Once upon a time a cook named Chubby and a cook named Granda each had their own restaurant. Granda was a better cook because she had a magic ladle called Po. Chubby's cooking was not as good so his guests weren't happy, while Granda's guests were very pleased with all of her specialties, which they could hardly resist. Their restaurants were next to one another. Chubby had a bird called Kiki in his restaurant and Granda had a cat called Azriel in her restaurant.
One day, Chubby saw that the cage of the bird Kiki was empty. Kiki was a smart bird. She noticed that Granda had a special, magic ladle Po with whose help Granda could make all those tasty treats. Azriel wanted to catch and eat Kiki in order to prevent his mistress' secret of the magic ladle to be discovered. But Kiki made a plan. She would steal the magic ladel. Azriel promised Granda he would catch Kiki and have a nice dinner of her before she could tell Granda's secret. Granda was worried and thought it best to hide Po, the magic ladle. She hid it in the kitchen drawer between the kitchen towels. Later, Kiki the bird sneaked into Granda's kitchen and started snooping around trying to find the magic ladle. Suddenly, Azriel woke up and ran towards Kiki. “I will catch you now!� Azriel shrieked. He started chasing Kiki, jumping up and down the cupboards and over the chairs and on the table and up on the chandelier. Suddenly a huge crash was heard; the chandelier fell from the ceiling.
The noise woke up Granda sleeping in the next room. Luckily, Kiki managed to fly away before Granda could see her and Granda blamed Azriel for all the mess in her precious kitchen. Somehow Azriel managed to explain to Granda what had really happened so they both went to Chubby’s restaurant to have a serious chat. But Chubby didn’t know what in the world are those two blabbing about. “Look what your stupid bird did to my precious kitchen!”, yelled Granda angrily.
Chubby apologized and said he was terribly sorry and promised to have a serious chat with his naughty pet bird, and afterwards to come and help clean Granda’s kitchen. “Why would you do something like that, Kiki?”, asked Chubby. “She has a magic ladle, you know”, said Kiki. Chubby was surprised. Kiki then told him the whole story how she found out about the ladle and where it was hidden. Kiki and Chubby made a plan. They will go help Granda clean her kitchen but they will also find the magic ladle. And sure enough, while they were cleaning the kitchen, Kiki saw Granda locking and unlocking a certain kitchen drawer. Later that very night, Kiki sneaked back into Granda’s kitchen and stole the magic ladle from the drawer. When she brought it to Chubby, he was so happy that he started cooking right away. He cooked so good and tasty that all the people started coming to his restaurant. Meanwhile, Granda was looking for her missing magic ladle and came to Chubby’s place.
When she saw that he had her magic ladle, she was furious. She grabs the ladle from Chubby’s hands and starts walking out angry as she’s ever been. But at that very moment, a wonderful smell hits her nose and she feels happy and good. She started talking to Chubby about the dish he is preparing and she finds it quite interesting. Suddenly an idea pops into her mind. “Why don’t we bring down that wall between our two restaurants and join out businesses?” she said.
They did it and a few days later they entered together as a team at a big cooking competition. Of course, they won. Even Azriel and Kiki started dancing together from joy. With the money from the reward they built a bigger and better kitchen where they could both cook together and share the magic ladle. Everyone cooked happily ever after‌
Text by Petra, Lorena, Marija, Mihael and Filip Illustrated by Petra and Lorena 3rd class Cerić, Croatia November, 2013.