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29. Catharsis
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in With the Fire on High, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Coming of Age and Teen Parenthood
Creativity vs. Professional Norms
Food and Connection
Caregiving, Independence, and Identity
Support, Community, and Mentorship
Summary
Analysis
Nobody tells you that a culinary arts class is so much work. Mondays are demonstrations days, on Wednesdays the students learn a new recipe, and on Fridays, students make the recipe on their own and get graded. They’ve been cooking for two weeks, but still, they spend more time cleaning than cooking. Two people have already dropped the class. Though Emoni dreads the quizzes, she loves learning about how kitchens and restaurants work. She motivates herself to study by reminding herself that she doesn’t want to make people sick, but she just wants to “chef[] it up.”
Emoni expected the culinary arts class to be fun and allow her to express her creativity. Instead, she finds that it’s grueling work, and she doesn’t seem to appreciate why this is so. Specifically, the resigned and annoyed way she describes cleaning rather than cooking suggests that she doesn’t appreciate how big of a deal preventing foodborne illness is in professional restaurant settings. Intellectually she understands that it’d be awful if she made someone ill, but expressing herself and “cheffing it up” is still more important to her.
Themes
Today, students are making pudding from scratch. Chef Ayden guides them through the process. As Emoni puts her ingredients away, a red bottle catches her eye, and she sprinkles some on her pudding. When she sets her pudding down in front of Chef for grading, Chef says the pudding looks great and asks what she put on top. Emoni doesn’t answer until he’s taken a bite (which makes him close his eyes) and asks again. When she explains it’s smoked paprika, he asks if she was trying to show off. He asks why she did it and says that the pudding is delicious. However, while he appreciates creativity, Emoni must follow the recipe. Altering a chef’s recipe without asking is disrespectful.
When Emoni dusts her pudding with the smoked paprika, she’s doing what she does best: combining flavors that not only taste good, but wow the people who eat her food (including Chef Ayden). So, it’s a nasty shock when Chef Ayden both praises and scolds Emoni for her creativity. As he sees it, Emoni is breaking the first and most important rule in the kitchen, which is to be respectful of one’s colleagues. This, he suggests, means following the chef’s recipe, not undermining them by spicing it differently.
Themes
However, Chef Ayden still invites the rest of the students to try Emoni’s pudding, which makes all the boys snicker. Emoni flushes with embarrassment and pride and hurries out of the classroom as soon as the bell rings. Malachi catches up to her and giggles at the look on her face, but he defends Chef by suggesting that Chef doesn’t see teens with dirty minds when he looks at the class—he sees chefs in training. When he laughs again, Emoni blurts that Malachi has a nice laugh. She adds that they’re not friends. Shrugging, Malachi says Emoni has a nice laugh too, and he thanks her for making him laugh.
To make things worse, Chef Ayden (seemingly unwittingly) makes a sex joke that turns Emoni into a laughingstock. Now, she’s not just a rulebreaker: she’s also a target. Despite Emoni’s best efforts (and her words), she and Malachi seem to be becoming closer friends, or at least people who enjoy spending time together. Importantly, Malachi seems able to help Emoni feel better about being humiliated in class, which may make him a more desirable friend.
Themes
