Cooking!anon here. Yay! Update! Even if this part is so sad, dawww. Poor Gilbert and poor Elizabeth and... well, poor everybody, actually, including Ludwig. Now I wonder who the nephew could be... You're a really good writer thought, both at sad/angsty and funny.

About cooking: you're doing well, until now. My father had a restaurant for a while (noting fancy, more like a trattoria) and the description of the kitchen works imo. Chefs are usually really anal about their instruments of work, especially knives (good sets are pricey, and hard to come by!).

Anything more specific? Recipes, etc.