I was once told by a fool that turning something seemingly common and ordinary into a choice that people fall in love with—and decide to come back to, time and again—was the highest praise any chef could receive. In that moment, I held the most awe and respect for those words a five-year-old could but at the same time, crowned its speaker the world's greatest idiot for having believed such a concept of naivety.

I still think the same of him.

It surprises me how I'd come to realize the intriguing nature of his words as the years passed and soon found myself in love with something so stupidly charming and frankly absurd for a child his age to even understand. It is, and will always be, my oldest memory to date. Anything before those words were a blur. As childhood memories often are.

Needless to say, this fool I speak of gradually became a significant, perhaps even the most important person in my life—because due to unforeseen and extremely unfortunate circumstances, I have fallen in love with him.

Alas, a tragedy.

Thankfully, I am of the opinion that such people should always remain an addition to one's life, and never a missing puzzle piece to complete the latter. And that falling in love should be an honor; not a method to fill a hole in one's heart.

I am honored to be so taken by a hard-headed fool who could never spell favorite or know the difference between odd and ode; a heart so ablaze with emotions I find myself disarmed by, and a way with words that always challenged the chill of my own. It is also regrettable that I find him unimaginably attractive when he makes a silly remark about my vocabulary, or interacts with animals and people in a way I could never. I am fond of his selfless nature that often goes unseen, even by the man himself. For what is the one thing ordinary chefs and firefighters have in common?

It is that people never know their names. Despite the incredibly taxing nature of their line of work and the direct, fundamental influence they have on the lives of the people around them, they remain out of sight unlike the celebrities of our day and age.

This reminds me of the one and only ambitious claim said fool has ever made in his entire life of tomfoolery. Admittedly, he has had many opportunities in the past and present (and perhaps, or so I hope, the future) to achieve said ambition. Yet I can only hope he continues to pursue this goal, ambition, motivation, aspiration, objective of his. I doubt those words ever crossed his limited vocabulary, but no matter. I am here to tell him that I've come to wholeheartedly agree; this drive of his might, after all, be his calling. As such, I now present him one such opportunity.

Enough waiting around. It is time he do what he does best—

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"You may now lift the lid of your mystery box to view the ingredients picked by your loved ones."

Staring up at the world's greatest idiot was one—a single ingredient.

Vanilla beans.

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—Impress me.

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