The Two Chefs
Once upon a time there lived two wonderful chefs, Boiler and Fryer, and each had his own
restaurant. One day, Boiler said to Fryer, “We are both great cooks, so why don’t we make something together?”
“You’re right!” Fryer agreed eagerly. “Why didn’t I think of it? The dish that we prepare together will be unlike anything anyone has ever tasted before, and we will invite the whole city to try it! It will be a true feast!”
“Yes, a feast! That’s a great idea!” Boiler exclaimed. “What dish should we prepare?”
“I’m not sure,” Fryer said. “But it has to be really tasty!”
After a long discussion, the chefs decided to make fish, but not just a regular fish—it had to be the kind of fish that would make people lick their plates clean.
“We’ll begin tomorrow,” Fryer said. “Let’s do this: I will fry the fish and you will make the sauce for it.”
“Agreed!” Boiler said, and the chefs made plans to have all the ingredients delivered to Fryer’s restaurant. Satisfied with their plans, they shook hands and went their separate ways.
The next morning, Fryer went to the fish market. He spent three whole hours picking out the very best fish and making sure it was the freshest. Seventy barrels of fish from different countries were loaded onto carriages and delivered to his restaurant.
Meanwhile, Boiler went to the vegetable market. It took him three hours to select the most delicious vegetables and spices from many different countries! Delivery men carried seventy baskets that were filled to the brim to Fryer’s restaurant.
The chefs rested for a little while and then got to work. Fryer fried his fish on seventy different frying pans, and Boiler boiled his sauce in seventy different pots.
After four hours everything was ready.
The fish that Fryer prepared looked so incredibly good that they seemed to shine like the brightly polished brass pans that they were cooked in. In fact, they looked so wonderfully appetizing that Fryer no longer wanted to put Boiler’s sauce on them.
Meanwhile, the smell of Boiler’s sauce was so mouthwatering good that no one could pass the restaurant without stopping, and a large crowd gathered by the restaurant.
“Do I have to pour this wonderful sauce over Fryer’s fish?” Boiler thought sadly.
The gloomy chefs approached each other.
“Well, I guess the time has come to put your sauce on my fish,” Fryer said without looking at Boiler.
“Put my sauce on them?” Boiler asked in amazement. “I spent so much time preparing this culinary masterpiece, and you want me to put it over your fish so that people will say, ‘What great fish Fryer has prepared!’?
“You know what?” Fryer responded angrily, “In that case, I don’t want you to ruin the amazing taste of my fish by putting your sauce on them! Let’s each of us keep what he has prepared.”
Boiler called some waiters and ordered them to bring the sauce to his restaurant, and he, too, went there and sat, angry at the whole world.
“I don’t need anyone!” he thought to himself. “My sauce is too good for them. I don’t need favors from anyone; I will eat this sauce myself!”
And he took out a big spoon and began to eat. But the sauce was so spicy that after a few spoons full Boiler felt sick.
“I made a mistake,” he thought. “But it is still not too late.”
“Hey, waiters!” he called.
“Yes, Boiler!” they responded. “Would you like us to bring the sauce back to Fryer?”
“Yes,” Boiler said.
Soon the sauce was back on Fryer’s table.
“Forgive me, my dear friend, I’ve made a mistake,” Boiler began. “I don’t know what came over me. This sauce is made to pour over your fish.”
“No, no!” Fryer objected. “It was I who made the mistake by thinking that my fish tasted wonderful without your sauce. I couldn’t eat any of them because they are tasteless by themselves. How wonderful you came back!”
Boiler and Fryer hugged happily and immediately dished up an amazing feast that the city would remember forever! People came from everywhere just to try the tastiest fish in the world. Never before had they eaten anything like it!
To this day, men and women tell this story to their grandchildren. My grandfather told the story to me and he asked me to pass it on to all the children in the world. This way, they will know the eternal truth: only together can we do something wonderful, and no one can be happy alone.
Illustrations: Yelena Iflyand