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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#162: Bon Appétit

With National Tofu Day, International Bacon Day, Cheese Pizza Day and World Salami Day (I promise I’m not making these up) coming up in the next 7 days, it’s only fitting that this week's prompts take inspiration from one of our greatest sources of happiness — food. 


From being barely nibbled on over a first date, to being wholesomely prepared and wolfed down at a family gathering, or shared between friends meeting for the first time in years, food sits right at the heart of our cultures, relationships, and memories. So, time to dish out your most delicious story — after all, some of the best ones are told over a plate of food!

This week's prompts

Start your story with someone looking at a restaurant menu.

Middle School – 80 stories

Write about a character whose love language is making food for others.

Adults – 37 stories

Write a story where a character’s life completely changes over the course of a meal.

Adults – 71 stories

Write a story in which too many cooks spoil the broth — literally or metaphorically.

Adults – 10 stories

Start your story with one character trying to convince another that they make the best grilled cheese in the world.

Middle School – 36 stories

Stories

“Electric General” by T.S.A. Maiven

Submitted to Contest #162

Everyday he opens me, digging through my insides, searching for something to appease him. I’ve seen nobody else with the privilege to do it. Just him. I feel like that creates a bond between us. When only he is in the house, I don’t see him as often as when there’s company here. I look forward to company, I’ve come to love those days. That’s when his hands are inside me the most. Digging, pushing, re-arranging my interior goods like he’s tickling me. I must admit, we’ve been together a long time and I care about him as much as he cares ab...

12 comments 12
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“Mayonnaise” by Molly G

Submitted to Contest #162

“Mayonnaise?”            “You’ve never heard of this? It’s really not exotic.”            “I’m not saying it’s exotic; I’m saying it’s disgusting.” Jess rolls her eyes at this and turns her back to me to tend to the sizzling grilled cheese sandwiches on the stove top. She presses them down with her spatula and holds it while the mayonnaise pops like static under the pressure.          &nbs...

5 comments 5
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“Dinner in the Looking Glass.” by Mary McClarey

Submitted to Contest #162

I’m not too impressed when he snaps at the waiter, asking for our order and telling no one in particular, but maybe me, that it has been a long day. He never asked what I wanted, just told the poor man one mussels, one prawn cocktail, two Dover soles and a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc. Looking right and left without moving my head I see all these gentle diners, all gently conversing, or gently enjoying overhearing other’s conversing. Well dressed, immaculately dressed, but none of them in unseasonably light chiffon. Not like me. My wee dress lo...

5 comments 5
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“How Junior Mints Changed My Life” by Jeannette Miller

Submitted to Contest #162

I was too hungry to decide and I knew it. I knew I should have said something earlier but I didn’t want to come off as high maintenance and yet here I was, dangerously close to blowing my top out of hangriness. There are too many freaking choices on menus nowadays and why don’t any of them have a special section of just a few items for people who are too hungry to choose? But instead of actual food items, they list the emotion you’re feeling at the time. You choose the emotion and they bring out the correlating food. No more guesswork. Lik...

8 comments 8
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“Dinner at Carelli's” by Ron Smith

Submitted to Contest #162

It was a Sunday evening, and Noah Barton was shaking like a leaf. He was wondering how he could sound confident on a phone call while his voice had such a quiver to it. But after all these years, he had finally decided he would call up Betsy Davis and ask her for a date. He had had a crush…no…he had ‘loved’ the cute little blonde since sixth grade. And now, it was the spring semester of their senior year. Realizing that time for a high school courtship was running very short, he had mustered enough courage to call an...

2 comments 2
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“A story bite” by Ela Mikh

Submitted to Contest #162

“Excuse me, Miss, can I trouble you for a menu?”Janie nodded absentmindedly, rushing by a new customer who had just planted his butt in the only empty seat left in the corner by the window. She paused by the kitchen grabbing a few plates and drinks for a couple that was intimately cuddling in the corner, pretending like they were the only ones in the place. They were nauseatingly happy and Janie felt a wave of jealousy rising in her whenever she passed by them. Her own forever love affair ended as quickly as it started just a week earlier so...

14 comments 14
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“Death Wish ” by Kim Walker

Submitted to Contest #162

You may not believe me but I couldn’t lie about something this serious. Even on her death bed, nana as all the other grandchildren calls her, still doesn’t want anyone else in her kitchen. So, she begs me to come over at lunch time to fix her favorite lunch. When the phone rings at 11a.m. I know it’s going to be grandma complaining about whoever is sitting with her that day. No matter what I am doing or where I am. There’s nothing to do but agree to go over and make a grilled cheese and soup. I try to just say yes before she starts her whimp...

1 comment 1
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“A Meal of Memories” by Francois Kosie

Submitted to Contest #162

{Content warning: it’s about death, and also memories.}The ghostly flesh of my spirit feels fragile and insubstantial, but still, I'm struck by the mustiness of the old restaurant, and I realize that the senses of taste and smell stubbornly remain and will be the last to go."Your table is ready, sir. Please follow me," a dreadful attendant says in a deep rumbling voice that sends a shudder through my ghostly being. I dare not look at him directly as I follow him.Inside the restaurant, everything exists only in dimly lit shades of bronze and ...

15 comments 15
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“01001001 ” by Ann Walker

Submitted to Contest #162

There’s no real use for stories or creativity anymore. I suppose my urge to write this down is my last human instinct for self preservation. I want to believe no one wanted this end for our world. I’ve been scrunched up in this small room for hours trying to find the words to describe what has happened last month.   My husband and I decided to go out tonight for our twentieth wedding anniversary. We have been fans of this absolutely delicious restaurant, ‘The Nightingale’, since our first date together. Henry and I have witnessed ...

9 comments 9
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“01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01101101 01100101 01101110 01110101” by Karen McDermott

Submitted to Contest #162

Hyper-seasonal special Fungi-To-Be-With Straight from head chef Marlene Bartley’s vegetable garden/acres of woodland (a land guaranteed protected from the radiation after effects, being as it is covered a magnificent dome of state-of-the-art disease-resistant toughened glass), we are delighted to present a creamy vitamin-enriched garlic mushroom risotto peppered with crispy crickets, who reach your plate after spending their best days in our patented Bug Hotels, with prior counselling as to the benefit they will be serving greater life for...

7 comments 7
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“Calibrated For Two” by Alex Flores

Submitted to Contest #162

           This particular farmers market might be a little further to drive than I would prefer, but they have the freshest herbs and it’s the only place I’ve consistently found tarragon. Although there’s a supermarket within walking distance to my place, it’s a gamble that they’ll have everything I need. Which is another reason why I prefer this farmers market: the selection. There’s a farmers market which would be a shorter drive, but it’s purely produce. Here, I c...

0 comments 0
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“Gurn, Baby, Gurn” by Jim Firth

Submitted to Contest #162

To gurn: to snarl as a dog; to look savage; to distort the countenance.The evening before the world gurning finals, I was looking for a reasonably priced restaurant in Egremont, Cumbria, when I peered through the window of a curry house and saw Barry Jenkins scarfing down a bhuna. Distractedly, I perused the menu, but I knew I wouldn't be dining at that particular restaurant, because he was there. Anyhow, the menu was full of inauthentic anglicised fair; curries that had been adapted for milder palettes, with dishes like Tikka Masalas and ko...

6 comments 6
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“My first Day in the kitchen!” by Debito INC.

Submitted to Contest #162

                Have you ever gotten that tiny little sensation where it feels like butterflies tickle your stomach? Normally that would mean you’re feeling anxious, nervous, or just worried about what’s to come, but I’ll be honest…This, was different. It was my first day working in a real kitchen—and not just one of those run of the mill restaurants that you see on the side of the main road in any given city, but actual fine-dining! I was static, like I was at t...

7 comments 7
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“The Old Weight of Love” by Brittany Mackeown

Submitted to Contest #162

A wrinkled menu from Punjabi Place sat out on the counter, tucked between a cutting board and the stovetop. In poor handwriting, a short list of ingredients had been written next to palak paneer, denoting the ingredients for homemade tikka masala sauce. Some of the ink had rubbed off from handling, but all of the ingredients were still legible.      Navya squinted at the ingredients. They were all correct, and even though tikka masala wasn’t even close to her favorite “Indian” (tikka masala was more British-Indi...

4 comments 4
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“McFood For Thought” by Eshawnial Lowry

Submitted to Contest #162

"Dining for one?" He chuckled, while adjusting his bowtie with his "sausage fingers." That was his name in the yard. Sausage fingers, the prison chef. He had my order  and I made sure it would be a meal for the ages, so to speak. They let me hand it to him personally since it would be my last meal here; or anywhere for that matter.   The last meal request,  a rite of passage for  death row inmates who had exhausted all of our appeals. The date was set for the "apparently not so cruel and unusual punishment."  ...

4 comments 4
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$250

Prize money

234

Contest entries

97

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Sep 09, 2022 EST

A winner will be announced soon.

Submissions must be between 1,000 - 3,000 words and will be approved and published on Reedsy Prompts within 7 days of the contest closing.

Read the full terms & conditions or check out the FAQ if you have any questions!

Prompts | Big Blue Hand | 2024-11

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