Chapter 102: Cooking Style (1)
Chapter 102: Cooking Style (1)
“If I’m going to be a candle that’ll go out eventually anyway, then at the very least, I want to set a great mountain ablaze so that my shadow never disappears.”
Kaya spoke with her usual confidence—no, she seemed to shine even more brightly than usual. Her chef’s uniform made her look more magnificent than she had in a white dress. Instead of her usual crooked smile, she wore one filled with dignity and confidence.
When had she stopped being so wary of other people? There was not even a trace of envy on her face now. It was the expression Jo Minjoon admired: the dignified face of a chef. Her words might sound rough, but there was firmness behind every one of them, along with an ambition and desire that seemed almost dangerous.
This was Kaya Lotus, the woman one could not help but admire and love.
But the moment Jo Minjoon reached out towards her, he realised his arm was too short.
No, he was too small.
He was so insignificant that she did not even take him into consideration.
That horrible sense of inferiority crawled back to him like a cockroach. Jo Minjoon jolted upright, his face pale as though he had seen some hideous monster.
A dream.
Usually, waking from one like that would have brought relief, but he felt no such thing now. If anything, he felt disgusted because the dream had exposed something buried inside him.
He panted for breath. Realising that his back was soaked with sweat, Jo Minjoon frowned. It was an unpleasant morning in more ways than one.
Even after showering, the feeling did not disappear. When he saw Kaya waiting in the hall as though she had something to tell him, he actually flinched and took a step back.
“…Do you have diarrhoea?”
“Just make me breakfast.”
“Now you’re really treating me like a servant. Hey, I told you I’d make breakfast until I got eliminated, remember? There isn’t much time left.”
“Why? Are you planning on getting eliminated?”
“…No. I’m going to win.”
“If you win, you’ll have to keep making breakfast for me.”
At the natural way Jo Minjoon said it, Kaya gave him a strange look.
“You really want me to keep doing it?”
“I’m joking. If I went that far, I wouldn’t be a chef, I’d be a fraud. Well… even if it was half a joke, I’m surprised you actually kept your promise. You’ve done well.”
“Hmph. You idiot. Just because I’m poor doesn’t mean my conscience is poor too.”
“Right. I believe in you.”
It was precisely because she was so straightforward and principled by nature that she had been able to come this far. The thought suddenly occurred to him that she was a star: a star he could not reach, but also one he could not give up on.
Even after receiving this opportunity, even after being given the chance to spend time beside her, was he going to fall behind again?
“…You always get serious over the strangest things.”
“What’s strange about it? I’m expressing the trust between people.”
“Forget it. You’re just making me feel like the weird one.” Kaya twisted her lips and turned away.
For some reason, Jo Minjoon wanted to pinch her cheek, but if he actually did it, he might get arrested for assault.
Although Kaya probably would not really call the police.
When Kaya headed to the pantry, Jo Minjoon followed her and looked over the ingredients. Kaya glanced at him in surprise.
“What’s with you? I can understand lunch, but you always leave breakfast to me.”
“My dream gave me a bit of motivation. If I don’t put more effort even into the little things…”
“Whew. Get rid of that overly earnest personality of yours. I like that part of you, but sometimes it gets suffocating.”
Jo Minjoon merely smiled.
He had always been like this. But after coming all the way here, he could no longer afford not to be. There were many people who wished they could return to the past, and he had once been one of them.
He did not know why he had actually been sent back. Perhaps there was no reason at all. Perhaps he had simply been lucky.
Time had turned back, and he had been given another opportunity.
An opportunity to cook.
If he let this chance slip away too, Jo Minjoon would never again be able to hold his head high before himself.
“It’s because I want to become a good cook like you.”
“You’re telling me to make it taste better, aren’t you?”
“It’s breakfast made by the unparalleled Kaya Lotus. How could anything she makes not taste good?”
“Ugh, what’s with all the compliments? Disgusting.”
Despite saying that, she could not stop the corners of her mouth from rising. She tried desperately to suppress her smile and finally snapped in irritation.
“Ah! Now I’m smiling for no reason because of you!”
“Then just smile. Why are you acting so embarrassed about it?”
“Ah, I don’t know. I’m cooking now. Don’t talk to me. The kitchen is a place where one careless moment can cause an accident! Got it?”
“Now you sound like you’re auditioning for a public safety campaign.”
Kaya said nothing and merely glared at him. If he found even that cute, was there something wrong with his eyes?
Then again, considering he saw her almost the same way other people saw an idol, perhaps it was only natural.
Kaya rubbed her eyes with her fingers.
“Ah, my eyes hurt. So, what should I make for breakfast?”
“Porridge or paella would be fine.”
“If Chloe were here, she’d be horrified by all those carbohydrates.”
“We’re not bodyguards… Ah, I said bodyguards. We’re not bodybuilders, so there’s no need to go that far. Besides, you don’t even exercise.”
“I do. I lift dumbbells, and what’s that thing you squeeze with your hand?”
“You use them once or twice and then abandon them.” Instead of answering, Kaya turned her attention to the eggs.
Jo Minjoon shook his head. “You really need to do something about always starting breakfast with eggs. I’ve never liked eating eggs in the morning.”
“What? Why? They’re delicious.”
“My mouth gets dry while I sleep. Imagine putting eggs into a mouth like that. Of course I wouldn’t like it.”
“That’s why you eat them with sausages or bacon. The deliciousness of the egg washes away that dryness in your mouth. You seriously don’t understand that flavour?”
“I don’t like bacon or sausages dripping with oil either. I’d rather have grilled fish.”
“Fish has oil too, doesn’t it? I understand your cooking style now, but stop being so stubborn about it!”
At Kaya’s words, Jo Minjoon went blank.
He stared at her as though possessed.
Kaya frowned. “What? What is it? Why?”
“…My cooking style?”
“Yeah. Your cooking style. What about it?”
“I have a style too? I… just cook whatever comes to mind and copy other people’s dishes. Honestly, even my cooking methods are pretty plain. But I still have a style?”
“That plainness is your style, idiot.” Kaya spoke as though she could not understand why he was confused. “Are you a machine? You’re a person. If you’re a person, you have a personality, and if you have a personality, it shows in your cooking.”
“I’m naturally a quiet sort of person. I don’t have any particular colour.”
“Then having no colour is your style. Why? Does everyone have to be flashy?”
“…Then what was the most delicious thing I’ve made?”
“Anything with a sauce.” Kaya answered calmly. Jo Minjoon’s eyes widened, and she continued. “Your sauces taste the best.”
“…Even if the sauce came from someone else’s recipe?”
“Of course. How many people in the world do you think have recipes that are completely their own? Unless you’re doing something unusual like molecular gastronomy, that’s difficult.”
“That’s true… But why do you seem more grown-up today?”
No answer came.
Breakfast consisted of blueberry yoghurt, toasted rye bread, basil-scented butter, rolled bacon and a Spanish omelette with plenty of tomato paste.
After taking a bite, Jo Minjoon asked, “That Tess Gilly woman—what’s she doing these days? Has she quietened down?”
Quite some time had passed. It had already been nearly a month since the incident. Episode fourteen had aired yesterday, covering the mission from when only the top six contestants remained.
There were now only three broadcasts left: the quarter-finals, the semi-finals and the final.
…And only two missions left for us.
Jo Minjoon’s expression grew serious. Kaya swallowed a bite of rye bread spread with butter before answering.
“The more she blows the whole thing up, the more obvious it’ll become that she’s an idiot. If she’s not completely stupid, she probably won’t do anything else. She’ll keep talking, sure, but… I don’t know. Martin seems to be handling it somehow.”
“Still, you’re calmer about it than before.”
“Getting angry only makes things harder for me. Besides, plenty of people used to bad-mouth my past anyway. The only difference now is that I can see what people are saying on the internet. So if I don’t look, that’s the end of it.”
“That’s a good way to think about it.”
“You’re doing it again. I told you not to treat me like a kid.”
“Right. You’re not a kid anymore.”
Jo Minjoon smiled. There was both satisfaction and bitterness in it.
The complete Kaya Lotus he remembered was slowly beginning to emerge. It was something worth celebrating, but at the same time, it made him increasingly anxious. The more complete she became, the harder it would be for him to catch up with her.
At least until the final…
He felt sorry for Anderson, but he wanted to be the one standing opposite Kaya in the final mission.
It did not matter even if he lost.
The three-hundred-thousand-dollar prize and the fame that came with winning Grand Chef were secondary. What mattered was whether he could become the kind of chef capable of standing there.
“Anyway, why hasn’t Anderson come down?”
“I don’t know. Maybe he’s exercising somewhere. That fraud.”
“Fraud? Ah… you mean when he said Martin was calling you?”
“Yeah. He’s seriously weird. Does he have some kind of condition? Why would he play a prank like that? It’s not like we’re close enough for that sort of thing.”
Kaya pressed down on the omelette with her fork. Tomato paste burst through the yellow surface and flowed out like blood.
Feeling vaguely disturbed by the sight, Jo Minjoon looked away and saw Anderson entering through the kitchen door.
“You eating?”
“Yoghurt and bread will be enough.” Anderson said that and dropped heavily into a chair. He had simply taken the nearest seat, but of all places, it happened to be beside Kaya.
Kaya glared at him, picked up her plate and moved to the seat beside Jo Minjoon instead.
Unfortunately, Anderson was now sitting directly across from her.
“Hey, fraud.”
“…Are you talking to me?”
“Yeah, you fraud. Because of you, I didn’t even get to spend proper time with Chloe until the end.”
“Ha. You should’ve treated her better normally. What, you were planning to suddenly do something for her because she was leaving?”
“Shut up. You’ve got no right to say that. More importantly, why did you lie in the first place? Did you really do it just to make fun of me?”
Anderson did not answer.
Kaya looked at Jo Minjoon with an annoyed expression.
“See? He’s like this.”
“Just put up with him. Anderson probably had a reason he couldn’t tell you.”
“What reason…? Anyway, what’s that?”
Kaya looked at what Jo Minjoon was typing into the notes app on his phone. She could not understand it. His handwriting was not the problem; the letters themselves were unfamiliar because he was writing in Korean.
Jo Minjoon answered calmly. “I’m practising designing recipes. I’m thinking through different possibilities. Like you said, if sauces are my strongest point, then that strength should show in my recipes too. I need to keep working at it and refining it.”
“…You really do work hard. You know, I’ve thought this before but never said it. Korean letters look really cool.”
“That depends on the handwriting. Some people have handwriting that looks far worse than anything written with the alphabet.”
“Hmm… Ah, right. Then do something for me.”
“What?”
“Write my name in Korean. It’d be nice if you could give me a Korean name too.”
A Korean name.
Jo Minjoon stared at Kaya for a moment, then wrote two large characters on the screen. Kaya looked at them excitedly.
“How do you read that?”
“Gaya. It’s basically the same. You just soften the pronunciation a little. And it’s actually quite a pretty Korean name. In ancient times… there were even states called Geumgwan Gaya and Daegaya.”
(Translator’s Note: Gaya Confederacy — A confederacy of small states that existed in southern Korea from approximately the 1st century CE until 562. Among its major states were Geumgwan Gaya, centred around present-day Gimhae and absorbed by Silla in 532, and Daegaya, centred around present-day Goryeong and conquered by Silla in 562. In Chapter 102, Jo Minjoon points out that Kaya’s name can be rendered naturally in Korean as “Gaya”, prompting the historical comparison.)
“Geum… gwang… gaya? Ugh, I don’t know. Gaya. Gaya. Yeah. I like it.” Kaya traced her new name on the plate with her fork and smiled happily.
It had been a while since Jo Minjoon had seen her smile so brightly, like an ordinary young woman, and he found himself smiling without realising it.
Then Anderson, who had been watching the two of them, coughed. “Do mine too.”
“Your name?”
“Yeah.”
Jo Minjoon frowned.
Trying to turn the name Anderson into something Korean was not easy. After thinking for a long while, he slowly typed something onto the screen.
Anderson looked at it expectantly.
“How do you read this?”
“…Anduksam.”
“Anduksam. Oh… It certainly has a mysterious Asian feel to it. From now on, if I ever go to Korea or meet Koreans, I’ll have to introduce myself with this name.”
“Uh… I don’t think you really need to do that.”
“No. I like it. I can take a screenshot on my phone and save it, right?”
“O-of course.” Jo Minjoon stammered and laughed awkwardly.
Anduksam.
If Anderson ever found out the truth, what kind of reaction would he have?
…He won’t kill me, right?