Sammy's Kitchen - 1. Chapter 1

The day I was finally able to post explicit videos online had really changed our lives. But let me start from the beginning.

I launched my cooking channel one year ago when I was fourteen. Cooking has always been my passion. I started helping my mom make Christmas cookies at the age of three. By the age of five, I refused any meal to be prepared without my participation. Of course Mom wouldn't let me carry a knife but I was there to mix sauces, add spices and check on the oven while she was resting. My "help" sometimes resulted in us ending up with a takeaway pizza or Chinese but disasters like these weren't frequent and always happened among laughter, even near the end of the month, when money was starting to run out.

My father died in a factory accident a few months after my brother and I were born. Even though I'd never met him, I liked to look at his pictures and imagine what he was like. He was very handsome and it was clear that we got our looks after him. As he was smiling at me from old photographs, he looked so alive that I almost felt like he was about to come back from work and hug me, my brother and Mom, eat the meal that we've made and joke about stuff.

Soon after Jake's and mine tenth birthday, Mom lost her well-paid job as a consultant at a bank and hopped from one poorly paid one to another ever since. When we were eleven, she finally gave up on her career I guess and she took a second shift to provide for us - ironically at the factory Dad used to work at. That's when I effectively took over all cooking duties at home.

By that time, the chef knife was like an extension of my hand. While other kids my age spent their days playing sports or video games, I was cutting, skinning, chopping, slicing and dicing. I knew tons of recipes that Mom taught me but I also started following cooking channels to learn new cuisines and techniques. I not only focused on the taste - I became obsessed with presentation. I convinced Mom to buy sets of multicolored, ceramic plates and bowls to underline every dish's character and provide good contrast. I had to stop myself from decorating every plate for twenty minutes after Mom and Jake started complaining their food was cold.

Make no mistake, I knew how to cook efficiently, too. I prepared half-products in advance and used them to create new meals from the same ingredients all week. Eventually, I started doing groceries myself. I had every week carefully planned and learned how to buy cheap, healthy and good quality stuff. There was a market just across the street so it didn't take a lot of convincing to relieve Mom of yet another chore.

And while I know you're all here to read about my progress as a cook, I really need to cut it short and get to the part where me and my twin brother Jake became lovers - I hope you can forgive me.

Jake and I are identical twins. Slim. Brown, curly hair. Cute, round faces. Blood of my blood, skin of my skin. Our interests, however, were another thing. While Jake couldn't boil an egg without burning the whole apartment, he was beating me at every sport you could imagine. His favorite one was soccer but he could really compete and succeed at just about anything. I loved it when he came home after a game, tired, sweaty and most importantly, famished. Jake loved my cooking and always made sure to have something nice to say about it. His compliments weren't empty. He was my biggest supporter but also my biggest critic. He'd always say whenever I'd make the eggplant too mushy or add too much cardamom seeds. Jake had a talent for giving me constructive feedback without sounding like an asshole. I loved him for that.

The early days of my cooking channel were humble to say the least. The camera in my phone wasn't state of the art by any means and I didn't even have a proper stand, not to mention other equipment like a microphone or lamps. Our kitchen was long and narrow and poorly lit. I tried hundreds of different setups before I managed to work out something more or less acceptable. I only had my phone to film with, so it took a lot of time to reposition it and film different parts of the meal prep process.

What does it all have to do with me and Jake taking our brotherly love to the next level? I'm getting there, easy.

I hate to say it but I was one of those kids who were thankful for the lockdowns. Jake and I got our laptops. They were cheap and slow, not nearly good enough to play games. But when remote classes started, I would just place it in the kitchen and listen to the teacher talk while I got busy making pickles, curry pastes, broths and so on. I only had to show my face at the beginning of the class and then we were allowed to turn off our cameras. I would only turn it on whenever I heard my name which led to a few rather risky situations.

The first few videos I made weren't very good. They were stuff like "Gordon Ramsay aglio olio but with a twist", "Making Domino's style pizza at home goes wrong" and other similar clickbait titles. I would post them on my social media and send them to my friends, but what can I say, none of the kids my age were interested in cooking. After a few months, my most popular video had 69 views and zero comments and I could only say "nice" to myself with a sad smile.

A breakthrough happened on my 15th birthday and looking back, I owe it all to Jake. I was in the middle of filming my "Making Party Spring Rolls for my 15th Birthday" video when he came home after his game. To say the kitchen wasn't sound-separated properly would be an understatement. It didn't even had fucking door! For this reason I decided to overdub some of the audio and record it separately. There were some parts where I was using the original sound to bring more life to a video, especially at the beginning and at the end. Jake knew better than to interrupt me and when he went to shower and change, I moved to explaining the process of assembling the spring rolls.

"And now to the tricky part," I said looking at the camera.

It took me a lot of practice to look at it and speak with confidence. It was so awkward talking to myself at first!

"Take a sheet of rice paper, just like this. Be careful because it can crack easily and it will ruin your day. Now, you gently place it in a bowl of cool water and soak it for about…"

I didn't finish the sentence because that's when Jake stormed into the kitchen without a warning. He was only wearing his boxer briefs after a shower. No biggie, I've seen him naked many times when we were showering together to save water. Aside from one significant difference, it was more or less like looking in the mirror. The difference was his upper body. Long story short, playing soccer and swimming fifty times a week gives you better results than whisking eggs. He had a nice six-pack and toned, slim chest. He was every girl's dream boy. I wasn't bad myself but his body was just steaming hot! Even hotter than the oil I was using for frying my spring rolls! Ba dum tss.

So anyway, he invaded my shot, half naked and hugged me so hard he squeezed the air out of my lungs.

"Can't… breathe…" I faked.

Jake placed a peck on my cheek and let me go. Yes, we were close.

"Happy birthday, Sammy!" he said and gave me a small box wrapped in a packaging paper.

"Jakeyyyy, you ruined my shot," I complained but took his gift. Jake's face formed the cutest pout I've ever seen. I melted instantly and hugged him back. "I'm just kidding, Jakey, you know you can ruin my shot whenever you want. Happy birthday to you too, dummy." I pulled back from the hug and gave him a worried look. "But I don't have anything for you…"

"Don't mention it, Sammy. You and your cooking are the best gifts I could ever wish for. Now, open it."

I looked at the package and unwrapped it impatiently. As soon as I saw the logo beneath the wrapping paper, I gasped.

"Jakey…"

"Happy birthday, little brother. I love you."

I couldn't believe it. The newest iPhone. It cost a fortune. I removed the rest of the paper and there it was - the newest model in the original box. I was speechless.

"Jakey… I can't believe it, how?"

"I've been saving for a while, I guess."

"Saving for a while? More like, all your life! Oh Jakey, I don't deserve it."

"You're the best brother in the world, Sammy."

I placed the box aside and went back for a hug. This time it was me about to crush his ribs. A few tears escaped my eyes as we were holding each other. "Thank you," I repeated over and over, "thank you, thank you!"

***

I had to take a break before finishing filming. Making spring rolls is a delicate process and my hands were shaking for another fifteen minutes.

A new iPhone. See, I was not in love with technology or any particular brands. But I was in a serious video-making business now and this phone had the best goddamn camera I could ever hope for. I didn't even open it right away. I knew I wouldn't finish this video at all if I did it now.

Eventually, I repeated the take Jake interrupted and finished filming the rest of the video. The rolls came out amazing and I couldn't wait to make more of them for the guests later. Yea, we had a few friends coming over. I loved cooking but most of all I loved cooking for others.

With that in mind, I didn't waste any time - I cleaned up and began editing the video. I wanted to post it on the actual day of my birthday (not that it would matter to anyone but me) and I knew I wouldn't have time for it later. It took me about two hours to choose the right takes and record remaining overdubs. The resulting quality was barely acceptable. I had an urge to just delete it all and start over tomorrow with my sweet ass new camera.

Just for fun, I decided to watch some rejected takes, namely the one with Jake. I couldn't help but smile when my brother walked half naked into the shot and hugged me. It was too wholesome! By the time the clip ended, I had to wipe my watery eyes. "I don't deserve you, Jake," I thought to myself.

My laptop had very limited storage so I was about to delete the unused clips when I decided to rewatch the Jake clip again. And again. And again. Fuck, it got me every time. It was just too cute.

"You're not very smart, aren't you, Sammy?" I murmured to myself and added the Jake clip into my video. Sure, the channel was about cooking but cooking is life. How can I hope to gain any audience with boring, unrelatable stuff?

When I was done, I quickly uploaded it to my channel. I changed the title to "Making Birthday Party Spring Rolls from Scratch for my Twin Brother". I quickly made a thumbnail with Jake holding the wrapped gift, added a big, green question mark above it and saved. When I was done, I smiled to myself and hit "post".

***

When Mom came home, the party was already underway. It was nothing big. Maybe eight different snacks and one main course butter chicken with rice I made from leftovers. We only invited six of our friends to play board games and watch a movie later. Thankfully our room was fairly big with just some essential furniture and our two beds in the corner.

"Happy birthday, boys,” Mom said. “I'm sorry I'm late, they made us stay extra hours again."

"Don't worry, Mom, grab some food, I made tons of it!"

"Looks delicious. Thank you for taking care of the house, Sam. Have a good time boys, I won't be bothering you. Just don't be too loud, I need to lay down for a little bit."

My smile faded after she left the room. She looked so tired. She always did her best to not let her overworked schedule affect us but there was no doubt that it wasn’t healthy for her. I would be so happy if I could somehow help and provide. Let her quit her second job. I thought about my pitiful 69 views on YouTube and sighed. Maybe I could get a summer job this year. I felt like the biggest asshole with my state of the art phone and spending all day pursuing my hobbies while she had to work her ass off to make it all possible.

A few hours later, the movie ended and everyone went home apart from Jake’s best friend Sasha and my best friend Dean. They both lived in the same building so technically they didn’t even have to wear shoes when visiting us.

We were just chilling on the floor when Dean turned to me. “Hey Sam, you haven’t sent me any new videos lately. Did you give up on it already?”

“As a matter of fact, I didn’t. I just posted a new video today. You just never watch anything that I send you so I stopped.”

“Sorry dude, I’m great at eating food but I don’t really want to know how it’s made. That’s why I need a wife who knows how to cook.”

“My wife won’t be allowed in the kitchen,” I said confidently.

“Dude,” Jake said all of the sudden without looking away from his phone. “Why am I in your new video?”

I scratched the back of my head nervously. “Uh, I was going to ask you for permission but you weren’t around and I thought it sorta looked cute.”

“And why does it already have 2k views?!”

“What?”

“Look!”

The four of us bent over Jake’s screen. He wasn’t lying. The video had 2,3k views to be precise. Less than six hours after it was posted. For my standards, it was beyond huge.

I looked up at Jake and we screamed at the same time and leapt into a hug.

“Bro, you’re famous!” Jake exclaimed.

“No bro, it’s us who are absolutely not famous. But it’s awesome!”

“Hey, now I wanna watch it,” Dean said.

So we did and the boys thought it was cute and gay. They liked my phone, too, although I didn’t have time to even power it on yet. Two hours later Sasha and Dean were gone and Jake and I were in our beds. I was scrolling down through the comments and there were over twenty! Needless to say, most were focused on the gift scene that wasn’t even supposed to make the final cut. Some actually did comment on the spring rolls. I couldn’t be happier.

“Jake?” I whispered.

“Huh?”

“Thank you. It was the best birthday ever. I’m sorry I didn’t get you anything.”

“You did. I got the best brother in the world. Don’t mention it again. Goodnight, Sammy.”

“I love you, Jakey. Goodnight”

“I love you too, little bro.”

Little bro. I always rolled my eyes when he called me that. I didn’t think he was entitled to calling me that just for coming out to this world twenty three minutes earlier. Today I let him have this one.