Chapter 34: A Dish Made by a Chef (2)
Chapter 34: A Dish Made by a Chef (2)
After the interview ended, Jo Minjoon returned to the waiting room. He usually thought interviews were rather pointless, but today they felt even more so. Part of the reason was that his mind was occupied with something else.
As soon as he opened the door, he looked for Kaya, but she was nowhere to be seen. Instead, what caught his eye was Anderson’s gloomy expression.
Jo Minjoon grinned. “Hello, Mr. A.”
“…Shameless bastard.”
“I apologised last time. It wasn’t on purpose. Besides, would I really dump the washing-up on you right after thanking you?”
“In the end, you still did.”
“That’s true, but…”
Anderson still looked gloomy, but the fact that he was conversing so casually with Jo Minjoon surprised the other contestants. Anderson was not the sort of person who normally got along with the others. In that respect, he could almost be called the male version of Kaya Lotus. Seeing the two of them talking so easily was unexpected.
Chloe and Marco seemed just as surprised. Chloe rested her chin on Jo Minjoon’s shoulder and smiled. Her black hair, faintly tinged with orange, brushed against his neck like a foxtail.
“What’s this? When did you two get so close?”
“Don’t get any disgusting ideas. We’re not close.” Anderson grumbled and went to sit on a sofa in the corner.
Jo Minjoon tapped the underside of Chloe’s chin where it rested on his shoulder.
Chloe lifted her head and asked, “Did the interview go well?”
“Is there anything to do well? You just answer whatever they ask.”
“It’s because you couldn’t do that properly that you ended up with a scandal.”
Jo Minjoon puffed out his cheeks without saying anything, then swallowed the air.
There was not much he could say in response. Chloe was right. He always thought he spoke reasonably enough, but apparently, he was not very good at distinguishing between what should be said and what should be kept to himself.
Is it because I got used to talking that way when I was teaching students?
He felt somewhat bitter.
Jo Minjoon sat on the sofa and looked at Chloe. “And Kaya?”
“I was wondering when you’d ask. She went outside earlier because she was feeling uncomfortable. I think she wanted some fresh air.”
“Really?”
“Is something wrong?”
“No. Nothing’s wrong. I was just asking.”
Marco, who was sitting beside him, spoke up. “Do you really need to worry about her? She’s a strong girl.”
“Yes. She is strong. But she’s still a child.”
Jo Minjoon sighed after saying that.
Even so, he had once been a teacher. Just as he had with Jessie, he could not help feeling concerned when he looked at Kaya. It was not as though he had become a teacher simply because it was a job.
He had always been that sort of person. Some might call it meddling, but he disliked seeing immature children suffer.
Even so, going after Kaya to comfort or advise her would be ridiculous. With Jessie, the situation had naturally given him an opportunity to say something, but Kaya was different. Her circumstances were different, and so was her personality.
“How long until the mission starts?”
“There are probably at least three people left to interview, so maybe fifteen minutes. Are you going to look for her?”
At Marco’s question, Jo Minjoon shook his head. It was not something he should interfere with.
Silence settled over them for a moment before Chloe broke it.
“What do you think the next mission will be?”
“The theme of this mission is vegetarian cuisine.” Emily announced the theme in a lively voice.
Jo Minjoon simply watched her. Emily smiled brightly as she made eye contact with each contestant before continuing.
“When you run a restaurant, vegetarians are always something you have to consider. And there are many different types of vegetarian diets. Vegans, for example, don’t eat meat, fish, eggs, or dairy products and consume only plant-based foods. There are also vegetarians who consume dairy products, and there are too many variations to list them all. For this mission, you should consider us judges to be lacto-ovo vegetarians. To put it simply, you may use eggs and dairy products, but no meat of any kind. Fish and poultry are also prohibited.”
(Translator’s Note: Lacto-ovo vegetarian — A vegetarian diet that excludes meat, poultry, and fish while permitting both dairy products and eggs. Lacto- derives from Latin lac, “milk”, while ovo- derives from Latin ovum, “egg”.)
Those were fairly restrictive conditions. Being allowed to use eggs and dairy products made things a little easier, but being prohibited from using any kind of meat was still a major limitation. It would be especially difficult for Western contestants who were accustomed to building meals around meat.
But not for Jo Minjoon.
He was Korean, and Korea had a long tradition of vegetable-centred dishes. Numerous vegetarian recipes immediately came to mind. The problem lay elsewhere.
Seven points. Should I care about it?
His understanding of cooking scores had already changed. Of course, a dish with a high cooking score would generally be good. But he had realised that a low score did not automatically mean poor food.
Naturally, the judges tended to favour dishes with higher scores, so the higher the score, the better. The problem was that Jo Minjoon had two possible recipes in mind. One was worth 7 points, while the other was worth 6. His head told him to choose the 7-point dish, but his heart preferred the 6-point one.
The 7-point recipe was relatively simple. He would steam cauliflower, mix paprika with butter and brush it over the cauliflower before roasting it, then finish the dish with breadcrumbs, herbs, and other seasonings. At first glance, it was a straightforward recipe, but the roasting process required careful attention and technique.
The 6-point recipe, on the other hand, was something he knew quite well. It was adapted from food commonly eaten at Korean Buddhist temples: cabbage rolls filled with sliced egg, tofu, mushrooms, and herbs. Alongside them, he wanted to serve bibimbap topped with a raw egg, gamjajeon with chives, and miyeokguk made with perilla seeds.
(Translator’s Note: Bibimbap —Literally “mixed rice”, a Korean dish consisting of rice with assorted vegetables and other toppings, generally mixed with seasoning such as gochujang and sesame oil before eating. Numerous regional and household variations exist.)
(Translator’s Note: Gamjajeon —A Korean potato pancake made principally from grated or ground potato and pan-fried. Gamja means “potato”, while jeon refers broadly to Korean pan-fried pancakes or battered ingredients.)
(Translator’s Note: Miyeokguk —Korean seaweed soup made with miyeok, an edible brown seaweed. It has a strong association with childbirth because it is traditionally eaten during postpartum recovery; consequently, Koreans also commonly eat it on birthdays in remembrance of their mothers.)
(Translator’s Note:Perilla seeds —The seeds of the perilla plant, widely used in Korean cuisine. They may be ground into soups and stews to provide a rich, nutty flavour and slightly creamy texture, while perilla oil is also widely used in Korean cooking.)
It was not simply because he wanted to present Korean cuisine. Although the dishes only scored 6 points, they were ordinary enough in Korea. To the judges, however, they would be unfamiliar. That was what Jo Minjoon was counting on.
Before he could fully organise his thoughts, Alan spoke. “This will be an individual mission. You will be completely responsible for your own dish from beginning to end.”
No one responded. They were already too busy thinking about what they would cook.
Joseph continued calmly, “We’ll give you five minutes to finalise your recipe. Use that time to plan a vegetarian dish. After that, you’ll have sixty minutes to cook.”
Jo Minjoon sank into thought. If he considered both flavour and nutrition, presenting several dishes together seemed like the better choice. The only thing bothering him was the predicted score of 6 points.
But he could not rely on the system forever.
Jo Minjoon was not a gamer playing a cooking simulation. He was a chef, and the instincts he had as a chef were telling him to choose the 6-point menu.
He looked around. There were twenty-one contestants remaining, including him, and every one of them was participating in the programme with seriousness and passion. It stung his pride to realise that, despite standing among people like them, he was still staring at numbers floating beside their dishes.
All right. This time, I’ll do it my way. I’m a chef too.
The system was not something he should obey blindly. It was a tool, and he was supposed to use it. The moment he allowed himself to be controlled by the score, it would no longer be Jo Minjoon cooking. The system would be cooking for him.
At that moment, the buzzer rang, signalling the start of the challenge.
Joseph raised his voice. “Sixty minutes! Start now!”
Jo Minjoon did not waste a second and headed straight for the pantry. The ingredients he needed were simple: seaweed, perilla seeds, rice, eggs, and various vegetables and fruits.
The first thing he needed to prepare was the rice. Jo Minjoon washed it, discarded the cloudy water, then filled the pot again and set the rice aside. There was no electric rice cooker, so he had to use a pressure cooker instead. In his experience, electric rice cookers were far more common in Korea and Japan than elsewhere. Even Grand Chef, despite having an enormous range of ingredients and equipment, did not have one available.
Once the rice was cooking, he moved on to the perilla-seed miyeokguk. Naturally, the first thing he prepared was the seaweed. Jo Minjoon rinsed it thoroughly in cold water, then squeezed out the excess moisture. Next came the perilla seeds, which he ground into the starchy water left from washing the rice.
The rest was simple. He sautéed the seaweed in perilla oil, then added ground perilla seeds, rice water, and minced garlic to a pot before covering it with a lid. This was one reason he had bothered cooking rice rather than using instant rice. Since he could not use anchovy stock in a vegetarian dish, the rice water would serve as a substitute. It would not be as rich as a proper stock, but it would still add body.
He could season it near the end. For now, Jo Minjoon closed the lid and moved on to the next dishes: gamjajeon and cabbage rolls. The cabbage rolls needed to come first. It would be better to make the gamjajeon last so they remained crisp.
Jo Minjoon first softened the cabbage in water seasoned with vinegar and salt. While it cooked, he sliced the vegetables into long strips, then drained the tofu and crushed it thoroughly. There could not be too much water left in the tofu; otherwise, the excess moisture would seep out once the rolls were eaten and make the filling watery.
At that moment, Joseph approached and quietly watched him work. Jo Minjoon paid him no attention and continued separating the cabbage leaves.
Eventually, Emily, who was watching from nearby, became curious enough to ask, “Joseph, why are you just standing there looking at him?”
“Because I’m curious. It doesn’t look like Jo Minjoon is making a single dish. I think he’s trying to prepare an Asian-style full meal.”
“Hmm… Will he have enough time?”
Emily asked the question, but Jo Minjoon did not answer. She laughed awkwardly.
He was completely focused on the worktop. It was not that he was nervous. He was simply absorbed in what he was doing.
The difficult part about preparing an entire table of dishes was that several things had to be cooked at once. Even while concentrating on one dish, he had to keep checking the others. There was a reason housewives sometimes suddenly cried out, “Ah!” in the middle of cooking and rushed back to a pan they had forgotten about. Of course, in Korea, Jo Minjoon suspected that sometimes had more to do with getting distracted by television than with a lack of cooking skill.
Thirty minutes had already passed.
Jo Minjoon took the cabbage from the steamer and filled the leaves with tofu, mushrooms, sliced egg, and other ingredients. He also added coriander, basil, and several other herbs, which made the flavour noticeably brighter.
It was not an overwhelmingly delicious flavour. The only real seasoning was salt, and there was no meat. Even so, it was certainly pleasant to eat. The juices from the cabbage spread through his mouth almost like fruit juice, while the herbs and coriander lingered with a freshness reminiscent of lime in a mojito.
(Translator’s Note: Mojito —A Cuban cocktail made in its modern form with rum, lime, sugar, mint, and soda water. Its exact origin is disputed. Similar lime, sugar, mint, and cane-spirit mixtures existed in Cuba centuries earlier, while the recognisable modern rum-based drink developed as refined Cuban rum became widespread in the nineteenth century.)
The cooking score was 6 points, but that was only natural. There were no particularly advanced techniques involved in a dish like this.
He briefly considered pan-frying the cabbage rolls in perilla oil and soy sauce, but doing so would immediately destroy their light, clean flavour. Instead, Jo Minjoon simply sliced the rolls and arranged them neatly on a plate.
When he checked the miyeokguk, the flavours of the seaweed and garlic had deepened considerably. The fine texture of the ground perilla seeds lingering on the tip of his tongue was pleasant, and the overall flavour was good. Jo Minjoon seasoned it with soy sauce and salt, then covered the pot again. He intended to keep the soup simmering until it was time to present it to the judges. The softer the seaweed became, the better.
He checked the rice as well. It was already done, and perfectly cooked. The variety was Calrose, so compared with the short-grain white rice commonly eaten in Korea, the flavour was somewhat lacking, but that could be compensated for with sesame oil.
Jo Minjoon sliced herbs, lettuce, pumpkin, carrots, and other vegetables. In the United States, leafy plants and greens were not eaten in quite the same way as they were in Korea. Korean cuisine made extensive use of seasoned greens and herbs as everyday side dishes. Because of that, Jo Minjoon thought the bibimbap he was making with these ingredients would feel especially fresh and unfamiliar to the judges.