“After another twenty minutes of preparation – minutes that are squeezed for every second – Maeve makes her appearance at the long table to announce the menu. Even as she addresses the company, she is rehearsing for the cutting, piercing, brushing, layering, reducing, resetting, pouring, piping, grating, turning, drizzling, shaving, dusting, whipping, enrobing, adjusting, placing, plating choreography of her hands, which will commence the second she’s back upstairs. They all pay her their full attention, with a sort of bovine curiosity and gastrological suspense.”