looks of disappointment and annoyance on the other two girls’ faces. Prisha remarked, “You know Elena, if you didn’t want to make anything, just say so. There is absolutely no need for this drama. We both put so much effort into making our dishes and you haven’t even made one? Were’ really disappointed, we thought you were better than this”. “But-“ Elena remarked but it was of no use, Prisha and Sakura had already picked up their belongings and walked away. How could she explain that her food had disappeared? She was certain very few people would believe her.
‘It’s not fair’, she thought bitterly, ‘I put more effort than either of them expected, and the result was so good, but now I can’t even show them. Curses to the mean beast who did this, now the fair is not going to go that well at all with those two turned against me and thinking I’m either irresponsible or lazy or both’. Saying so, she attacked her food partly for she was actually hungry and partly because she was so angry that tears came into her eyes, which she blinked back. After all, It was not nice at all to get a big disappointment when you had worked hard and put so much energy and time into something, so that was understandable. Completely understandable. ‘But who?’ Elena thought in misery, ‘Who would do such a thing?’
She had thought she might have imagined the satisfied expression on Mrs. Beaver’s face in the morning, but in her class after lunch, it was confirmed that she was not. She was smiling broadly and it was plainly not for friendliness, kindness or even politeness. It seemed like she had got something she wanted, something that might have hurt another person for her own interests……
Pushing all this to the back of her mind, Elena concentrated on her schoolwork, but still feeling angry at the one who had stolen her food. ‘Never mind, I’ll make a better and larger batch tomorrow and show the other two girls. They will be happy with it for sure’ she thought furiously. Instinctively, she put her hand into her bag’s pouch to pull out the plan and recipe lists. To her shock, there was nothing there! Nothing except the couple pens and pencils that had been there for weeks. If it wasn’t bad enough with the food, stealing her plan? The thing she had spent hours on yesterday? No no no, this couldn’t be, but after searching for five minutes, she was forced to admit it wasn’t there. She was certainly not looking forward to telling Prisha and Sakura that she had lost the recipe lists and plans too, they’d be very annoyed and to turn them more hostile, and that was the last thing she wanted.

As it so turned out, Elena didn’t have to apologise to her team mates at all! The moment she stepped foot out of her classroom with her heavy bag and an even heavier heart, she walked straight into Prisha. Deciding that if she had to tell these two that the recipe lists and plans had disappeared, she might as well do it now, she opened her mouth to speak, but before she could say anything, Prisha forestalled her and said, “Before you say anything, I’m sorry we were pretty rude to you earlier today Elena. We thought you had just been careless or too lazy to do the work, but, now we know it’s false. Our recipe lists have disappeared along with our plans, and we had kept them securely in our bags in the smallest zip, and not told it to anyone else. None of us must be careless enough to lose things so important, so we’re all in the same boat aren’t we? Sakura wanted to come speak to you too, but her bus leaves early and she had to run to catch it.”, holding out her hand. With her mind in a whirl, Elena shook it. So now it was obvious. Someone who knew them well were sabotaging them badly, trying to make sure they wouldn’t win. But who would do such a thing? Why? This was such a spiteful thing to do, why did all this spite and nastiness strike them when they were so close to a perfect plan?
Elena’s brain wasn’t thinking rationally right now, she was listing out all the people who knew about the existence of the competition and their ideas. Sakura and Prisha knew, her parents knew, the teachers would have all known as the design had to be pitched to them, and she had done it, Esme, her friend knew, but no one else apart from that and she couldn’t believe that any of these people would be responsible for such spite and meanness.
She walked back home as if in a dream, hoping, wishing this was unreal. The one thing she wanted so badly had been made much harder, almost impossible. They couldn’t do the same thing, it was too much risk that the person who stole the designs would also be doing exactly to their plan, and they did not want to risk being disqualified. She lay down on her bed and said to herself, “There’s no hope for us right now, I don’t know what to do, I really wanted to mix all the three cultures and create something unique”
That’s when the idea hit her. Why didn’t she ever think of doing this before? Mix and create something unique, mix! They could make a fusion of three different food styles and cultures! Almost no one would do anything like that, and this time, they would not write anything down. Whatever they had to make, they would do it together, so no one could steal it and plans would be in a mental image.
Elena lost no time in picking up her phone and calling Prisha and Sakura (who were thankfully free at this time) and pitched her plan to them. They loved it. Fusion would certainly be unique, but in a good way. Their new recipe list with specifications which was remembered mentally was as follows:

Palak Paneer Ramen: Replace the traditional ramen broth with a rich, seasoned Palak Paneer sauce (slightly thinner than usual) and top the noodles with cubed, grilled paneer and a drizzle of chili oil.
Dosa Sushi Rolls: Use a thin, crispy Dosa (instead of nori/seaweed) as the outer wrap for a sushi roll. Fill it with seasoned rice and fillings like spicy mashed potato (like masala dosa filling)
Brownie Mochi Bites: Instead of a traditional sweet filling, fill soft mochi dough with a gooey, intense brownie batter (baked first, then chilled) or a rich, dark chocolate ganache incorporating the flavor of the brownie.
Burnt Basque Cheesecake Taiyaki: Fill the fish-shaped Taiyaki waffle with a creamy, caramelized filling that mimics the flavor and texture of Burnt Basque Cheesecake.
Hot Chocolate Mochi Filling: Fill a Mochi with a thick, reduced hot chocolate filling, or dust the outside of a plain Mochi with high-quality cocoa powder and serve it alongside a cup of Hot Chocolate.
Hot Chocolate Chai: A cozy fusion of decadent Hot Chocolate mixed with the aromatic spices of Indian Masala Chai(cardamom, ginger, clove).
Kapi (South Indian Coffee) Boba: Use a strong, frothy South Indian filter coffee (often sweetened with jaggery or condensed milk) as the base for a boba tea, with black sugar boba pearls.

And so on and so forth. This was one of the best ideas they ever had, and this would go so well!