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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#270: The Perfect Recipe

Writing can often feel like trying to follow the perfect recipe: with the right inciting incident, you can push your character out of their status quo or comfort zone, and if you sprinkle some challenges in there, you get character development. Then, you turn the heat up until you reach a boiling point — maybe you even toss in a third-act crisis — and just before it spills over, you add the finishing touches and plate it up.

But sometimes, no matter how carefully you stick to a recipe, things don’t turn out as planned. That’s when, like any great chef, you realize it’s better to forgo exact steps and simply season to taste.

This week’s prompts take inspiration from the world of food, so grab your aprons and preheat your ovens — let’s get cooking!

This week's prompts

Write a story in the form of a recipe.

Short Story – 82 stories

Start or end your story with two people discussing an important matter over a meal.

Dramatic – 60 stories

Write a story inspired by the saying “Revenge is a dish best served cold.”

Angst – 59 stories

Set your story in a kitchen, either early in the day or late at night.

Short Story – 82 stories

Write a story about someone searching for a missing ingredient, literally or metaphorically.

Dramatic – 53 stories

Stories

“How to Un-Kill Your Husband ” by LC Reid

Submitted to Contest #270

Welcome back, my faithful readers! It’s your favourite messy mama here to help all you beautiful babes create magic in the kitchen! It’s been a hot minute since I last updated this space, but it’s been quite the eventful summer. Now I know that a lot of you get frustrated by me droning on and on in these little anecdotes and want to skip right on over to the recipe, but I think they add a personal flair to each recipe. With that being said, let’s play a little catch-up! My daughter turned sixteen in June (I know, I can’t believe i...

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“Adobo” by Vickie Riggan

Submitted to Contest #270

Adobo Vickie Riggan 1440 words &nbsp...

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“Gluten-Free” by Salvatore Amico

Submitted to Contest #270

Amanda and Piero had celebrated the housewarming of their new apartment last night with friends and family. It had been an evening filled with laughter, toasts, and memories they would carry with them into this new chapter of their lives. The music filled the spaces as their guests enjoyed chatting and dancing. The apartment, with its white walls and minimalist decor, was alive with color and vibrancy, reflecting the joy of the moment. Now, as the sun began to rise and rays of light filtered through the curtains, Piero found himself in the k...

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“Searching for Perspective ” by Priscila Pesek

Submitted to Contest #270

There it was, Tuesday at 6:41pm. Unenthusiastically, Patricia looked around the room, searching for the… what? Courage to move? She had already timed the maximum amount of time she could stay home before she had to leave, drive, park and find her way to the art class at the high school she had not set foot at in 15 years. But here she was, faced with a wall of inertia. In the 45 minutes prior, she had giddily pushed for dinner in front of another episode of Nolly in her wife’s company. She’d also pulled away from the TV to corral old drawing...

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“A Recipe for Success at Accounting Solutions Select” by ER Castaneda

Submitted to Contest #270

Welcome to Accounting Solutions Select, a mid-sized company specializing in accounting in this nondescript building in the business park area at the edge of town. Our cubicle space is approximately 80 square feet per person, all cookie-cutter copies of each other with gray walls. If you want to succeed here, I encourage you to follow this recipe for success. First, you need a gallon-sized cup of indifference. Accounting Solutions Select is not asking you to try to find creative solutions to problems, efficiency, or even ways to boost company...

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“Caviar and Plombir.” by Jim Gray

Submitted to Contest #270

Ten minutes after he walked through the door of Mama Babushka’s New York restaurant, he’d solved the case. Ash slid the old photo over the table to Mama. “Something tells me you and the body over there have more history than you are letting on, Mama.” He looked at his watch. It was now 2am. A couple of hours ago, Ash was settling down to watch the recorded highlights of the Jets game, a newly cracked bottle of Bud lay on the table in front of his sofa, where he would no doubt fall asleep tonight.He passed out on it most nights. The ones that...

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“Just Like Taylor Swift” by Chris Miller

Submitted to Contest #270

Just like Taylor Swift “You’ve had it done, haven’t you, you crazy bastard?” said Keller. Mitchell looked across the restaurant table with affirmative eyes. “Show me then,” said Keller. Mitchell placed his tanned hands on the crisp white table cloth, the ringed fingers of the left one drumming lightly as he set himself, before poking the tip of his tongue out at Keller. The lozenge of flesh was pure white. Mitchell had bleached his most social organ, turning it from a muscular, cave-dwelling tool, into an accessory, an iTongue. His f...

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“The Perfect Recipe” by Kat King

Submitted to Contest #270

The Perfect RecipeIn the heart of New Orleans, where the smell of gumbo and jazz filled the air, there stood an unassuming restaurant named "Le Petite Crème." It wasn’t much to look at, just a narrow hole in the wall on Rue Dauphine, but anyone who knew the city’s culinary secrets knew that this was where you came for the best food in town. And it wasn’t just the gumbo or the jambalaya. It was the desserts, especially the pies, that kept people coming back.But behind those delicious creations was a story few knew. It was a story of betrayal,...

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“The Tree” by Ken Poirier

Submitted to Contest #270

The TreeBy Kenneth Poirier There was a man once, not so much a lonely man as his life was fairly fufilling. Just a man like any other man, honest, trustworthy and sincere. He wanted so badly to have a big, beautiful tree in his backyard like all his neighbors. He dreamed of a huge tree with majestic branches reaching high into the sky, and dazzling green foliage. He knew exactly what kind of tree he wanted. When he walked into the nursery to find the perfect tree he saw it right away. He knew almost instantly that this tree would be the per...

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“Recipe for a Life in Love” by Kevin Asla

Submitted to Contest #270

This recipe mirrors the ebb and flow of life, where love and loss are inseparable, and where even the most carefully planned recipe can take unexpected turns. It balances the heat of passion with the coolness of grief, creating a dish that is rich, complex, and innately human. Ingredients: 1 reluctant move to a small townA dash of isolation and brooding1 quaint coffee shop (to avoid the house)1 red-haired barista named Jasmine1 awkward cappuccino order1 year of summer friendship (stirred daily with light conversation)1 heart-wrenching realiz...

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“War and Prayer” by Paul Kelash

Submitted to Contest #270

War and Prayer The sound of the pumping plunger of the Coleman camp stove gas cannister invades my ears, familiar as the pulse of a pump pressurizing my Sting-Ray bicycle tires, a precursor to adventures to come. I sit at the picnic table holding a fly swatter, posed like a sentinel ready to attack any intruding winged insect that lands on our campground breakfast spot. Uncle Al pumps away on the plunger, then stops and screws it back into the stove’s distinctive red tank. The back of the stove blocks my view of his work, but I hear a ...

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“My Dinner With Kathy” by James Barrett

Submitted to Contest #270

It was a hot summer night several years ago. I remember it like it was yesterday. I had too many beers. I shouldn’t have been driving. That’s not an excuse, just an explanation. Ralphie shouldn’t have challenged me in the first place, but he did. I was running my mouth about my new Mustang, and I guess it rubbed Ralphie the wrong way. Ralphie said his three-year-old Corvette StingRay would blow the doors off my new Mustang. Callahan’s parking lot was crowded with our peers. All beer drinkers and gearheads. I had to accept. The alcohol made i...

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“Hot Pockets and Romance Don't Mix ” by Jackson Anhalt

Submitted to Contest #270

There are few things in life more sacred than a late-night snack. No one understands that better than a 911 dispatcher on their 13th graveyard shift in a row. I had barely sipped my fresh cup of coffee when the call came in. “911, what’s your emergency?” I asked, slipping into the well-practiced calmness of my professional voice. “He… he stabbed me,” came the panicked reply, the man’s voice shaky but clear enough to relay this was no joke. Stabbed. That word has a way of snapping you to attention. No matter how strange...

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“How To Be Happy” by Luna Lin

Submitted to Contest #270

The Oxford English Dictionary defines ‘happy’ as: feeling or showing pleasure; pleased. And ‘happiness’ is: the state of feeling or showing pleasure. A relatively simple concept. However, a quick book search on Amazon.com with the word ‘happiness’ returned more than 60,000 results. It is impossible to say with accuracy the number of works published on happiness, but what is most certainly certain is that this one simple emotion has eluded many people. So many of us misunderstand what happiness is. We end up buying so many things, changing so...

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“A Laughing Goddess Rhamnusia” by Wies Blaize

Submitted to Contest #270

She stood in the kitchen and dried her hands. It was a mechanical gesture before cooking dinner for her and her husband. She did so every evening for 40 years, as long as they had been married. They were not especially beautiful hands, short and fleshy, and firm. Strong hands, she thought while playing with the dry cloth. She then turned towards the kitchen unit and continued her activities while looking with one eye into the unfolded cookbook. “First, the soaked and skinned sweetbreads will be baked slowly in butter to firm them and to let...

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$250

Prize money

336

Contest entries

133

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Oct 04, 2024 EST

Won by Jay Wayne 🏆

Title: Add Vodka to Taste

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!

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