Other than complaining about how it feels like someone's driven a knife into my stomach?

[Oddly enough, however, the complaint makes the most recent pang fade away, and James straightens, rolling his shoulders back. Putting on a brave face for the sake of this man's kindness, and replies only after he takes a small sip of water from the cup.]

Sorry. Is this the kind of thing I can expect from this place? A cooking competition kind of a weird metric to judge whether or not someone's... world is worth saving.