Chapter 134: Their Live Broadcast (3)
Chapter 134: Their Live Broadcast (3)
“I……”
Jo Minjoon opened his mouth in a daze, but no words followed. He could only breathe.
His heart pounded. He was genuinely grateful that Rachel had made him such an offer.
Of course, the proposal was probably largely because of his absolute sense of taste, but Jo Minjoon did not want to dwell on that. He might not possess all the talent Rachel believed he did, but Rachel herself had strengths he did not yet understand. If he gave everything he had, perhaps he could eventually live up to her expectations.
He wanted to.
“Emily used to say this all the time. If everyone who wanted to learn under Teacher Rachel lined up, the line would wrap all the way around America and there would still be people left over.”
“Did she?”
Rachel looked at Emily. While Emily sipped her wine with an embarrassed expression, Jo Minjoon continued,
“Some of those people would probably just join the line without even knowing what it was for. But I don’t even need to line up, and the opportunity is right in front of me…… Honestly, it’s incredibly tempting. Especially when there’s no reason for me to refuse.”
“So I can take that as a yes?”
“Yes. It’s a yes that doesn’t need any explanation.”
Rachel smiled brightly, then calmly took another sip of wine as though nothing had happened.
While everyone around them remained dazed by what had just occurred, Kaya picked up a piece of bread and looked at Jo Minjoon.
“Congratulations on getting hired in advance. But……”
Kaya hesitated for a moment, then covered her microphone with her fist. Seeing that, Jo Minjoon was reminded of the past. What had she asked him that way before?
Was it, Don’t like me?
Kaya leaned close and whispered into his ear.
“This……can I dip it in wine?”
“It probably depends on the country……but I don’t see why not. I don’t think the flavour would be anything special, though. It might taste better if you take a bite of bread and then drink the wine.”
“Is that so……”
Jo Minjoon was also speaking with his microphone covered. Martin let out an incredulous sigh and smirked, probably wondering how many people in the history of live broadcasting had ever repeatedly covered their microphones like this.
[That suspicious hand is back again. They did this on Grand Chef too…]
[What are they talking about? Doesn’t anyone have some kind of audio-enhancement equipment?]
[Are they whispering secrets again? And then they’ll still say, ‘We’re just friends.’]
The viewers’ frustration was obvious just from the chat. Jo Minjoon hurriedly spoke.
“Ah, don’t misunderstand. She just—”
He was cut off.
Kaya reached over and covered Jo Minjoon’s mouth with her hand. Jo Minjoon’s eyes widened. Kaya frowned and looked at him sternly before slowly pulling her hand away.
“No. Don’t say it.”
“Why?”
“It’s embarrassing.”
[……What on earth are they talking about that’s so embarrassing?]
[At this point, isn’t this scripted?]
It was fortunate that the servers appeared just then. After exchanging glances, they simultaneously set down seven plates.
Jo Minjoon’s mouth opened slightly.
The dish was strikingly beautiful. A round white ball of mozzarella had swollen until it resembled a baseball. Beside it, edible flowers and herbs had been arranged like a grassy field.
Kaya stared at it in amazement.
“This……is cheese, right?”
“Yes. We pierced the mozzarella and filled it with minestrone soup. As time passes, the steam and heat from the soup cause it to swell like that.”
“Minestrone…… What was that again?”
“It’s an Italian vegetable soup. Vegetables, pasta, rice, and other ingredients are simmered together. In our version, we insist on using orzo. The rice-shaped pasta absorbs the chicken and vegetable stock, and when you cut the mozzarella, the melted cheese coats everything. Try cutting it open.”
Kaya lifted her knife with the nervous expression of someone about to slice a birthday cake.
As soon as she cut into the swollen mozzarella, steam burst out. The cheese slowly collapsed into the soup and over the herb-covered ‘grass’ beside it. The scent of cheese, the fragrance of herbs, and the aroma of the soup hidden inside blended together and rushed into her nose.
She trembled.
Then she turned towards Jo Minjoon with an expression of pure delight.
Jo Minjoon, who was cutting into his own cheese with the same look on his face, smiled brightly at her.
He understood exactly how Kaya felt. She had hardly ever been to a proper restaurant in her life. Of course she would be thrilled by dishes this beautiful and carefully made.
I wanted to take her to a three-star restaurant myself.
Unfortunately, he doubted he would get the chance. Considering the remaining Grand Chef schedules she had, it seemed unlikely that she would somehow avoid visiting a three-star restaurant altogether.
With a trace of regret, Jo Minjoon put some melted cheese and soup into his mouth.
The clean flavour of the chicken stock formed the foundation of the dish, while the richness of the cheese and the chewy texture of the orzo added a pleasant sense of substance. Soon, Kaya exclaimed,
“Wow, this orzo…… It’s the hidden star of the dish.”
For a moment, Jo Minjoon did not understand what she meant. The texture of the orzo was certainly fresh and enjoyable, but it had not struck him strongly enough to call it the star. If anything, he had been more impressed by the stock balancing the herbs and cheese.
Alan, however, smiled brightly.
“You noticed. That’s right. When we were developing this dish, the hardest part was the orzo. At first, I considered using rice, but no matter what kind we tried, the grain aroma caused problems.”
“The grain aroma wouldn’t have been the only issue. The texture would have been a problem too. Celery gives some crunch, but once you cook it for too long, it softens…… The orzo is the only thing that still has an al dente bite, so it feels almost like the main ingredient when you chew it. Ah, I get it. You don’t leave it sitting in the finished soup. Every time you serve the dish, you add the orzo little by little and cook it again separately, right?”
Kaya spoke like an excited child.
Rachel stared at her blankly. She knew people already paid special attention to Kaya, but……
When the silence stretched on, Kaya curled her upper lip slightly.
“Forget it if I’m wrong.”
“That’s……right. I’m a little flustered. I was prepared for Minjoon to expose my recipes, but I didn’t expect you to do it.”
“I copied him. They say friends start resembling each other.”
“Not friends. Married couples.”
“……Same difference. I didn’t even finish primary school. Go easy on me.”
[Every time she says something like that, she somehow looks even prettier. Why?]
[Poor = pitiful = feminine = pretty. Maybe that’s it?]
[She says she’s copying Minjoon, but her palate is ridiculously sensitive too. She really didn’t get called a genius for nothing.]
Rachel lifted her fork with a complicated expression and looked at Kaya.
Kaya had said she was merely imitating Minjoon, but guessing that much in such a short time was not something just anyone could do.
The words Serguei and Jo Minjoon had said about securing Kaya echoed in her mind.
Rachel finally spoke. It might be a little childish, but she could no longer suppress her curiosity.
“Kaya. Can you identify all the ingredients?”
“Mozzarella, celery, courgette, artichoke, carrot, radish, basil, tomato.”
Rachel sucked in a breath.
Seeing how wide Rachel’s eyes had opened, Kaya smirked.
“Those are just the ones I can see.”
“Ah……”
Rachel looked down at the dish with a flat expression. On closer inspection, everything Kaya had named really was visible.
Kaya added,
“As for what I can’t see……peas and chickpeas. But honestly, the flavours are so obvious that it’d be weird not to notice them. There’s chicken stock too, and if you can’t taste that, your tongue is in serious trouble. And if I’m allowed to brag a little……I think there’s some lard in it. I can taste pork fat too.”
“That’s more than impressive enough. You have an excellent palate.”
“……Why can’t I tell those things apart too?”
Sera spoke gloomily from the side.
Emily smiled bitterly and patted her back.
“Even if you’re a gourmet, you need naturally sensitive taste buds to identify things that precisely. I could tell there were peas, but I couldn’t tell what kind. And that’s normal.”
“Still……I’m jealous. The couple both have such sensitive tongues.”
“……We’re not a couple.”
“I’ll correct myself. Pre-couple. ……Fine, I get it. I was wrong. Stop glaring at me like that.”
[The era when you can’t call a couple a couple has arrived.]
[It’s already been years since I stopped calling my wife ‘wife’.]
“Chat, shut up. Please.”
[Now she’s telling the chat to shut up too.]
[I just got insulted. Wow…… Why do I want her to do it again?]
“……Perverts.”
Kaya sighed and shook her head.
Just then, Jo Minjoon’s gaze fixed on the approaching servers.
He could not yet make out what was on the plates, but he could clearly see the system window hovering above one of them.
[Oil Pasta with Squid and Bok Choy Garnish]
Freshness: 96%
Origins: (Too many ingredients to display)
Quality: High
Cooking Score: 10/10
Ten points……for pasta?
And oil pasta, at that.
It was the category Jo Minjoon had always thought would be one of the hardest in which to achieve a perfect score. Oil pasta relied on oil rather than a strongly flavoured sauce, making it that much harder to create something both complex and finely balanced.
The plate was set down.
Jo Minjoon stared at the pasta as though looking at a long-lost lover.
It cut off midway. Continuing from where it stopped:
Its appearance was surprisingly simple. The neatly arranged noodles had an overall green colour, and that was not merely because of the bok choy tucked between them. The olive oil itself was vividly green, perhaps because basil had been ground into it.
At first, Jo Minjoon was puzzled because he could not see any squid. Looking more carefully, however, he realised that the squid had been sliced as thinly as linguine and hidden among the noodles.
Even then, he was confused.
He could not understand what had earned this dish a perfect score of 10.
Still thinking about it, he slurped up some noodles.
The moment they entered his mouth, they sprang and twisted with an elasticity almost like udon, wriggling against his tongue like nakji. He had never experienced this kind of springiness from pasta before.
And when he chewed the noodles together with the squid and bok choy, the sensation went far beyond that.
The distinctive aromas of squid and bok choy were obvious, but somehow there was also a sweetness like barley coming from the noodles.
Even more remarkably, the barley flavour did not clash with the other ingredients at all. A faint spiciness warmed his mouth through the oil, perhaps because chilli seeds had been added alongside the basil. With his tongue and lips heightened by that heat, every strand of noodle felt extraordinarily vivid and distinct.
At that moment, he heard a strange sigh.
Jo Minjoon initially thought someone had simply failed to hold back their pleasure, but that was not quite it.
Beside him, Kaya was chewing the noodles with her eyes closed, her face flushed red.
……Come to think of it, this is Kaya’s first ten-point dish.
Jo Minjoon’s eyes grew moist.
He did not know why seeing Kaya taste her first perfect dish made his chest tighten like this. When he spoke, his voice trembled slightly.
“Is it delicious?”
Kaya nodded without opening her mouth. Her eyes were wet as well.
It was the kind of flavour that made it feel as though the moment she opened her mouth, she might cry.
Jo Minjoon understood her.
With a palate even more sensitive than his own, the impact on her could only be greater.
He took out a handkerchief and gently wiped beneath Kaya’s eyes.
“Your make-up will run.”
[He’s insane.]
[I think these two are even weirder than Hollywood weirdos, just in a completely different way.]
[Are Korean men all like that?]
[I’m a Korean man. No, we are not.]
Anderson continued eating his pasta, then looked towards Alan with a suffocated expression.
Alan, who had been watching Jo Minjoon and Kaya with a satisfied smile, turned towards him.
Anderson spoke awkwardly.
“Do you have anything for indigestion? I think I’m getting heartburn.”