"I don't think I'm going to start making people call me 'chef' just yet, but I'm glad this turned out all right." He shrugged a little, cut into a meatball. "I had fun making it, too. Figuring out the recipe, the measuring, it was sort of relaxing, you know? A way to put away the constant thinking about patients and focus entirely on something else. I might have to try this again."

He paused, looked across the table at Eli. "I take it you won't mind being my guinea pig?"