Cooking for Two Hundred

My aunt runs a small catering business, and last month she got her biggest order ever: lunch for two hundred people at a company event. She said yes before she thought about it. Then she called everyone in the family.

I was in charge of rice. Two hundred portions of rice, in a kitchen with two rice cookers. I started at four in the morning. My cousin fried chicken for six hours. My aunt made three huge pots of curry and shouted at everyone, but in a loving way.

At eleven the boxes were packed, the van left, and we sat on the kitchen floor, exhausted. At two my aunt got a message: the client wanted to book again next month. She looked at all of us and said, "Same team?" We groaned. We'll be there.