Chapter 24: Three Dishes and One Meal (3)
Chapter 24: Three Dishes and One Meal (3)
“Time’s up. Hands off your plates!”
Alan’s sharp voice rang through the room. Jo Minjoon looked calmly towards him as Alan swept his gaze over the nine participants.
“I’ll evaluate each team separately. Chloe, Minjoon, Marco. Bring your dishes over here.”
Jo Minjoon picked up the plate containing his soft fried tofu and walked towards the judges. The three dishes were placed in front of them. Emily studied them for a moment before speaking with a puzzled expression.
“Japanese fried tofu, Chinese-style scallops, and biscuits for dessert... It feels as though several different cultures have been mixed together. Do you really think they’ll work as one meal?”
Chloe answered with the kind of warm smile that naturally left people with a favourable impression. “I think they will. Just like our team. We all come from different cultures, but we still work well together.”
“I hope so.”
Emily finished speaking and cut into the tofu. The fried coating clung firmly to the soft tofu, holding together even under the spoon rather than crumbling apart. That alone seemed to satisfy her halfway, at least where the tofu was concerned.
She spooned up some of the soy-based sauce, placed a piece of fried tofu on top, and brought it elegantly to her mouth. As she chewed, she could immediately tell that it had been prepared well. There was none of the unpleasant greasy sensation that fried tofu could sometimes leave behind. The lime juice made the soy sauce taste lighter, and even though she was eating fried tofu, the overall impression was almost as refreshing as eating a salad.
It was an excellent appetiser, at least by amateur standards. Emily slowly savoured the tofu. Tofu could be delicious when prepared properly, but drawing out its flavour was not nearly as easy as it seemed.
In that sense, there was very little to criticise about Jo Minjoon’s agedashi tofu. It was not particularly extravagant or inventive, but its flavour remained faithful to the fundamentals. That was Emily’s assessment, and Joseph and Alan appeared to think much the same.
They had initially been wary of the addition of lime juice, but it had been used sparingly enough that it did not disrupt the original flavour. Instead, it added a subtle freshness to the aroma.
Once again, Joseph found himself returning to a thought he had already had several times before: Jo Minjoon had an unusual talent for constructing recipes.
It was difficult to call every one of his ideas outstanding, but modifying an established recipe was always risky. Changes could just as easily make a dish worse as improve it. Yet Jo Minjoon consistently seemed able to preserve the fundamental flavour of a dish while nudging it in a better direction.
Could he already understand how flavours are structured at such a young age?
It was not unreasonable for Joseph to wonder. He looked at Jo Minjoon and asked, “Minjoon, who came up with the idea of adding lime juice?”
“I did.”
“And you’ve actually tried making it this way before?”
“...Yes. Is that strange?”
Joseph did not answer. He simply closed his mouth and studied him.
Jo Minjoon did not appear to be lying, which meant he really had conceived the idea himself. The same seemed to be true of the dishes he had made previously.
To develop instincts like that, he would have needed to cook an enormous amount. But was that even possible? He was only in his early twenties. Even if he had practically lived in a kitchen, it would still have been difficult to accumulate that much experience.
Since Joseph knew nothing about the system helping Jo Minjoon, such doubts were inevitable. Still, he could not afford to dwell on them. The food was cooling even as he thought, and Emily and Alan had already moved on to the scallops.
Joseph followed suit and put one in his mouth.
It was delicious. Fundamentally, it was already an excellent dish, but after the clean, gentle flavour of the soy-based tofu sauce, the richness of the scallop seemed even more pronounced. His tongue, now more sensitive than usual, clearly picked up the salty sweetness of the chilli oil and oyster sauce, while the tender scallop almost seemed to melt against it.
It was a beautiful flavour, and more importantly, a harmonious one.
Joseph composed himself and slowly savoured the lingering taste. Even after becoming one of the finest chefs in the world, the heart that had first led him towards cooking had remained surprisingly pure. He had become a chef because he loved eating delicious food and wanted to create it himself.
That was why he could not help being moved by the scallops.
Emily and Alan appeared to feel much the same. Their individual reactions differed slightly, but their expressions were noticeably softer than usual.
The final dish was the mocha biscuit.
A smooth scoop of lightly frozen plain yoghurt sat atop the square biscuit like a round marble. The judges took a bite. The crisp texture gave way beneath their teeth as the aroma of coffee spread through their mouths, followed by the refreshing tartness of the yoghurt.
It was the sort of dessert that could not be made without understanding what a dessert was meant to accomplish at the end of a meal. The judges tried to maintain neutral expressions, but smiles still escaped them.
Delicious food had a way of making people smile.
Watching their expressions, Jo Minjoon finally relaxed. Marco’s mocha biscuit had received a cooking score of 7. Considering Marco’s level 7 baking skill, that was hardly a failure, but it had still made Jo Minjoon uneasy. More than the individual scores, he had been worried about whether all three dishes would actually work together as a course.
The tasting continued, and the judges moved on to Kaya’s team.
Kaya had been responsible for the appetiser. She had prepared salmon tataki, seared only on the outside, and served it with a salad dressed in a sour sauce.
Jo Minjoon frowned.
[Salmon Tataki Salad]
Freshness: 92%
Origins: (Too many ingredients to determine)
Quality: High (Average ingredients)
Cooking Score: 8/10
(Translator’s Note: Tataki —A Japanese culinary term with more than one meaning. In dishes such as katsuo no tataki, fish is briefly seared on the exterior while remaining largely raw inside, then sliced and served with seasonings. The term can also describe ingredients that have been chopped or pounded. Seared tataki is particularly associated with Kōchi Prefecture and the historical Tosa region of Japan.)
Eight points.
It was exactly the kind of excellent dish he would expect from Kaya.
And yet Jo Minjoon could not bring himself to think well of it.
The judges evidently felt the same.
“...That’s the appetiser?” Alan asked.
“Yes.”
“It feels more like an entrée than an appetiser. It’s too heavy. I can tell that much just by looking at it.”
Alan had voiced exactly what Jo Minjoon had been thinking. More accurately, it was probably what everyone in the room was thinking. Perhaps salmon sushi might have worked better, but hot tataki was simply too heavy to serve as the opening dish of a course.
Kaya stared silently at Alan. Eventually Anderson could no longer endure the atmosphere and opened his mouth.
“I’m sorry. Actually—”
“Enough. I already heard from the director. The two of you fought over who would take the main course, didn’t you? There’s nothing wrong with arguing over what you want to cook. But did you really have to let that affect the food?”
Alan was looking at Anderson, but his words were clearly directed at Kaya as well.
Kaya frowned slightly and glared back at him. In her low, husky voice, she said, “At least taste it. It’s delicious.”
Hearing the anger in Kaya’s voice, Jo Minjoon finally understood what had happened.
When two favourites to win, Anderson and Kaya, ended up on the same team, the result had been disastrous for a very simple reason. Another participant had taken responsibility for dessert, leaving Anderson and Kaya to argue over which of them would cook the main course.
In the end, Anderson had won that argument.
The problem was what Kaya did afterwards. She made salmon tataki anyway and presented it as an appetiser. Whether that was because she did not properly understand the role of an appetiser or because she was resentful about losing the main course to Anderson, Jo Minjoon could not know.
Whatever the reason, the result was now sitting in front of the judges.
“I can’t eat this dish,” Alan said. “And I think the other judges feel the same way.”
He looked towards Emily and Joseph. Neither of them spoke. They simply nodded.
Joseph let out a disappointed sigh. “Kaya, why did you make this? You understand cooking. And if you understand cooking, then you should also understand the pleasure of eating. This... I can’t even regard it as part of a complete course. I can’t judge its flavour. What I feel isn’t disappointment so much as despair. How could you...”
His voice trailed off, and he sighed again.
Jo Minjoon silently watched the scene.
They were extraordinarily harsh words to direct at an 8-point dish, but he understood exactly what Joseph meant. The dish had strayed from the theme. It showed no consideration for the person who would actually be eating the complete course, nor did it feel sincerely made for the role it had been assigned.
It was a dish filled with selfishness and anger over having the main course taken away from her.
Only then did Jo Minjoon truly understand something.
No matter how much of a genius Kaya was, she was still only eighteen years old. She was still an ugly duckling that had yet to become a swan. She was still a girl who could not always control her own emotions.
(Translator’s Note: The Ugly Duckling —A literary fairy tale by Danish author Hans Christian Andersen, first published in 1843. It follows an apparently unattractive young bird who eventually matures into a swan. The title subsequently became an international metaphor for someone whose talent, beauty, or worth becomes apparent only after a period of awkward or difficult development.)
Silence settled over the room as Jo Minjoon continued staring at the salmon tataki salad Kaya had prepared.
Eight points.
A dish far too good to dismiss lightly, yet at the same time, a dish none of the judges was willing to touch.
This...