Chapter 183: The Power of Science Is Amazing (1)
Chapter 183: The Power of Science Is Amazing (1)
Kaya’s proposal must have been quite a shock. Chloe, who had been drinking orange juice, suddenly started choking. Kaya casually patted her on the back.
Jo Minjoon had no idea how he should respond. If Kaya knew about Chloe’s feelings, she probably would not have suggested something like that so easily. But he could not exactly tell her about them either. Doing so might only make Kaya and Chloe’s friendship even more awkward.
Jo Minjoon spoke cautiously.
“I don’t think that’s something we can decide right now.”
“I know. So let’s just start thinking about it slowly. We still have plenty of time.”
They talked about many other things after that, but when they eventually left Kaya’s hotel, the idea of living together was still lingering in all their minds. At first, the thought had been somewhat nerve-racking, but the more they considered it, the more appealing it began to sound.
If there was one problem, it was that……
“Anderson. I’ll take Minjoon home. I have something I want to talk to him about. That’s okay, right?”
Anderson nodded without pointing out that Chloe’s house was in the opposite direction.
Jo Minjoon climbed into Chloe’s car. She spoke with an embarrassed expression.
“Sorry. The car’s really small.”
Chloe drove a two-seater Mini Cooper, and it was certainly cramped for a man of Minjoon’s size.
He smiled.
“It’s not too bad. It feels like I’m inside a spaceship.”
“Your teasing has gotten better.”
“I think it naturally improves the more time I spend with Duksam.”
“……Poor Anderson.”
Warm laughter filled the car.
Jo Minjoon decided to take the initiative.
“You seem like you have something you want to say. What is it? Is it about what Kaya said earlier?”
“There are other things too, but let’s talk about that first. Would you really be okay with it? If we…… lived together.”
Jo Minjoon could not answer immediately.
A cautious question deserved a cautious answer.
He had to think about the path that would keep both Kaya and Chloe from being hurt.
But if one of them inevitably had to be hurt, then……
“This might actually be a chance for our friendship to go back to how it used to be.”
“It could also make things much worse.”
“I don’t intend to let that happen. And I believe you feel the same way.”
Rather than simple trust, his tone carried something closer to, You have to make sure that doesn’t happen.
It was a decisiveness very much like Jo Minjoon.
The car came to a stop.
They had arrived at Rachel Rose’s house.
Chloe looked at him.
“You really trust me.”
Jo Minjoon answered confidently.
“I don’t trust every friend of mine this much. But Chloe, I trust you. You’re not the kind of person who hurts others.”
Chloe did not answer right away. A faint smile appeared on her lips before she slowly spoke.
“Good night. Later, we……”
“Okay. Call me once you’ve figured things out. Thanks for bringing me home.”
Jo Minjoon opened the door and got out.
Chloe quietly watched his back as he walked away, then murmured to herself.
“……He doesn’t even look back once.”
*
Kaya’s proposal did not leave Minjoon with much time to overthink things.
More precisely, he simply did not have enough free time for it to complicate his thoughts.
Rafael made Jo Minjoon memorise dozens—no, hundreds—of molecular gastronomy recipes, including techniques Minjoon had never even imagined were possible. At the same time, he had been given another kind of assignment.
He had thought it would be easy.
Instead, it turned out to be far more troublesome than expected.
“……So there’s still nobody who wants to work in molecular gastronomy?”
Jo Minjoon asked dejectedly.
Every prep cook avoided his gaze and kept their mouth firmly shut.
When he thought about it, perhaps that was only natural. If even the demi chefs had tried their hardest to avoid the molecular gastronomy section, why would the prep cooks feel any differently?
If anything, it made more sense for the prep cooks to avoid it even more.
Their job was to prepare everything for the demi chef assigned to their section. If the demi chef only handled the finishing touches, then the prep cooks were responsible for all the complicated preparation leading up to them.
In molecular gastronomy, that meant handling all the delicate and troublesome procedures.
There was hardly anyone who would welcome that kind of work.
And so, despite Minjoon telling everyone to step forward if they wanted to volunteer for the molecular gastronomy section, nobody had volunteered.
Jo Minjoon sighed.
“Why are all of you so afraid of molecular gastronomy? In the end, it’s still cooking. The only difference from traditional cooking is that you approach it in a more scientific way.”
“……You say that, Chef, but didn’t you also not want molecular gastronomy?”
“I was in liberal arts.”
It was a remarkably confident answer.
Jo Minjoon looked at Maya.
“Maya. Liberal arts or science?”
“I studied art.”
“Gerrick?”
“Liberal arts.”
“Antonio?”
“I was an athlete.”
“……Fred. Answer.”
“Science…… but my grades were really bad! I swear!”
Jo Minjoon stared at them in frustration.
Off to the side, Javier struggled to suppress his laughter before finally chuckling and whispering to Janet.
“For first place to have this much trouble. Isn’t the world ironic?”
“For last place to be this happy, it certainly is.”
“……I’m still working the main station, you know? At most restaurants, that’s the most popular section.”
“Yes. You’re amazing. Last place.”
Javier already knew that if the conversation continued, it would only circle back to the same point.
As Janet had said, he had come last.
He looked back towards Minjoon with a bitter expression.
Jo Minjoon was currently trying every possible argument on the prep cooks. Rather than forcing one of them to work under him, he clearly wanted someone to volunteer.
The problem was that nobody wanted to become the sacrificial lamb.
“Gerrick. You told me you wanted to become a chef like me. Wouldn’t you learn the most by working right beside me?”
“To see the forest instead of just the tree, it’s better to stand at a reasonable distance.”
“……You really know how to talk.”
Truthfully, there were only two prep cooks Jo Minjoon was seriously considering.
Gerrick and Maya.
Gerrick had slightly stronger fundamentals than the other three. As for Maya, it was because of her hands. Her small hands gave her an advantage when it came to the kind of delicate precision work molecular gastronomy often required.
“I have no choice. I wanted to be a gentleman and settle this through persuasion, but apparently that isn’t going to happen. Maya. Gerrick. One of you will be my assistant. The two of you decide who. I can’t wait any longer. Your deadline is tomorrow.”
Maya and Gerrick looked at each other nervously.
Leaving the mental battle between them behind, Jo Minjoon headed into the kitchen.
Rafael, who had been watching the entire scene, chuckled.
“How is it? Do you understand how I felt now?”
“……I suppose so. I think I was a little harsh.”
“That’s what molecular gastronomy is like. Even if you start because you genuinely want to do it, it’s so complicated and troublesome that it’s easy to give up. But Minjoon, I’ll tell you something that should give you some hope.”
Rafael leaned close to Minjoon’s ear.
“At least among the four demi chefs, you have the most talent for molecular gastronomy.”
“……How did you decide that? Because of the tasting results?”
“I have a decent understanding of your cooking style. You care about how ingredients work together in harmony. Rather than becoming a master of one kind of cooking, you want to combine different methods to create something new. To put it simply, you’re highly creative. You have the soul of an artist. And in molecular gastronomy, creativity is the most important thing.”
Jo Minjoon answered with a stiff expression.
“You’re praising me quite a lot. You’re giving me so many carrots that I’m starting to worry about when the stick is coming.”
Rafael chuckled.
“Probably not much longer.”
*
“Here. What about this house? It’s in Mar Vista. The location seems pretty convenient for everyone…… Although somewhere in Beverly Hills might be better?”
“……Housing seems to be the only thing on your mind these days.”
“Of course. Just thinking about it makes my heart race.”
Kaya answered with flushed cheeks.
Jo Minjoon tugged lightly on them.
“Chloe needs to answer first.”
“I thought Chloe would be the first one to agree.”
“Be understanding. Choosing a house is something you need to think through carefully.”
Kaya leaned against Minjoon’s shoulder with a disappointed expression, only to jerk her head away in surprise a moment later.
Rachel was entering the kitchen.
In her hands was a pot filled with paella.
Jo Minjoon’s eyes immediately sparkled.
[Lemon Paella with Shrimp and Scallops]
Freshness: 89%
Origin: (Hidden due to too many ingredients)
Quality: High
Cooking Score: 9/10
……How does she make a nine-point dish from such a simple combination?
Either she had used some special process, or every stage of her preparation was so refined that it had reached the level of a master.
Rachel smiled gently.
“Minjoon seems to have been craving rich dishes lately, so I put in a little effort. Kaya, do you like paella too?”
“There aren’t many things I dislike. Thank you for the meal.”
Kaya smiled as she answered.
That smile reminded Minjoon of the past.
Her thorny appearance made her beautiful like a rose, but this pure, lotus-like side of her was beautiful too. Even if her roots had once been buried deep in the mud at the bottom of a pond, she had now bloomed beautifully above it.
Eating the paella with that smile beside him like a side dish, Minjoon felt as though he could appreciate its flavour even more clearly.
These days, he had grown accustomed to eating high-level dishes almost as casually as fast food, but even after all that time, his appreciation for delicious food had not disappeared.
Salty yet sweet.
At the same time, there was a spicy aroma that mingled with the shrimp and scallops.
Paella was known for the distinctive way the flavours of seafood and vegetables seeped into the rice, making even a mouthful of rice feel as though you were eating everything in the dish together.
“Wow…… It’s really good.”
Kaya was full of admiration.
Rachel smiled gently.
“I can’t serve terrible food to my disciple’s girlfriend.”
“Thank you for inviting me over. I was actually a little nervous at first.”
“I like that you’re honest. So, you’re working at a restaurant in LA these days?”
“I wouldn’t say I’m running it. There’s another head chef who actually runs the kitchen. I’m more like a mascot…… and a menu developer.”
Kaya shrugged as she answered.
There was no shame in her voice.
At her age, simply reaching this point was already impressive.
Rachel nodded.
“There’s no need to worry about a title like head chef. What matters is whether you can cook. At your age, all you need to do is find every opportunity you can to stand in a kitchen. Your skills will improve naturally.”
“……Teacher, when you were young, weren’t things terrible for female chefs? How did you survive?”
“With attitude.”
Rachel put her spoon into the paella and fell into thought.
A faint nostalgia entered her eyes.
She slowly continued.
“If someone cursed at me or annoyed me, I gave it back ten times worse. That did get me kicked out quite a few times. Later, I was even rejected from interviews because people said I was crazy. Then I ended up at the restaurant where my husband was working as a sous chef……”
“And you fell in love.”
“No. I was shocked. I was extremely arrogant back then. I believed male chefs were all talk, always bragging about their skills without being able to back it up. But he was different. It shocked me, and it made me angry. I wanted to surpass him…… but before I knew it, instead of surpassing him, I had become his partner.”
The soft smile remained on Rachel’s lips.
Jo Minjoon felt as though he understood exactly what she meant.
His feelings towards Kaya were not very different.
There had been many times when Kaya’s talent, and the overwhelming gap between them, had made him feel small and even frustrated him.
Rachel continued.
“I hope the two of you can become that kind of relationship too. Stimulating each other, pushing and pulling one another whenever needed.”
“It would be nice if we could.”
“There will be times when you don’t say something because you think it might worry the other person. And sometimes, staying silent really is the wiser choice. But there are also times when secrets like that eat away at you from the inside. If you’re hurting, tell them you’re hurting. If something is difficult, tell them what you’re going through. Sorry. I never intended to become this preachy, but I seem to talk more as I get older.”
“No. It’s very good advice. I’ll remember it.”
Jo Minjoon smiled as he answered.
Kaya, however, seemed lost in thought.
Jo Minjoon looked at her in confusion.
“What’s wrong? Is something going on?”
“Well…… it’s a little embarrassing to say.”
Kaya’s expression became complicated.
She looked embarrassed, but also somewhat bitter.
The moment she spoke, Minjoon’s eyes narrowed.
“Maybe it’s because I’m popular. How should I put it? An obsessive fan? I think I might have one.”
“……What?”
“Ah, don’t take it too seriously. I just get random text messages from time to time. You know. ‘Love you, Kaya!’ ‘Sleep well.’ Things like that.”
“What kind of crazy bastard sends messages like that to another man’s woman……”
“You don’t even know whether it’s a man or a woman. And don’t worry. I’m good at fighting.”
Kaya clenched her fists as she said it.
Naturally, that did nothing to ease Minjoon’s expression.
Rachel reacted similarly.
She glanced outside before speaking.
“It’s already dark. Kaya, are you busy tomorrow?”
“No. Nothing special. I’m just going to work at the restaurant like usual.”
Rachel nodded.
“Good. Then why don’t you stay the night? As the owner of the house, I’ll allow it for today.”