Chapter 2: Back to Seven Years Ago (2)
Chapter 2: Back to Seven Years Ago (2)
“Status Window.”
[Jo Minjoon]
Cooking Level: 5
Baking Level: 4
Tasting Level: 6
Decoration Level: 4
He had already given some thought to his situation, but he had never imagined he would see something like this.
It was as though his life had turned into a cooking game.
Jo Minjoon stared at the screen for a while, unable to describe the confusion he felt. Then he turned towards Lee Hyesun and spoke.
“Status Window.”
[Lee Hyesun]
Cooking Level: 3
Baking Level: 0
Tasting Level: 4
Decoration Level: 2
Those were rather miserable stats.
Still, Jo Minjoon remembered that most of Lee Hyesun’s cooking had never tasted particularly good. If her skills were really that low, it explained a lot.
“…Skill Window.”
He muttered the words experimentally, and a more detailed screen appeared just as he had hoped.
There were all sorts of skills listed: knife skills, heat control, understanding of traditional Korean cuisine, and many more. Of them, however, two in particular caught Jo Minjoon’s attention.
[Understanding of Italian Cuisine] — Mastery: 23%
When preparing pasta, pizza, dolce, soup, and other Italian dishes, your understanding of the cuisine will increase.
When preparing Italian dishes, the probability of failure decreases.
Although the probability is low, it is possible to produce a dish above your current Cooking Level.
[The Chef’s Experimental Attitude]
The Chef’s Experimental Attitude is applied to recipes when attempting new dishes.
When attempting a new dish, there is a low probability of unlocking a new recipe.
He had no complaints about his Understanding of Italian Cuisine. It seemed that whenever he studied or prepared Italian food, his mastery would increase. He was not entirely certain yet, but there also seemed to be some sort of system that compensated for his skill when making those dishes.
He could also understand why The Chef’s Experimental Attitude had no mastery percentage. It represented a person’s attitude, and it would be stranger if something like that could be ‘mastered’.
The description itself, however, was somewhat vague.
A low probability of unlocking a new recipe.
Did that mean a recipe window would open, like the Status Window and Skill Window? Or would the recipe simply appear in his head?
Even the phrase ‘new dish’ was ambiguous. Did it mean a completely original dish that no one had ever created before, or merely a dish Jo Minjoon himself had never made?
I’ll find out when I try.
Jo Minjoon smiled.
He had been a thirty-year-old novice chef with practically no experience.
Now he was twenty-three.
It was not especially young, but neither was it too late to pursue the path of cooking. Even thirty had not truly been too late. He had simply been impatient, that was all.
The first obstacle he had to overcome, however, was his parents.
His career as a teacher had effectively been decided by the path he was already taking at university, so getting their permission would not be easy. Jo Minjoon thought carefully and eventually came up with a plan.
First, he needed to show his parents that his cooking skills were actually good.
At that moment, the name of a television programme came to mind.
Grand Chef Korea.
He had loved the programme so much that he had never missed a single season. If he participated in it, then even if he could not win, placing reasonably well might be enough for his parents to acknowledge his ability to some extent.
However…
Was that programme even airing yet?
The programme had first aired in England and the United States before eventually coming to Korea.
Jo Minjoon unlocked his mobile phone and searched for Grand Chef. As expected, there was no news about a Korean version. Perhaps the contract would only be signed towards the end of the year, with the programme beginning sometime the following year.
“That programme won’t work.”
Jo Minjoon sighed and continued searching.
He looked for cooking competitions in Korea, but there were no properly organised ones that suited him. Even if he entered one, there was no guarantee that he would win. The ability he possessed now was not absolute. In the end, he would still have to continue improving his cooking skills.
After spending hours searching the internet, Jo Minjoon eventually reached one conclusion.
He would have to enter an international competition.
He was not confident that he could win, but he was confident that he could at least reach the finals. After all, it was not as though he lacked the ability to pursue a career as a chef.
If his parents had viewed cooking more positively, things might have been different. But to them, cooking was nothing more than a 3D occupation. This was before the nationwide cooking craze had taken hold, so if Jo Minjoon wanted to change their minds, he needed to prove that he had genuine ability.
(Translator’s Note: 3D occupation —A South Korean expression for work regarded as dirty, dangerous, and difficult. The English-derived term became particularly widespread in South Korea during the late twentieth century as the country industrialised and labour shortages grew in undesirable manual occupations.)
And he believed that achieving a strong result in a competition would be the best way to do that.
Unfortunately, there were no suitable competitions in Korea that he could enter. The more recognised ones focused primarily on Korean cuisine, while others were team competitions.
That left him with no choice but to look overseas.
And in the end, only one option remained.
“…Grand Chef.”
Not Grand Chef Korea, but simply Grand Chef.
The original Grand Chef held in the United States.
Perhaps it would be more accurate to call it a television programme than a competition. What mattered was that Grand Chef was a competition for amateur cooks, and there was no other amateur cooking competition that attracted nearly as much attention.
Australia was also accepting applications, but the United States caught Jo Minjoon’s eye more strongly. If the conditions were otherwise the same, he thought it would be better to go to America than Australia.
Besides, he would have no difficulty communicating in English.
He had once been an English teacher. If he could not even hold a conversation, that would be embarrassing.
“There’s only one problem.”
His parents.
He had some savings from before entering the army, so he could cover the travel expenses. But if he told his parents that he intended to fly to the United States to participate in a cooking competition, their refusal was practically guaranteed.
Would he have to tell them he was simply going travelling?
The thought already made him uncomfortable.
Before returning to the past, when he had resigned from his job as a high school teacher, his parents had been furious and had tried desperately to stop him. In the end, however, they had been unable to overcome his stubbornness.
All he had done was hurt them.
He did not want the same thing to happen in this life.
“Ha… there’s no helping it.”
I’ll have to hide it from them.
That would be the most peaceful option.
While thinking about it, Jo Minjoon searched the internet for plane tickets to the United States. Then he heard someone entering the password at the front door.
He immediately turned off the screen and went into the living room.
He had expected it to be his father, but the person who entered was his younger sister, Jo Ara. Her school uniform hung loosely on her slim, deeply tanned frame.
“Mum, I’m home~. Oh, Oppa’s home too.”
(Translator’s Note: Oppa —A Korean term used by a female speaker for an older brother or an older male with whom she has a close relationship. In this story, Jo Ara uses it for her older brother, Jo Minjoon.)
A surge of complicated emotion rose inside him as he looked at his younger sister in her school uniform.
It was another undeniable piece of proof that he had travelled back into the past.
Lee Hyesun walked towards Jo Ara.
“Hey, Ara. Come here and try this. Your oppa made it.”
“Huh? This?”
Lee Hyesun handed Jo Ara one of the soufflés she had begged her son to make again.
Jo Ara hesitantly picked up a spoon and took a bite.
Her eyes immediately widened.
“Delicious! No way. How could Oppa make something like this?”
“Right? I was surprised when I tasted it too.”
“Oppa, be honest. This is some kind of instant food, right?”
Instead of answering, Jo Minjoon clicked his tongue and turned towards his mother.
“Mum, if you’re tired, should I make dinner?”
“You? You’re going to make dinner?”
Lee Hyesun stared at Jo Minjoon as though wondering whether such a thing was even possible.
Until now, it had seemed as though he simply enjoyed playing around in the kitchen and experimenting with various things. He had never looked like someone capable of preparing an entire dinner.
But not only could he cook, what he made actually tasted good. She could not help finding the whole situation unexpected.
Still, if her son was volunteering to take the troublesome task of making dinner off her hands, she had no reason to refuse.
“Fine. Go ahead and make dinner. Let’s see what else my son can cook.”
“…Is that really okay, Mum? Can you actually trust Oppa’s cooking skills?”
“This girl… Just think about the bread you ate. Looks like your oppa has some talent for cooking.”
“That’s true, but…”
Jo Ara looked uncertainly at Jo Minjoon.
“Oppa, are you really confident in your cooking?”
Jo Minjoon grinned and lowered his voice.
“Won’t it still taste better than Mum’s cooking?”