Chapter 147: The Hands of a Master (4)
Chapter 147: The Hands of a Master (4)
Jo Minjoon’s hand moved instinctively towards the system window, although of course there was nothing he could actually touch.
The recipe he had devised was a fusion dish. First, the mackerel would be smoked, then brushed with apple juice and soy sauce before being caramelised until the surface became crisp. Wasabi would be spread inside, and the fish would be placed over rice cooked together with apple peel.
It was quite different from ordinary sushi, but Jo Minjoon did not dislike the recipe. For a long time, he had wondered where nationality should fit into his cooking. But perhaps it was already too late to worry about that. No matter what country’s cuisine he attempted, he could never match the understanding of people who had eaten and enjoyed that food their entire lives.
Jo Minjoon’s strength lay elsewhere. He was good at influencing flavour through things like purées and sauces, and above all, he preferred methods that preserved the flavour of the main ingredient rather than burying it. That was true whether he was working with sauce or fish. With the recipe he had just imagined, he thought he could blend the fruit and fish together without allowing either to overwhelm the other.
Of course, there would still be difficulty in slicing the sushi into the most suitable size. The system did not tell him what the ideal shape should be, and even if he knew it, translating that knowledge into his hands would be another problem entirely.
“……Are you okay?”
The staff rarely spoke while filming, but they could not help growing worried. Jo Minjoon had been staring into empty air and muttering to himself, only for his frown to gradually melt into a smile.
They all knew about his absolute sense of taste. They knew he possessed a talent that might one day remain in culinary history. Even so, this was perhaps the first time that talent had seemed so unfamiliar and distant to them.
Jo Minjoon slowly turned his head. The staff member who had spoken flinched slightly when he met his gaze. There was unmistakable joy in Jo Minjoon’s brown eyes.
“I’m really fine……!”
His voice trembled with excitement. He immediately went back inside.
Rachel was already standing, apparently having finished her conversation with Yamamoto. Jo Minjoon looked disappointed.
“Ah, are we leaving already?”
“We should. There are still other things we ought to try.”
“Then please wait just a moment. There’s something I want to tell Mr. Yamamoto.”
“You mean me?”
“Yes. Do you have something I can write on?”
Yamamoto handed him paper and a pen.
Jo Minjoon immediately began writing down the recipe he had just devised.
Rachel watched him closely. Had he really composed all of that in such a short amount of time?
His palate is extraordinary enough……but the speed of his mind is just as remarkable.
Talent in the kitchen was not limited to the tongue or hands. Intelligence mattered too. A chef had to calculate the movements of everyone in the kitchen, keep track of accumulating orders, and create new dishes. In all those areas, the quicker and more organised someone’s mind was, the greater the advantage.
Martin turned his camera towards the paper as Jo Minjoon finished writing.
Yamamoto slowly read through the recipe, then abruptly widened his eyes.
“This is……a recipe?”
“It’s something I came up with after being inspired by your sushi. Rather than keeping it only in my head, I thought it would be better if you cooked it someday.”
“Applewood and apple juice…… I don’t know exactly how it will turn out, but I’m curious about the flavour.”
“I think it may be the best recipe I’ve ever come up with.”
“Usually, the work someone creates today is better than what they created yesterday. Thank you for entrusting this child to me.”
Yamamoto smiled brightly, carefully folded the paper, and slipped it into his pocket.
Rachel turned towards Jo Minjoon.
“You thought of that recipe in such a short time?”
“Uh……sometimes these things just come all at once. Yamamoto’s sushi stimulated me a lot. If I’d tried to create it without tasting his food first, it probably would’ve been difficult.”
“There’s no need to be humble. You did well. Whatever inspiration you gain from the places we visit, make it yours. That may ultimately become something deeper and greater than anything your teacher can simply hand you.”
“Yes.”
Jo Minjoon was in an excellent mood.
Just as they were about to leave, Yamamoto spoke again.
“Have you decided where you’re going next?”
“No. We were planning to walk around and enter somewhere that looked promising. That’s how we found this place too.”
“If you don’t mind, I’d like to recommend a restaurant……”
“What kind?”
“……It’s difficult to explain exactly what kind of restaurant it is. You could call it Japanese, but the range is too broad to simply leave it at that. You’ll see many different kinds of dishes there. Normally, it’s somewhere I’d rather keep to myself……but I think the person there would welcome you.”
To be honest, Yamamoto’s recommendation did not immediately appeal to Jo Minjoon.
The reason was simple.
Many different kinds of dishes.
He had just been deeply moved by Yamamoto’s sushi, and now he wanted to see other masters who had poured their entire lives into a single field—udon, ramen, or something similar. If this next place did not even specialise in one kind of food but instead served many different dishes, he wondered how deep its mastery could really go.
Still, Jo Minjoon accepted the roughly drawn map from Yamamoto and smiled.
“If circumstances allow, we’ll go. Thank you for the recommendation. And thank you for the sushi too. It was the best I’ve ever eaten.”
“I still have plenty to improve. If you come again one day, I’ll serve you even better sushi.”
At Yamamoto’s modest answer, Jo Minjoon smiled brightly and turned away.
After he followed Rachel outside, Robert, the youngest PD, looked towards Martin.
“Did you get enough good footage?”
“Obviously. Think about it. Who do you think is the hottest person on this programme?”
“……I don’t know. Minjoon is very popular, but if we’re talking about overall fame, wouldn’t it still be Rachel?”
“Exactly. The fact that you even have to think about which of them is more important tells you something. And remember, Minjoon only appeared on television half a year ago. Yet already, his presence is being compared with Rachel’s.”
Martin looked towards Rachel, who was smiling as she talked with Jo Minjoon.
Because the two were together so often, it was easy to take the sight for granted.
But when he stopped to consider the real value of that young man……
A chill ran through him.
“Doesn’t it scare you? If this is only his first step, what kind of meaning will that man have in the culinary world later?”
“Well, he’ll become a legend. There are always legends.”
“Legends are remembered after they’re gone. He won’t end as just a memory.”
“Then what will he become?”
“Everyone will want to catch up to Minjoon. They’ll want to imitate his imagination and his philosophy. Right……he……”
Martin’s lips trembled.
It was not even his own profession, yet just imagining the day that might come made his chest tighten with excitement.
“He’ll become the standard.”
Nothing lasted forever.
Even so, Jo Minjoon had not expected the excitement Yamamoto’s sushi had left in him to disappear so quickly.
Another dish had already pushed it aside.
Unfortunately, not in a good way.
Do I finish this or not?
Jo Minjoon glared at the bowl in front of him.
He and Rachel were now seated at a small street-side food stall. There were no other customers, but given how tiny the place was, that alone was not particularly strange. Jo Minjoon had not been able to see any cooking scores before entering, but Rachel had felt a faint sense of romance from the sight of the little stall and wanted to stop there.
Jo Minjoon had not been able to refuse her.
And now they were in this situation.
“Is it all right?”
“……You already know what kind of answer I’m going to give. I’m sorry. I think I brought you here for nothing.”
Unlike Yamamoto, the owner of the stall could not speak English.
Perhaps that was fortunate, since it allowed them to express their disappointment without being understood.
Jo Minjoon silently looked at the ramen.
Cooking Score: 4/10.
At first, he had thought that a four-point dish should still be edible. The noodles themselves were certainly acceptable. They tasted strongly industrial, but not so badly that he could not eat them.
Then he tried the char siu.
His expression immediately collapsed.
There was a strong unpleasant smell from the meat. Its freshness was only 57%, and he had not expected much from its quality to begin with, but after eating nothing but excellent food for so long, this felt particularly terrible.
“What are you supposed to do in a situation like this? As someone in the same profession, it bothers me that she’s serving something like this to customers. But the problem is……”
Jo Minjoon glanced towards the owner standing on the other side of the stall.
She was an elderly woman, even older than Rachel.
Like many people, Jo Minjoon had always been weak when it came to the elderly.
Rachel spoke with a bitter expression.
“We can’t even communicate properly, so what would you accomplish by arguing with her? And……for some people, a taste like this might still be something they miss.”
“I used to think old people were naturally good at cooking……but I suppose that was only my prejudice.”
“Age only shines when you’ve invested that time into something.”
In the first place, this stall did not feel like a specialised ramen shop. It seemed more like somewhere the old woman sold ramen simply to earn a living.
Jo Minjoon avoided touching the char siu again and was about to swallow another mouthful of noodles when the old woman smiled gently at him.
“Is it tasty?”
She spoke in Japanese, but Jo Minjoon understood that much.
He answered in clumsy Japanese.
“Yes. It is.”
He did not believe that at all, yet somehow the words came out naturally along with a smile.
Unfortunately, his smile had consequences.
The old woman happily gave him another portion of noodles.
With her showing him that much kindness, it became nearly impossible to refuse. By the time Jo Minjoon finally left the stall, clutching his stomach and walking stiffly, Rachel patted his back with concern.
“You should’ve stopped eating. Why did you finish everything?”
“She smiled at me like she was looking at her grandson. I couldn’t stop.”
“You’re gentle in the most useless situations.”
Rachel smiled as though she could not bring herself to dislike that side of him.
Martin looked at Jo Minjoon.
“You’re not so full that you can’t eat anything else, are you?”
“……Honestly, I am. But I’ll digest some of it while we walk.”
“That’s why I was thinking. Why don’t the two of you go to the place Yamamoto recommended?”
“The place Mr. Yamamoto mentioned?”
“Yes. Speaking as a PD, I find it interesting. A restaurant serving such a wide variety of food that it’s hard to define its theme, yet recognised by a master like Yamamoto……doesn’t that sound intriguing?”
“……Now that you mention it, the fact that Mr. Yamamoto recommended it is impressive. Normally, places that try to do too many things tend to be mediocre.”
When Yamamoto had first recommended the restaurant, Jo Minjoon had focused only on the fact that it served many different dishes.
But thinking about it again, someone like Yamamoto was unlikely to have a poor palate.
His Tasting Level had been 8, after all.
Is it really that unusual a place?
Jo Minjoon looked towards Rachel.
She seemed to understand what he was asking and nodded.
“Let’s go. We’re not particularly pressed for time, and it’s nearby. There’s nothing to lose.”
“……Well, at the very least, it should be better than that ramen.”
Rachel smiled bitterly.
She could only imagine how much worse the meal must have been for someone with senses as sharp as his.
Even while leaving the area, Jo Minjoon kept glancing into restaurants they passed, looking for somewhere promising. Of course, he could only inspect the places with windows, so he could not judge every restaurant they encountered.
Still, among the ones he could see, none looked worth entering.
Good restaurants are difficult to find anywhere.
There were many establishments that had preserved old traditions for a long time, but compared with the richness of the culture itself, their actual quality often seemed surprisingly ordinary.
Thinking about it, following tradition too rigidly could also mean refusing to progress.
Preserving an old flavour had cultural value, certainly, but culinary value was another matter. People’s techniques and preferences continued to change. Cooking evolved alongside them. If a restaurant refused to move with that flow at all, it was only natural that it would eventually fall behind.
As they approached the restaurant Yamamoto had recommended, other restaurants became less common and ordinary houses appeared more frequently.
It reached the point where they began wondering whether they had taken a wrong turn.
“This seems to be the place.”
Jo Minjoon and Rachel stopped in front of a house with a tiled roof.
Lanterns hung from the eaves, and beneath them was a sign written in Chinese characters.
Rachel looked towards Jo Minjoon.
“Can you read it?”
“Ah, yes. It says ‘Roots’.”
“‘Root’?”
“Yes. Root, as in the foundation or origin of something…… I think that’s probably the meaning they intended. Shall we go in?”
“Yes. Let’s.”
They entered carefully.
The restaurant was not particularly large, and its layout was not very different from Yamamoto’s sushi shop. A few tables stood along one side, while in front of the kitchen was a counter lined with backless stools.
Jo Minjoon looked towards the kitchen.
Then his feet stopped.
His eyes trembled.
Rachel turned towards him with a puzzled expression.
“What’s wrong?”
“Ah……nothing.”
His answer came out weak, and his face had gone slightly pale from shock.
His eyes were fixed on the people working in the kitchen.
On their faces.
And, more importantly, on the system window floating above one of them.
[Higashino Haruki]
Cooking Level: 9
Baking Level: 3
Tasting Level: 9
Decoration Level: 8