Chapter 185: The Power of Science Is Amazing (3)
Chapter 185: The Power of Science Is Amazing (3)
“There’s no need to be nervous. But you can’t afford to relax either. Everyone is watching us right now. All you have to do is make those uncertain gazes change in an instant.”
Jo Minjoon quietly nodded at Rafael’s words.
The task itself was simple. What they needed now was not publicity, but proof. In fact, when he thought about it, there was hardly any point in doing more PR.
Grand Chef runner-up Anderson. Jo Minjoon, the man with Absolute Taste. Rafael Yoon, creator of the molecular gastronomy food truck. And on top of them all, the legendary Rachel Rose.
There probably were not many restaurants in the entire United States with so many famous figures gathered under one roof.
What Rachel wanted was to completely erase the question, Just how good can they really be?
Winning this competition would be a powerful way to demonstrate their level.
The competition rules were simple. Four people formed a team. The choice of cuisine was up to them. The time limit was thirty minutes.
The demi chefs all wore fairly relaxed expressions as Rachel explained the details.
At least, they did until she said the next thing.
“The four of you will be entering the competition.”
“What?”
Even Jo Minjoon could not hide his surprise. His jaw dropped as he stared at Rachel.
Javier spoke nervously.
“But there’s no restriction like that in the rules. Wouldn’t the other restaurants send their best four people, regardless of whether they’re demi chefs or sous chefs?”
“Some places will send their strongest chefs. Some might not even have enough staff to do otherwise. But that isn’t the case for us. Rafael and I will be doing more with our eyes and mouths than with our hands. The four of you will be the ones actually cooking the food. That’s why the four of you need to represent us in the competition as well. The food you make there is the same food our customers will eventually be eating.”
It made sense.
Jo Minjoon could not help but admire her.
Perhaps it was precisely that stubborn refusal to compromise that had allowed Rose Island to grow into what it had become.
The other demi chefs still looked somewhat unconvinced.
Jo Minjoon slowly asked, “Did you send demi chefs in the past too?”
“Yes. And……”
Rachel continued.
“Those kids never lost even once.”
*
Thankfully, Rachel did not leave the recipe development to the demi chefs as well.
That was only natural.
Rachel had said the demi chefs would participate because they were the ones who would actually cook in the kitchen. But while the demi chefs handled the cooking itself, the majority of the recipe development remained Rachel’s responsibility.
So it made perfect sense for the competition menu to come from her as well.
There was less than half a month left until the competition.
Perhaps because of that, Rachel had become far stricter than usual. If it looked as though someone was even about to make a slight mistake, she would immediately step in and sharply correct them.
“Move your hand. If you put that in the frying pan now, all you’ll make is fried rubbish.”
“Imagine the dining room over there is full of customers. You’ve practically just told one of them to wait another twenty minutes!”
“If this is the best you can do, I won’t have anything to say when the Food critics tell us Rose Island is nothing but an empty shell of its former glory.”
Perhaps it was because the real battle had finally begun.
The normally gentle Rachel had vanished so completely that it was becoming difficult to remember she had ever existed.
That was how severe she was now.
The menu consisted of four courses: appetiser, pasta, main, and dessert.
Jo Minjoon was responsible for dessert.
At the same time, he had also been appointed team captain.
The reason Rachel had chosen him over the other three was simple.
You have the best instincts when it comes to molecular gastronomy. That’s why you’ll be the team captain.
It was not exactly a flattering explanation, but it made sense.
Jo Minjoon’s dessert was not the only dish that incorporated molecular gastronomy. Anderson’s pasta—or rather, aside from his gnocchi, nearly every dish in the menu—had been influenced by molecular gastronomy in some way.
One thing Minjoon had learned while working under Rachel was just how terrifyingly complete her control of the kitchen was.
Her awareness of everything happening around her was almost perfect.
In fact, her leadership might have been even more impressive than her cooking.
Even though the four chefs were working separately, Rachel seemed almost ghostlike. She knew the moment any of them made even the smallest mistake.
If someone got the proportions wrong, she could immediately identify not only which ingredient was off, but by roughly how much.
……At her level, she’s practically the same as the system.
One of the things Jo Minjoon appreciated most about the system was its ability to instantly identify mistakes.
It was far easier to fix a problem when you knew what was wrong while you were cooking rather than being told about it after the dish was finished.
On top of that, Minjoon could use the estimated Cooking Score to determine the best course of action.
It was an advantage no other chef in the world could possibly possess.
Or at least, that was what he had once thought.
The moment he became Rachel’s disciple, he had been forced to abandon that belief.
Rachel was the perfect mentor.
She gave you exactly the advice you needed at precisely the moment you needed it most.
With a mentor like her, even someone without the system might not grow much more slowly than Jo Minjoon.
But Minjoon did not feel anxious about that.
He did not want to stand at the top alone.
What he wanted was for no one to fall behind, for everyone he cared about to run beside him.
Standing at the top together rather than standing there alone.
That was what Jo Minjoon preferred.
Of course……
“……This is exhausting.”
Enjoying something did not mean it could not still wear you out.
Javier stuck out his tongue like a panting dog and collapsed into a chair in the dining hall.
Ella, who had just returned from kindergarten, took a vitamin sweet from her small children’s backpack and held it out to him.
She spoke worriedly.
“Is it really hard? You’ll feel better if you eat this.”
“Will that actually solve anything?”
“Yes. Mommy says she isn’t tired at all after she eats one. And she gets completely better if Ella kisses her.”
“Will you give Uncle a kiss too?”
Janet threw a rubber glove at Javier’s face.
Smack.
It slapped against him almost as sharply as a real hand.
Janet spoke coldly.
“Should I report you?”
“……I was joking! It was a joke! Can’t I say something humorous once in a while? You need to watch some stand-up comedy or something. You’re too stiff.”
“You go watch a documentary first, then come talk to me.”
Arguments like this between the two of them were hardly unusual.
Anderson was looking at Jo Minjoon.
Minjoon lifted his chin as though asking, What are you looking at?
Anderson spoke.
“Aren’t they exactly like you and Kaya?”
“They can hear you. Keep your voice down.”
“That’s exactly what Kaya kept telling me too.”
Janet quietly glared at Anderson.
Of course, Anderson was not the type to shrink under Janet’s gaze.
In the end, Jo Minjoon stepped in.
“Enough. We’re a team. We need to be on the same page.”
“……What’s the point? We just have to cook our own dishes.”
“Janet, do you really believe that?”
Jo Minjoon looked directly at her.
There was no hostility in his gaze.
Only disappointment.
That made it much harder for Janet to endure.
If there had been even a trace of malice in his expression, she could simply have argued back. But with nothing there except concern and disappointment, she felt as though she had become the unreasonable one.
……Well, it’s true I’m not exactly a good person.
But Jo Minjoon was undeniably both a good chef and a good person.
Natural talent.
Luck through the television programme.
Together, those things had turned him into a genius who became a demi chef at Rose Island at only twenty-one.
Because he was Jo Minjoon, Janet had always regarded him as a rival she needed to overcome.
But Jo Minjoon regarded Janet as a friend.
When she realised that, Janet could only admit that she had lost.
It was the same now.
She sighed.
“I take back what I just said.”
“Okay. Thank you.”
Jo Minjoon smiled brightly.
Janet sighed again inwardly.
It made her think about Minjoon’s girlfriend.
Kaya.
The image of a woman famous for her sharp attitude acting like a gentle girl in front of Jo Minjoon was still vivid in Janet’s mind.
But she could understand Kaya.
Jo Minjoon was not merely kind.
He was sincere, and a gentlemanly consideration seemed ingrained in everything he did.
Treating someone like that badly would only make you look worse yourself.
The atmosphere softened.
Jo Minjoon lightly tapped Ella on the nose as she flopped against his knees and spoke.
“Anyway, don’t you think molecular gastronomy gets more fun and amazing the more you do it?”
“He’s slowly learning to accept his fate. I suppose he has to. Otherwise, being responsible for the molecular gastronomy section would just feel unbearably exhausting.”
“……Be quiet, Anderson. I’m not trying to brainwash myself. I really mean it. It is fun. Watching cream and sauces I thought could only exist as liquids turn into powders is fascinating. I enjoy making pasta out of things other than flour, and the fact that even water can be given shape is really…… Chef Rafael told me something. He said I wouldn’t regret being assigned to molecular gastronomy. Lately, I’m beginning to understand why.”
“See? Acceptance.”
Anderson shrugged.
Jo Minjoon quietly glared at him before looking down at Ella.
“Ella. Out of all the chefs here, whose cooking do you like best?”
“I like Uncle Minjoon’s the best.”
“See? That’s the power of molecular gastronomy.”
The other three chefs, who had all been watching Ella expectantly, immediately lowered their heads at her instant answer.
Janet opened her mouth with obvious dissatisfaction.
“That isn’t fair. Ella would say anything you made was delicious.”
“We can just ask her. Ella, do you like everything Uncle makes?”
“Mm, uhh…… I still don’t like broccoli.”
“See? She says she doesn’t like it.”
“……That’s slightly different.”
Janet shook her head as she answered, but Jo Minjoon ignored her.
Instead, he spoke with the solemnity of a religious believer.
“The power of science is amazing. It easily overturns everything people think they know about cooking. Just practising molecular gastronomy makes me feel like I’ve become some kind of revolutionary.”
“I’ll admit that…… but it also scares me. If molecular gastronomy equipment keeps developing, the entire concept of home cooking we’ve lived with until now could change. It makes me wonder whether I’ll still be able to keep up with the trends when I’m older.”
“Just look at Teacher Rachel. She might be older, but she’s just as good as—no, even better than—Sous Chef Rafael at molecular gastronomy. If you put in the effort, there’s nothing you won’t be able to do.”
“……Are you comparing me to Teacher Rachel right now?”
Javier asked stiffly.
Jo Minjoon groaned and rolled his eyes.
“Was that too generous?”
“I could feel it in my bones from the recipes and techniques Chef taught us this time. She has something that can’t be explained by experience alone.”
“That something…… I’m sure Teacher will teach it to us too. So don’t worry.”
Jo Minjoon spoke as though soothing Javier.
None of them had noticed it yet, but being team captain had naturally begun lending a different kind of weight to Minjoon’s words.
No.
Perhaps it would have been the same even if he had not been team captain.
Jo Minjoon was not the kind of person who led others into some grand revolution.
He was the kind who drew people towards him and comforted them.
Just look at Grand Chef.
The people who had been reluctant to approach him in the early stages of the competition had eventually all become his friends.
That gentle yet sharp, pure yet warm personality was an ability entirely his own—something no system could ever quantify.
“The only thing we can do right now, and the only thing we need to do, is reproduce Teacher Rachel’s recipe exactly. We’ll prove with our own hands what kind of chef our teacher is. And as we gradually show Teacher to everyone……”
He smiled.
It was the kind of warm smile one might receive from family.
“Then one day, shouldn’t our hands start to resemble Teacher’s too?”
The other three quietly nodded.
There were no obvious smiles on their faces, but a gentle warmth settled around them.
In the middle of that warmth, Ella stared down at her tiny hands in confusion.
Then she quietly murmured,
“But Grandma Rachel’s hands are full of wrinkles……”