Tasteless (17 page)

HUDSON GUNN DOESN’T WANT YOU TO EAT HIS FOOD ANYMORE

The Snarker

August 31
st

Is Lilac executive chef and founder going through a mid-life crisis?

His crazy interview with Frances Browning sure seemed to say so.  The normally quiet chef seems to have a lot to say these days and we’d be lying if we said it didn’t sound like the rantings of a man gone mad.  We’ve got the highlights for you below:

On Molecular Gastronomy
: “Half the chefs who are trying to make their perfectly good heirloom tomatoes into spheres and foams and jellies don’t even know how to season a dish correctly.  It’s nothing but a fad and it needs to die now.”

On Reality Show Chefs
: “I’m sure the winners are sometimes skilled, but too often are the wrong people eliminated in favor of keeping some drama queen.  The ones who make it to the end are usually just the biggest egomaniac in the group.”

On The Casual Reviewer
: “Why do those idiots on Yelp take themselves so seriously and where exactly do they get their credentials? Who are these people and what kind of life do they lead that all they do is sit there criticizing people on jobs they themselves can’t do? We didn’t force you to come to my restaurant.  If you don’t like it here, don’t eat here.”

On Food Trends
: “Enough with the cupcakes and the macarons.  And stop putting bacon in everything.”

On The Food Bloggers
: “Take another photo, please, by all means.  The rest of us aren’t just sitting here waiting to eat.”

On Foodies
: “To me, that’s a four-letter word.”

Hudson also concluded his Negative Nelly interview by pulling off his mic before Frances was done with him and strolling off the set as if he hadn’t just fired a bunch of rounds at his own customer base.

“I am disillusioned,” he later said off-camera.  “I don’t love the way people treat food these days and I long to see it all come back to something simpler, purer.”

Let’s see if that PR wife of his can fix this one.

But hey, we get it Hudson, no one’s as good as you.  Now get over yourself and go make us some bacon macarons.

Rye couldn’t seem happier as she bounced from reporter to reporter, answering questions about how happy she was to have her whole family reunited and how excited she was for everything to come.  Mira Hunter had set up an “open house” event for all the remaining publications that had initially turned down the chance to cover Somerville Diner’s makeover.

Everyone was interested in the story now.  There was something alluring about the unified Somervilles in all their collective success and glory.  As Sam forced smile after smile for photo op after photo op, he watched Rye with her sisters and mother as they giggled their answers to the media’s questions.  He realized now that there was no way it was a coincidence that they had chosen now to show up again in Rye’s life, although he couldn’t understand how they were benefitting from being a part of it.  Poppy and Sage were already as famous and successful as anyone could wish for and their interactions with their younger sister seemed quite forced.  Sam definitely didn’t think they were there just to support Rye, but he couldn’t yet think of any other reason they’d need to be there.

Sam couldn’t believe Warner had the audacity to ask him to break bad news to Rye once again.  He couldn’t believe that a man so cutthroat in the world of business didn’t have the balls or decency to tell his youngest daughter, himself.  Rye was definitely an apple that fell far from the family tree.

When the event was over and the press had begun to file out, Sam could see Poppy and Sage leading Rye out to their car.  Rye hadn’t spoken with Sam once since the event began, and he had missed talking to her quite a bit since they last met at the festival.  He realized he was used to having Rye’s attention all to himself, whether the attention was the fiery anger she had for him in the beginning or the warm affection she had for him later on.  Being forgotten definitely didn’t feel good.

“Rye!” he called out, stopping her from leaving.  She turned, looking almost surprised to see him.

“Oh my God, I didn’t see you once during this whole thing,” she laughed.  “I didn’t even know you were here.”  She broke hand from her sister’s grasp and hugged Sam, tickling the bottom of his nose with the giant topknot of hair on her head.

“We haven’t hung out in awhile,” he said.  “Where have you been? Everyone misses you.”

“Aw, I miss everyone too,” Rye frowned.  “I’ve just been bouncing between all my family’s place and occasionally staying at Jeremy’s.  I didn’t want to overstay my welcome at Gemma and Damian’s place!”

“You were only there for a couple days,” Sam said.  “And we had gotten used to having you around.  So if anything, you’re depriving us with your absence.”

“That’s sweet,” Rye smiled.  “Did Damian teach you to say all that?”

“No, that was all me!” Sam laughed.  “It’s not like Damian’s the only gentleman around.”

“Of course he’s not,” Rye said.  “But that has nothing to do with the fact that you’re still no gentleman.”

“Alright,” he replied, reaching a hand out to rest on her hip.  She was wearing an outfit he didn’t recognize to be in her existing wardrobe or something borrowed from Gemma.  It was an ivory sundress made of a light, gauzy material that was embroidered with subtle flowers at the hem.  “You look nice, who’d you borrow the dress from this time?”

“I bought it,” Rye said proudly.  “I didn’t have anything new on me and Jeremy wanted to take me to this kind of nice place for dinner…”

“So are you two together?” he asked.

“I think so,” Rye replied.

“And clearly you’re one of those girls who just disappears once she has a boyfriend,” Sam teased.

“That’s not true,” she laughed.  “It’s mostly my family, they’ve been taking up all my time.”  Sam swallowed, knowing that it wasn’t the right moment to tell her about Warner and his plans to sell.  Not when her mother and sisters were hovering so nearby.

“We need to talk…” Sam blurted out, knowing that this time, he wouldn’t be able to wait to break the news.

“About?”

“Something really important,” he said hurriedly, watching Poppy and Sage tapped their foot impatiently.  “Something I can’t tell you here.”

“We’re about to head back to Dutchess Plains,” Rye replied.  “So we can spend some time together at the restaurant and house before our launch.”

“Can it wait?” he asked.  “It’s urgent and I want to tell you before we launch.”

“Sam, you’re scaring me,” she said.  “What is this about? Can’t you just tell me here?”

“It’s complicated,” he explained.  “It’s not something I can just start and not finish.”

“Rye!” Olive called out from behind her two daughters.  “The car’s here and we want to get back in time to meet your father for dinner!”

“I have to go,” Rye said.  “But at the very least, can you tell me if everything’s okay?” Her golden-brown eyes bore into his, pleading with him to give her reassurance of any sort.  Sam opened his mouth, wanting to tell her that nothing was okay, that everything she was so happy about and excited for was a lie.

But he couldn’t.  At least not then, at that moment.

“I will make sure that it’s okay,” he promised.  “I will do everything I can to make sure that’s the case.”

Chapter 10

OLIVE, SAGE, AND POPPY AMBUSH RYE WITH A MAKEOVER FOR THIS POP SOURCE EXCLUSIVE

The Pop Source

September 2
nd

In preparation for the much anticipated relaunching of Somerville Diner, the popular designer sisters, Poppy and Sage, teamed up with their mother Olive to surprise the youngest female Somerville with a fresh new look.

Known for her tomboy ways on
Days of Somertime
, it was clear that Rye Somerville was a little more than shocked when our cameras showed up with a celebrity team of hair and makeup experts to document the pre-party preparations.

But the mood was jovial as her family laughed with her, watching the hairstylists struggle with her unruly golden halo of hair.

“We’re still not sure where she got that from,” Olive said.  “I’ve always wanted wavy hair, but me and the older girls were always stick-straight brunettes.  I think Warner mentioned an aunt of his who had some pretty unmanageable hair as well.”  After what seemed like an hour of just brushing Rye’s hair, the stylists took a straightening iron to it as the makeup artist explained her vision for Rye’s launch day look.

“Rye has the perfect coloring to play with a lot of dusty rose hues,” the artist said.  “We want her come out of this a heavenly vision of rose-gold.”

And that she did.  Dressed in the strapless taupe bodycon dress that her sisters had designed specially for her, Rye emerged from the makeup chair a whole new woman.  Her mother and sisters looked on proudly as she admired her new look in the mirror, twirling the cascading golden hair that tumbled over her freshly bronzed shoulders.

When asked if she would continue the makeup and hair routine after the restaurant launched, she laughed, promptly smearing the lip stain that was applied just moments before.

“If it makes me feel this great,” she replied as the artist quickly touched up her lips.  “Then absolutely.”

Rye couldn’t help but enjoy all her newfound attention as she stood on the red carpet with her entire family, posing for photos.  She delighted in the dirty looks that her brothers shot those who looked at Rye for a little too long and relished in how doting her mother was as she made sure to fix Rye’s stray hairs and smudged mascara throughout the night.

It was the first time that she hadn’t minded all the cameras now that she no longer felt like a joke to them.  She was beginning to see the fun in it all and started to understand why her family had all gone chasing fame once the show was canceled.  Jeremy stood beside her family, patiently waiting to offer his arm to her again.  He looked adorable and perfectly charming in his fitted blue suit and skinny tie.

The last couple of weeks had felt like nothing short of a dream.  Being able to hang out with her family again without feeling like the black sheep and actually
dating
Jeremy and being his girlfriend – it was all almost too much to take in.  But there was one thing that would have made her perfectly awesome days just a little more perfect.  In the chaos of the days leading up to the launch, she had hardly seen Sam.  They had been playing a frustrating game of telephone tag as they bounced around their respective events.

“What an emotional rollercoaster it’s been, right honey?” Warner said, giving Rye a quick squeeze of her shoulder.  “You did a great job.”

“Thanks,” Rye said, giving her father a hug.  The photographers’ flashes went off at the photo op.  “I couldn’t be happier.”

~

“Of course you have to tell her!” Gemma exclaimed, tightening Sam’s tie just a little too tight.  He flinched, backing away as he loosened it.  “Why haven’t you told her about it already?”

“Her family’s been by her side twenty-four seven.  And I wasn’t given a lot of time before today to say something.”

“I feel awful,” Damian said.  “I knew Warner was bad news, but not
this
bad.  How could you stab your daughter in the back like that?”

“I guess when you have six children, it’s okay to use one as a pawn in all your little games,” Gemma replied, sarcastically.  “That way, if she never forgives you, you still have five.”  They stood together in the new kitchen, now a separate room that hid the chefs from the diners.  It was perfect and pristine and stocked with every piece of equipment Sam had ever wanted.  Had he not known what it was before and what it meant to Rye, that moment would have been his dream.

“The worst part is that he made me a part of it,” Sam said.  “He’s offering me this insane chance to earn the money I’ve always wanted but he totally did it on the back of a trusting family member.  I kept telling her I wasn’t trying to take her restaurant away from her, but I ended up being the reason she wouldn’t have it.”

“Are you going to keep the job?” Damian asked, peering up from the cufflinks he had been quietly adjusting.

“Of course he is!” Gemma said.  “This is a huge opportunity for him and he can’t give it up.  Rye would understand.”

“I’m not sure she would,” Sam said.  “She said herself that her family was pretty poor before the cameras came around, but she didn’t seem to think all the money it brought was a good thing.  She keeps talking about what her family was like before all that and how much she misses it.  I don’t think she sees money as a solution to anything.”

“How about you?” Damian asked.  “Do you think the money the new group would bring is a solution to anything?” Sam sighed, looking away.  He knew that Damian was referring to his family, specifically his mother and uncle’s restaurant that had been struggling for years.  They had helped pay for Sam to head out to college, proud that he’d be the first in the family to go, but they had no idea how much they would have needed that money once their business began to fail.  He had left a big family behind, one that believed in him and his dreams enough that they never stopped to question him.

“Of course…” he said.  “There are plenty of things that money would be good for.  But I’m not sure that I could do this to Rye.”

“Look, I love Rye but
you
are also my friend and I care about what’s going to happen to you,” Gemma replied.  “I know that maybe I make one too many comments about how annoying you are as a roommate, but when I say you should take the job, I’m saying it not because I want you to have the money to leave or something – I want you to have all the things you’ve been talking about having.”

“She’s right, Sam,” Damian said.  “From the first day I met you you’ve been talking about helping your family.  And this could
really
help your family.”

“It’s more complicated than that,” Sam sighed.

“What, like you have feelings for her complicated?” Damian raised an eyebrow.

Sam leaned against the wall, avoiding eye contact as he thought about it.  He absolutely did have feelings for Rye, which were arguably the only times he had these sort of feelings for any woman at all.  Sam had always thought it was a choice he made not to fall for any of the women in his life, wanting to happily live out his bachelorhood.  But then Rye had come as a surprise.  He wasn’t even sure what it was about her that made him feel that way.

“I understand more than anyone what it means to lose your mind for love,” Damian said.  “But I can tell you that there are pretty big consequences to risking your entire career because of it.”  Sam looked up to see Damian and Gemma staring back at him, looking serious.  Damian rarely liked referring to his brief disappearance from an active NBA season and though Sam always knew it was Gemma-related, he had never prodded for details.

“Damian was lucky that it was just a couple fines,” Gemma said.  “Running off like that could have easily resulted in getting removed from the league.  If that happened, I wouldn’t know what I would do.  I would have never forgiven myself.”

“If Rye cares for you the way you care for her, I think she would feel the same way,” Damian reasoned.  “She wouldn’t want you to lose everything on her account.  Besides… even if Warner is an asshole, she has
some
of her family to fall back on.  You just have yourself.”

“I don’t know if she has even has that…” Sam said.  “Her family just seems… strange to me.”

“Sam!” a voice called from outside the kitchen.  He looked out the window towards the dining room to find Mira Hunter making her way in.  “We need a couple photos with you and Rye – can you come out?”

“Sure,” Sam said.  He turned to Damian and Gemma, smiling a sad smile.  “Thanks… for all the advice.”

“What are you going to do?” Gemma asked.  Sam simply shrugged in response as he followed Mira out front.  He wasn’t sure if he was losing his mind over Rye or not, and if he was, he wasn’t sure it was warranted.  He hadn’t known Rye as long as Damian had known Gemma and all the feelings he had, specifically the ones that involved sabotaging his own career for the sake of some girl, did seem a little much.  He knew that the money that would come from just a year with the new restaurant group would be exactly the kind of money he would need to send a fat check back to Hawaii and have some leftover to start up a new restaurant.  It was a small investment of his time and reputation for a potentially large payout.  But he couldn’t imagine what Rye would do in that year.  Where would she go? Would she be stuck living in that big empty house overlooking the restaurant that had booted her?

“Sam!” he heard Rye call.  He turned in the direction of the voice.  He tried to return the greeting, but as soon as he saw her, his voice caught in his throat.  Though the face was familiar, the packaging wasn’t.  Rye’s look had been thoroughly manipulated into one that matched her mother and sisters.  Her glossy gold hair swung back and forth, hanging longer now that it had been straightened.  The simple dress she wore hugged every curve of her body and she had apparently learned how to walk in heels at some point.

To say she looked breathtaking would have been an understatement.  Sam was shocked out of his mind.  He could hear the laughter of the crowd, teasing him for his reaction as the cameras began snapping photos of his dumbfounded expression.  Rye reached to hug him, her face close to his thanks to her five-inch heels.  He hugged her back, feeling the shape of her figure beneath his fingertips.

And before he knew what he was doing, he had leaned in to kiss her.

He could feel her shock as she gasped, parting her lips.  There were whoops of delight as Sam felt themselves drowning in the flashes of the camera.

The kiss probably didn’t last more than two seconds, but the damage was done.  There would be photos all over the publications the next day of the decidedly sloppy kiss he had planted on her in front of everyone.  But at that moment, he didn’t care.  He smiled, for Rye and for the cameras.

He watched as Rye blushed, backing away before wiping the corners of her mouth.  Jeremy and her mother came swooping in, pulling her away from Sam in a way that made him feel like a predator.  Maybe Damian was right.  She had a support team in her family and now even Jeremy, even if they were still kind of a shady bunch.  Maybe it would be okay to take the job after all.

With that, Sam found himself thoroughly enjoying the rest of the night, just as he knew he should.  He listened happily to every compliment to the chef, shook on every promise his customers made to return.  There were so many familiar faces in the crowd – old friends, new friends, people in the industry he hadn’t seen since he was booted from Sandrine.  And he was feeling good about seeing everyone and feeling good about where things could potentially go.  Everything would perhaps be okay after all.

But Sam should have known it wouldn’t be so easy.  He had tamped down all those suspicions he had about Rye’s family in order to enjoy his night, but the reality of it was that they were still there.  And just as he was about to cuddle up with Estelle, that swimsuit model he had spurned a couple days before, Gemma came cutting through the crowd.

“I need to talk to you,” she said hurriedly, grabbing Sam’s arm.

“Wait your turn,” Estelle said, pushing her hand away.  Gemma quickly swatted at Estelle, turning back to Sam.

“You need to come with me,” Gemma said.  “We need to talk.”

Sam pried himself from Estelle’s surprisingly strong grip, following Gemma into the kitchen once again.  The servers and bussers rushed in and out, ignoring them as they stood by the entrance.

“What is it?” he asked.

“You were right,” she whispered.  “I don’t think Sage and Poppy are in this for Rye.”

“Why do you say that?”

“There have always been rumors about their line having
very
questionable practices, specifically the use of and abuse of undocumented citizens in their sweatshops,” Rye began.  “I didn’t think much of it in the beginning because rumors are rumors and the fashion industry is plagued by these sort of accusations.  It happens all the time and sometimes it’s true and sometimes it’s not and sometimes people don’t even realize they’ve outsourced their factory work to a sweatshop.”

“So it’s true then? And how do you know – why are you telling me now?”

“My friend Armand just texted me,” she replied.  “He’s like a veteran in the fashion industry and he knows what’s going on with everyone.  He told me that he heard from a very trusted friend of his that Sage and Poppy were accused of knowingly allowing an abusive environment in their factories and that two of the workers wanted to sue, but instead they settled for a
huge
cash settlement.”

“How does this involve Rye?”

“They’re holding out to pay.  They said they’ll have the money after Somerville Diner’s relaunch.”

“So you think…” Sam said.  “You think they’re getting a cut of Warner’s sale.”

“Yes,” Gemma whispered.  “Why else would they run the risk of being found out and waiting? I don’t know what number they promised these workers but apparently they’re not comfortable taking it out of their own pocket so it’s gotta be something big.”

“I need to tell Rye,” Sam replied, pushing out towards the dining room.

“No, you can’t tell her here!” Gemma said.  “Wait until after everyone leaves.”

“I can’t wait,” Sam sighed.  “Last time I did that, she was totally destroyed.  I don’t want to keep any more of her family’s secrets from her.”

“But it’s not even confirmed!” She grabbed his arm, stopping him.

“Then why did you tell me now?” Sam asked.  “Why wouldn’t
you
wait until after everyone leaves before telling me?”

“I don’t know!” Gemma exclaimed.  “Listen, I’m always a little anxious about big gestures being made in the name of love so I just don’t like… being a part of it.  My whole life has been riddled with these crazy gestures and honestly, they really put me on edge.  But I know that once in awhile they’re necessary…”

“Then let me go now,” he said.

She did as she was told, refraining from stopping Sam as he marched out into the dining room in search of Rye.  He found her sitting in a booth with Jeremy, laughing over their conversation as they shared dessert.

“Can I talk to you for a second?” he asked, walking right up to their table.

“If this is about the kiss before, it’s totally fine,” Rye laughed.  “Even Jeremy’s cool with it.  We know what kind of guy you are and we didn’t take it the wrong way.”