The connoisseur had described the bread as rancid. (connoisseur: expert, aficionado, discerning judge; rancid: stale, spoiled, rank) Ben asked whether she meant the crumb or the butter. She couldn't remember. She had also called the flavor of cold soup insipid, but the only soup on his menu was hot. An acerbic reply would gratify him. (acerbic: caustic, cutting, acid) He chose to invite her to make lunch instead.
She arrived ravenous. (ravenous: famished, starving, voracious) Ben showed her how to broil a pepper, how to let an egg coagulate in a gently heated pan and how to keep fat from turning rancid. (broil: grill, flame-grill; coagulate: clot, congeal, thicken) He would never adulterate good stock to disguise a mistake. (adulterate: contaminate, debase, taint) He rinsed every spoon before it could contaminate the next tasting. (contaminate: taint, pollute, foul) A visiting child asked whether the purple cabbage was supposed to be so vivid. Yes, he said: the color was unadulterated cabbage. (unadulterated: pure, unmixed, untainted)
The critic began to suspect that her assistant had reviewed the wrong shop. At the table she spread the butter, took one bite and burst out laughing. The butter really was bad. Ben tried it, blushed, and threw the dish away. They shared the bread plain. Her shortest review went to press that evening: "Come for the loaf."