Chapter 16: The 100 Chefs (2)
Chapter 16: The 100 Chefs (2)
Seven points. That was still the best Jo Minjoon could achieve right now. Even so, he did not relax. A seven-point dish represented the very limit of his current ability, and he could only reach that score with the help of the system, which allowed him to check a recipe and estimate its chances of success beforehand.
Without the system, Jo Minjoon would probably produce plenty of five-point dishes. After all, there was no way to know for certain whether a recipe would work well before actually cooking it. Simply being freed from that uncertainty was already a blessing.
Of course, when he compared himself with Kaya, he was not sure whether he could call it a blessing at all. She was a genuine genius. She did not have some strange ability like Jo Minjoon’s; everything she had came from her own talent and skill. Claiming that they possessed the same level of ability would only embarrass him.
Still, Jo Minjoon thought comparing himself with Kaya was childish. He was a reasonable person. If dwelling on bitterness would only hurt him, then there was no point thinking about it. Being jealous of an ability he did not possess was equally pointless.
“We’ll give you one hour. Finish your dish within that time.”
At those words, the contestants surged towards the container. Watching so many competitors rush towards it at once was quite a sight. Marco and Amanda were among those running ahead, but Jo Minjoon simply remained where he was and watched. They had been given an entire hour, so there was no need to grab a catfish immediately.
With that thought, he headed towards the room containing the basic ingredients. At that moment, Kaya happened to walk alongside him. Jo Minjoon glanced at her, and she immediately returned his gaze with a threatening expression.
“What are you looking at?”
“It doesn’t look like you’re going to catch a catfish either.”
“It makes no difference whether I go now or later. It’s better to get the other ingredients first instead of crowding around over there.”
“Clever.”
“You’re doing the same thing. Aren’t you just complimenting yourself by complimenting me?”
Jo Minjoon laughed and avoided answering.
Quite a few contestants had also decided to collect their other ingredients first. Among them was a tall, handsome blond man.
Anderson…
Jo Minjoon thought for a moment. What was his surname again? He could not remember. There was one thing he did remember, though.
He had finished second.
Jo Minjoon looked at Anderson’s status window, which conveniently supplied the surname he had forgotten.
[Anderson Rousseau]
Cooking Level: 7
Baking Level: 7
Tasting Level: 8
Decoration Level: 7
His Cooking Level was the same as Kaya’s. Unexpectedly, however, his Baking and Decoration Levels were both higher than hers. That was understandable. Anderson Rousseau was an elite among elites, someone who had received an almost gifted-level culinary education from an early age. It was only natural for his overall abilities to be that high.
And yet he had lost to Kaya.
Why?
Was it because he lacked the dramatic background she had?
No. Her dish was probably simply better than his.
Even though both of them were level seven, Kaya’s abilities were different. Her Cooking Level probably did not account for something like her ability to read the movement of flames. Jo Minjoon knew, however, that reading the fire was not the full extent of Kaya’s talent. She possessed an extraordinary instinct that went beyond that, an ability he could not properly describe except to say that she knew how to draw out the utmost flavour from an ingredient.
Jo Minjoon quickly began selecting what he needed. All the ingredients had been purchased from the same place at roughly the same time, but there were still differences in quality between individual items. It was far more efficient to spend his time choosing the better ingredients than fighting through the crowd for a live catfish when all the fish were of roughly the same quality.
The dish Jo Minjoon had decided to make was catfish meatball stew. At first, he had considered making a spicy fish stew, but that depended too heavily on soybean paste and chilli paste. Even if it tasted good, there was no guarantee it would appeal to people unfamiliar with those flavours, and it was comparatively weak when it came to producing a deep, layered taste. On top of that, spicy fish stew was a dish especially suited to Korean palates, so there was a significant chance that foreigners might simply dislike it.
Instead, Jo Minjoon decided to borrow some of the characteristics of spicy fish stew and turn them into a mildly spicy catfish meatball stew. The ingredients were simple: tofu, lemon, starch, eggs, pepper, coriander, radish, scallions, salt, and soy sauce.
They were all ingredients that could commonly be found in an ordinary household. If there was anything slightly unusual among them, it was the coriander. Many contestants were searching for expensive ingredients such as saffron or salami, but Jo Minjoon paid them no attention. Producing strong flavour from basic ingredients could leave an even better impression.
(Translator’s Note: Saffron — A spice made from the dried stigmas of Crocus sativus. Its cultivation dates back more than 3,000 years, with ancient use documented in the eastern Mediterranean and Southwest Asia. It remains one of the world’s most expensive spices because each flower produces only three usable stigmas.)
After placing the ingredients at his station, Jo Minjoon finally headed towards the catfish tank. By then, most of the contestants were already returning with catfish in their hands. Truthfully, this was his first time catching a live fish with his bare hands, but he was confident he could manage it.
Jo Minjoon caught a catfish with a net and carried it back to his station. It was about forty centimetres long, roughly the length of an arm, and so strong that simply keeping hold of it was exhausting.
There were several simple ways to stun a catfish: strike it against the edge of the counter, immerse it in heavily salted water, or hit it with the back of a knife. Jo Jo Minjoonse the last method. He placed the catfish on the counter and struck it firmly with the back of his knife.
There was a loud thud. The catfish twitched briefly, then stopped moving. It seemed to have been stunned.
Jo Minjoon placed the tip of his knife against it and bled the fish. Blood flowed for a short while before stopping.
He carefully cut through the gills, opened the belly with his knife, removed the innards, and separated the flesh from the bones. Then came the skin. Catfish had no scales, so there was no need to descale it, but the trade-off was an exceptionally tough skin. When cooked properly, that skin could become pleasantly gelatinous, but cooking it properly was difficult.
Jo Minjoon slowly peeled the skin away. The key was to remove it as thinly and cleanly as possible. Fortunately, he managed to do so without taking too much flesh with it.
At that moment, Alan passed behind him. He appeared to be casually looking around, but his attention was actually directed towards the station beside Jo Minjoon’s.
Alan stopped in front of Amanda and spoke coldly.
“You ruptured the innards.”
She had made a mistake while opening the belly. The organs had burst, staining the flesh with their contents. Amanda looked embarrassed.
“Ah, I’m sorry. It’s my first time handling catfish…”
“That’s enough. Give me your badge.”
“C-Chef!”
Amanda went pale. Jo Minjoon did not want to pay attention to them, but there was no way to block out their voices. Alan continued in an even, restrained tone.
“You’ve done enough.”
It was a short statement, and an equally abrupt judgement. Amanda looked as though she might burst into tears at any moment.
“I… I bet everything on this competition!”
Even at her pleading tone, Alan did not hesitate. He slowly looked around at the other contestants.
“Is there anyone here who didn’t bet everything on this competition?”
No one answered.
Alan turned back to Amanda, his gaze sharpening.
“If you want my opinion, then show me skill equal to that passion. What I see in front of me right now is a ruined catfish carcass. I wouldn’t want to put that in my mouth. Amanda, are you a chef? If you are, give me that worthless badge. Unless you’re the sort of chef who serves garbage to people.”
Trembling, Amanda handed over her badge.
Alan took it, then looked at the contestants who had stopped to watch.
“Anyone who cannot properly handle the catfish will be eliminated. This is not a school. If you cannot even prepare a single ingredient properly, you have no right to be here. Get a grip.”
The tension in the room immediately intensified. Jo Minjoon was not the only one affected. Realising they could be eliminated before they even finished their dishes, the contestants returned to work with noticeably sharper expressions.
Jo Minjoon watched Amanda leave in tears. He could never allow himself to end like that. Even if he was eliminated because his dish tasted bad, he at least wanted to finish cooking it first.
He wasted no more time.
The first thing he did was cut off the catfish’s head. He brought a pot of water to the boil, added the head, radish, and scallions, then added the bones as well. He intended to make a broth. He also added some lemon to suppress any fishy smell before turning his attention to the catfish flesh.
Every time he struck it with the back of his knife, the meat broke down further until it began to resemble fish paste. Catfish flesh was naturally soft, so mincing it was not particularly difficult.
The next steps were simple. Jo Minjoon pressed the moisture out of the tofu and finely chopped the coriander, then mixed them together with the minced catfish. He added starch and began repeatedly slamming the mixture against the bowl.
This part was extremely important. If he did not work the mixture enough to develop sufficient stickiness, the meatballs could easily fall apart while cooking. Ordinarily, that would have been a difficult challenge for Jo Minjoon because there would always be a real chance of failure.
But not this time.
Jo Minjoon had already known that the first mission would centre on catfish, and after passing the preliminaries, he had prepared specifically for this dish. He had eaten catfish meatball stew for meal after meal, making it repeatedly and noting the differences every single time.
What he was preparing now was the result of all that practice.
There was no room for mistakes.