She was enjoying the champagne, enjoying her friends, and turned to Jörg once more with her familiar, loving attentiveness. After the champagne there was dinner, more formal and delicious than the previous evening, with a white tablecloth, her grandmother’s dishes and cutlery and silver candles, with four courses and, as a highlight, Rhineland Sauerbraten, Jörg’s favorite dish. Jörg talked of the time he had spent working in the prison kitchen. “The chef had been a cook in a three-star restaurant—at least that’s what he said, and we believed him—until he got fed up working late and opted for the regular working hours of public service. He had dozens of recipes stored in his computer, with calories and vitamins and minerals and who knows what else, and a program that he used to turn them into the menu for the week. The recipes were standard fare, from Königsberger Klopsen with caper sauce to Nuremberg roasted bratwurst with sauerkraut, and everyone was always complaining about the boring food.
