Chapter 190: Searching for the Roots (1)
Chapter 190: Searching for the Roots (1)
#Rose Island Main Branch Wakes from Its Ten-Year Slumber
Memory is something that feels as though it is within reach, yet somehow remains just beyond your grasp. I’m sure those days were difficult and painful at the time, but simply because time has passed, we can look back on them fondly and with nostalgia…… Memories truly are beyond our control.
Because of that, when I heard that Rose Island’s main branch was preparing to resurface, I felt both happy and concerned. Was the main branch really as perfect and flawless as I remembered it? Was it possible that my mind had erased the bad and preserved only the good?
Thankfully, most of those concerns were washed away at the 53rd Los Angeles Cooking Competition. There had been quite a lot of talk about this year’s competition because of rumours that Rose Island would be participating. Those who lacked confidence withdrew long before the competition began, while industry giants who normally paid little attention to the event showed up specifically to face Rose Island. Perhaps they thought they could take down a toothless Rose Island.
But the result was an overwhelming victory for Rose Island. The judges unanimously voted them the winning team. That did not simply mean they cooked well. Their dishes were not only technically excellent, but possessed an overwhelming charm capable of seducing everyone who tasted them.
Even more surprising was the fact that the genre Rose Island used to display that charm was none other than molecular gastronomy. Through this competition, Rachel Rose seemed to be sending a message. Her cooking was not trapped in the past. It was walking alongside the chefs of the present. Through this, I……
“Is that the news?”
“No. A blog. Seems like the writer’s a fan of Teacher Rachel. Though I suppose there aren’t many older food critics who aren’t fans of hers.”
“……I’m kind of jealous. I want to learn under someone like that too.”
“Try knocking on our door once Grand Chef is over.”
“There would need to be an opening.”
“Who knows? Something might come up. We might expand the restaurant or something.”
Kaya did not answer.
It was night, and the two of them had once again come out to the beach for a walk. Sitting on the sand and breathing in the ocean air, Kaya slowly spoke.
“Are your parents doing well?”
“Same as always. I call them every day, but they still seem worried. They don’t listen even when I tell them there’s nothing to worry about. What about your mum?”
“She’s worried too. What else can parents do but worry about their children? I think she’ll gradually move to LA. She said she’s already taken care of things at the market.”
“And…… your dad?”
Kaya hesitated.
No matter how much she understood him or tried to forgive him, there was no way the pain could disappear so easily.
They spoke on the phone from time to time, but every conversation required Kaya to suppress her emotions. She had to hold back the anger that kept threatening to rise again.
She sat quietly with her knees hugged to her chest.
Jo Minjoon placed a hand on one of them with a sorrowful expression.
Kaya rubbed her cheek against his hand and looked gently at him.
“I’m doing the right thing, aren’t I?”
“Of course. You’re…… protecting your family.”
“Mum didn’t seem very happy that I met Dad.”
“That makes sense. I can understand how Mrs Grace feels. She raised you by herself, and now that you’ve become successful, he suddenly wants to act like a father. I’m sure that makes her angry.”
“I don’t want Mum to get hurt.”
Her voice was dejected.
Jo Minjoon gently caressed her knee.
The wind was cold. He worried that her bare legs might be freezing, but there was little he could do besides talk to her.
“Everyone feels that way. Parents watching their child suffer from a cold. Children watching their parents grow older. In my case, when I see you looking this sad…… I wish you didn’t have to hurt. But Kaya, there’s no wound that heals without pain. Once the wound already exists, we can’t simply pray that it won’t hurt. We have to put medicine on it.”
“……Medicine. Do you think I have any?”
“People who have never been hurt don’t prepare medicine. Kaya, you’ve already been hurt far too much. That means your pockets are probably full of all kinds of medicine by now. So…… let’s use some of it for your mum too.”
Kaya remained silent for a while before crawling into Minjoon’s arms like a small child.
She closed her eyes and slowly spoke.
“I think you must be the person putting medicine on me. You said it yourself. People who’ve never been hurt don’t have any medicine. So then…… do you have that many wounds too?”
It was an unexpected question.
Jo Minjoon’s eyes shifted uncertainly.
Truthfully, his wounds were not from his current life, but from the life he had lived before returning to the past.
Living a life he had never wanted.
His parents’ concern.
A bleak future.
Kitchen experience that never progressed the way he hoped.
It had been a broken life.
And the thing that had applied medicine to that miserable existence had been the life of a woman named Kaya Lotus.
Jo Minjoon spoke, whispering thanks into her ear in a way she could never understand.
“There’s someone who…… already put medicine on my wounds. So don’t worry.”
“Who?”
“Someone really amazing. I hope that one day, you become like that person. No. You will become like her. I believe you will.”
Kaya narrowed her eyes suspiciously at him.
Then she asked nervously.
“Is it a woman?”
“Yes.”
“Is she prettier than me?”
“That’s a really difficult question.”
“……Are you seriously saying there’s a woman prettier than your girlfriend? Who is she? That bit…… I mean, that woman?”
“Are you going to pull her hair out if I tell you?”
“No. I can’t do that. No matter what, she’s the person who healed your wounds. If I ever met her, I’d say this.”
Kaya deliberately lowered her voice and spoke roughly.
“Thank you for taking care of my private property. But he belongs to me now. So even if you’re jealous, don’t even think about it. What do you think? Am I a pretty cool girlfriend?”
“I don’t know whether you’re cool or not…… but there is one thing I know. That question you asked earlier. I can answer it now. Obviously, you’re……”
Jo Minjoon smiled.
“Much prettier than that woman.”
*
After the competition ended, Rose Island’s kitchen became noticeably livelier.
That was only natural.
Until then, the only things confirming that they were part of the legendary Rose Island had been the building itself and Rachel’s presence.
But the competition had allowed them to truly experience where they were and who they were working beside.
Of course, the bakers felt it somewhat less strongly, but it was different for the people who were always assisting the demi chefs at their stations.
Even while doing difficult tasks, they smiled throughout the day and seemed full of bright energy.
They looked genuinely proud.
That was why Maya could not understand something.
She cautiously asked, “Chef Minjoon, can I ask you something?”
“Go ahead.”
“You won the tasting, and you won the competition too. So why don’t you seem very happy these days?”
“Do I seem that way?”
Jo Minjoon looked at her in surprise.
Maya nodded.
She could hardly think otherwise.
Ever since the competition ended, Jo Minjoon seemed almost obsessively absorbed in cooking. He not only completed the molecular gastronomy assignments Rafael gave him, but also continued making traditional dishes.
He had little choice.
If he focused entirely on molecular gastronomy and allowed his hands to grow stiff when it came to traditional cooking, that would be a terrible waste.
Rafael did not object to Minjoon’s efforts either. He understood the need for them.
What Maya found strange was that, despite working so hard, Jo Minjoon did not seem satisfied.
It was not as though his results were poor.
His dishes were always fresh and delicious.
Yet he still looked dissatisfied.
Maya could only wonder whether geniuses simply experienced things differently from ordinary people.
But the source of Jo Minjoon’s frustration was slightly different from what she imagined.
……Level.
More specifically, it was not his Cooking Level.
It was his Tasting Level.
He felt that his Cooking Level would naturally rise as his skills improved.
But Tasting Level seemed to require some unexpected opportunity before it could advance.
The problem was not simply that he wanted the number to increase.
Rather, he needed his actual ability to taste and understand food to improve enough that the level would rise naturally.
Speak only of what you know, and cook only what you know.
That was what Jo Minjoon believed.
How could someone who did not truly understand flavour create genuinely delicious food?
That was why he felt improving his tasting ability was even more urgent than improving his cooking.
“The first requirement has already been fulfilled, so now I just need to meet the next one……”
“What? What requirement?”
“Ah. Nothing. And thanks for worrying about me. Nothing’s wrong. I’ve just hit one of those walls chefs run into from time to time. I’m sure I’ll get past it soon.”
“When you say a wall, what kind of wall do you mean?”
The voice came unexpectedly.
Jo Minjoon quickly turned in surprise and found Rachel looking at him with curiosity.
He hesitated for a moment before slowly answering.
“I can tell that my ability to taste food as an food critic hasn’t reached its full potential, but I can’t figure out what I’m lacking.”
“What? Chef Minjoon has Absolute Taste, but your tasting ability still isn’t complete?”
“Tongue sensitivity and tasting ability are different things. Tasting depends on experience and thought.”
Maya looked thoroughly confused by Minjoon’s explanation.
But getting her to understand was not important right now.
Jo Minjoon looked at Rachel.
“Teacher. Can you see any problem with me?”
“What do you think your problem is?”
“I’m not sure. Could it be the kinds of flavours I prefer? I like dishes with very clear flavours. Rather than wanting a dish centred entirely around one ingredient, if several ingredients are used, I want each one to remain distinct. At the same time, they shouldn’t interfere with one another. They should balance and harmonise properly. But there aren’t many dishes like that…… so I tend to enjoy dishes that use only one or two ingredients. Could that be a problem?”
“Taste is based on personal preference. Personal preference itself can’t be a problem. In fact, that preference may eventually become what distinguishes you from everyone else. Of course, it would be a problem if you could only enjoy that kind of food and nothing else…… but I don’t think that’s true for you, is it?”
Jo Minjoon shook his head.
Rachel folded her arms and thought for a moment before slowly speaking.
“You mentioned that your mother wasn’t a very good cook. You said that was why you didn’t have many opportunities to develop your palate through good food when you were young.”
“……I feel a little guilty saying it about my mum, but yes. Ah, do you think that’s the problem? Because I didn’t grow up eating good food?”
Jo Minjoon’s expression turned serious.
If that was the problem, then it was not something he could overcome now.
Rachel neither agreed nor disagreed.
Instead, she continued.
“Because good food was difficult for you to encounter, you probably admired truly delicious dishes all the more. But among the things you could realistically eat, there probably weren’t many proper dishes. At best, perhaps something from a decent neighbourhood restaurant. Even that probably impressed you at first. Eventually, it stopped satisfying you, and you began cooking for yourself.”
“……That’s pretty close.”
“That’s why, even though you spent most of your life in your home country, you’ve never properly experienced Korean cuisine. Your roots have always been in one place, but they were never buried very deeply. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
A sudden shock ran through Jo Minjoon’s mind.
Something he had always dismissed as unimportant was now being placed directly before him by Rachel.
He had lived in Korea for twenty years.
No, if he counted his previous life, nearly thirty.
And yet he had never truly experienced good Korean food.
Jo Minjoon was accustomed to cooking Western dishes, not Korean ones.
But being able to cook Western food did not mean he could automatically cook Korean food.
Of course, things might have been different if he had grown up eating Western food.
But no matter what, he was Korean through and through.
Even when he spoke English, the foundation of his language ability was still Korean.
In the same way, the first foundations of his palate had been built through Korean food.
He could not simply leave those roots scattered and neglected.
But……
“Do I need to go to Korea?”
Realistically, it was impossible.
The restaurant was only a few months away from opening.
There was no way he could leave now.
Rachel smiled and shook her head.
“Why would you need to? Have you already forgotten what’s only thirty minutes away?”
“……Ah!”
Jo Minjoon gasped.
Rachel continued confidently.
“Why get on a plane? There’s already a Korea inside Los Angeles.”