How It All Goes Down
- Hassan has tea with Paul's widow, Madame Verdun. He says outside is lively and fresh compared to inside, which is stuffy and a reminder of Paul's death.
- Madame Verdun reveals a theory about Paul's death: that the restaurant critics, who were about to demote his name in the next edition of Le Guide, drove him to unhappiness.
- She then gets to the real reason she invited him over. Paul left instructions to host a dinner for a hundred friends after his death. These friends are basically everyone who's anyone in the food world, and though she's confused by the request, she will honor her husband's wishes.
- And guess what? Paul also ordered Hassan to be in charge of this event. Even though Hassan only has two stars.
- Before Hassan leaves, Madame tells him that Verdun looked at Hassan like a younger version of himself. On the way home Hassan tells himself that they are nothing alike, since Paul ended his own life.
- Tons of restaurants show up at the Arc de Triomphe for a demonstration against the added taxes for restaurants. Hassan runs into Le Comte, who warns Hassan against the angry mob and looks down on the whole ordeal.
- They start the procession down the Champs Elysees, and all goes well for an hour until the riot police show up. Anarchists slowly and quietly start working their way into the crowd, and soon cars are burning and a loud and bloody fight breaks out.
- Naturally, this takes Hassan right back to the riot in India as a child, where his mother was killed.
- He takes Jean-Luc, a young boy who is an apprentice at Le Chat Méchant, and runs away from the crowd, catching a barge that is heading down the river. They glide away down the Seine, safe.
- While they're waiting for Mehtab to come pick them up, they watch an Algerian family roast lamb on a spit. Hassan is struck by the simplicity of the scene and the flavors that he smells.
- He glances behind him and swears that he sees Mallory calling and waving to him. Which doesn't make sense… because Mallory is dead. Anyway, this woman looks just like her.