Chapter 45: Unexpected Fame (2)
Chapter 45: Unexpected Fame (2)
Moonlight streamed through the window. In the darkened lounge, a man sat alone on the sofa.
It was Jo Minjoon.
The television in front of him was showing a popular talk show hosted by a famous comedian, but Minjoon was not watching it. The screen of the phone in his hand was far too captivating for him to spare the television any attention.
Carl Casper: Why don’t they change Grand Chef’s name to Dating Chef? I got confused about what programme I was watching.
Anna Tompson: Agreed. Whether they suit each other as a couple or not, I’d like the programme I’m watching to go back to being a cooking show.
Olivia Wesiz: @Anna Tompson Just because they included one cute scene between them doesn’t mean it stopped being a cooking programme. I thought it was nice.
Dawnbreaker: I want to eat catfish. Why do I keep imagining what something I’ve never even tasted would taste like?
Meridia: Same. I think it would be perfect for breakfast.
Harry Miller: Who do you think will win? For me...
Kuroki Yui: Why did you stop there? For me, it’s Anderson. He looks skilled, and that cold expression is cool too. He’s my type.
Bootes: Chloe for me. She’s cute and pretty at the same time. I want her to win. I don’t know why, but I keep rooting for her.
Jessica Wood: @Kuroki Yui Hugo or Carlos are more handsome than Anderson. They look more manly too. Oh, right, that Asian guy wasn’t bad either. The one eating with Kaya at the end. What was his name?
Kuroki Yui: @Jessica Wood Minjoon. Looking at him made me think he’s a chef who resembles his cooking. Rather than luxurious, his dishes feel sleek.
April: @Kuroki Yui Sleek? Him? Those catfish meatballs looked like shit. Chef Alan is the sleek one.
Sansa Stark: Am I the only one who thinks Marco is cute?
N N: The world is wide, and everyone has different tastes.
Arianna Sommer: Minjoon and Kaya looked really good together. It made me feel like I was back in high school.
Katy Jones: Tell them to keep those things separate. What the hell are they doing instead of cooking?
Yujin Smith: @Katy Jones Actually, aren’t we the ones pushing them in that direction? What did they even do besides eat together? If you want to complain, complain to the director.
“And you were the one telling Kaya not to look at this.” A voice came from behind him.
Jo Minjoon glanced back. Chloe was looking at him with the expression of an older sister catching her spoiled little brother doing something he should not be doing. Minjoon did not answer. He simply turned off his phone and directed his wandering gaze towards the talk show he had not been interested in from the beginning.
“What are you doing up at this hour?” he asked.
“That’s what I should be asking you. Why aren’t you sleeping? Why are you sitting here alone?”
“I wonder...” Minjoon answered vaguely, then found himself thinking about Chloe’s voice.
Unlike her cute and pretty appearance, her voice was surprisingly low and rough. It was not quite husky. That description suited Kaya better. If Kaya sounded as though she were suffering from a sore throat, Chloe sounded more like someone who had caught a cold.
...What am I even thinking about?
Jo Minjoon shook his head.
Chloe narrowed her eyes. “You were just thinking something weird.”
“...How did you know?”
“Because when people suddenly go quiet, they’re usually thinking weird things.” She said it as though it were obvious, then stood nearby and spoke more cautiously.
“It’s amazing how much people can invent from nothing. We share some food and suddenly it’s romance? There’s really nothing like that going on.”
“...Well, it’s television.” At his answer, Chloe smiled faintly. “Come to think of it, you said you were going to tell your parents once you passed the mission, but now it’s been pushed back until tomorrow. Are you disappointed?”
“I don’t know. I wasn’t even thinking about it. But thanks for worrying.”
“I’m not exactly worried... It just reminds me of myself.”
“Why? Your mother isn’t against you cooking.”
Jo Minjoon deliberately said mother rather than parents. Even if children from separated families were not constantly sad about it, a careless word could still hurt. Chloe seemed to notice his consideration and gave him a soft but slightly sad smile.
“It isn’t about opposition. My relationship with my parents isn’t bad, but they’re not very good at expressing themselves. I know how hard and painful that can be.”
Jo Minjoon silently rubbed his fingers together.
Hard and painful.
It was not something he had ever consciously thought about, but now that Chloe said it, he realised she was right. Having your own parents on the opposite side and keeping something important from them was a heavy burden to carry.
“But Chloe, why did you come down here? All the comments about you are good, so it doesn’t seem like you’re here because of them.”
“What, am I not human? The comments got me excited too, and I couldn’t sleep. I came down after exercising for a bit. There are probably plenty of others like us. If you checked everyone’s rooms right now, I bet hardly anyone would actually be sleeping.”
“That’s probably true. What about Kaya?”
“She’s probably staring at a screen again. I think Marco took one quick look and fell asleep, and guys like Hugo are probably arguing with people in the comments.”
“Anderson probably wouldn’t look because of his pride.”
“I think guys like Anderson are exactly the kind who read everything from beginning to end.”
After talking like that for a while, the anxious pounding in Jo Minjoon’s chest gradually eased. Once one worry disappeared, however, another took its place.
He exhaled slowly. “Do you think Peter will calm down?”
“He changed his recipe earlier. He’s making tandoori chicken breast instead of turkey. We’ll have to see the details tomorrow, but I think he’ll be better.”
(Translator’s Note: Tandoori chicken —Chicken marinated with yoghurt and spices and traditionally cooked at very high heat in a cylindrical clay oven called a tandoor. Tandoor cooking has much older Central and South Asian roots, while the modern restaurant-style tandoori chicken became especially prominent in northern India during the first half of the twentieth century.)
“...Do you think I was wrong to give his dish a five?”
“Even to me, a five wouldn’t have been strange for that dish. Someone else might have tried to be nice and give it a better evaluation, but we’re chefs. No, I suppose it’s still too early to call us chefs. But becoming chefs is what we’re aiming for. So I think you were right to be honest about his cooking. And if he can’t handle an honest evaluation like that...” Chloe paused and smiled faintly.
Jo Minjoon understood what she could not quite bring herself to say, and finished it for her.
“Right. Then he isn’t qualified to become a chef.”
“Today will probably be the first time many of you serve an actual customer.” Alan’s voice echoed through the kitchen.
The room looked different from usual. Normally, the workstations were arranged in two straight rows, but now they had been moved into two large square formations, one for each team. The contestants were already standing in their respective areas.
“I won’t say much. I want the words first customer to be enough motivation for you. Cook well and serve good food. That’s all. Now get ready!”
It was 8:45 a.m.
They had barely had time to eat breakfast before the mission began, but there was nothing they could do about it. The customers would arrive at noon for lunch, and even two hours was not much time when they needed to prepare everything properly.
“Is everyone ready?”
At Kaya’s rough voice, the whole team nodded.
She looked like some fierce female warrior straight out of a film as she surveyed them.
“I’ll go over the menu one last time, and then we start. Carlos will make the bagels with banana cream cheese. After that, Jo Minjoon will serve crab bisque soup. The first main will be Chloe’s roasted sea bass. And...” Kaya paused.
Her eyes moved towards Peter. He did not look back at her and kept his gaze fixed on the floor. Kaya’s eyes twitched for a moment, but she did not show anything else.
“Peter will make tandoori chicken breast. Hugo will make the osso buco. ...The osso buco was good, Hugo. Just make it the same way you did yesterday.”
“Yes, Chef.” Hugo grinned and saluted.
Jo Minjoon nodded unconsciously. Hugo’s osso buco really had been delicious. It was an Italian dish made by braising veal shanks in white wine. Its flavour was deep and rich, carrying the warmth of traditional Italian home cooking. The system had given it a cooking score of seven, but to Minjoon, it had tasted better than that.
Kaya continued, “Joanne will make caprese salad, Tony will make chocolate mochi, and Ivanna will make orange sherbet. Joanne, Ivanna, don’t forget that yours need to be made quickly and served immediately afterwards. Minjoon, you know you’re helping with service too, right?”
(Translator’s Note: Caprese salad — A salad traditionally made from tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, basil, olive oil, and seasoning. It is associated with the island of Capri in southern Italy and became particularly well known during the twentieth century. Its red, white, and green ingredients are commonly associated with the colours of the Italian flag.)
(Translator’s Note:Mochi —A Japanese rice cake traditionally made from glutinous rice that is steamed and pounded until it forms a dense, elastic paste. Mochi has been used in Japanese ritual and seasonal food culture for well over a thousand years, with documented associations extending back to Japan’s early historical periods.)
“Yes.”
“Good. That’s everything. Let’s start!”
The moment Kaya gave the order, everyone moved to gather their ingredients. Jo Minjoon did the same. His ingredients had not changed from the night before.
While he was removing the crab shells and extracting the meat, Kaya came over and watched him work. Minjoon lowered his voice almost to a whisper.
“What about Peter? Do you think he’s doing okay?”
“I don’t know. I feel like I’ll just make things worse if I go over there.”
“Even so, you should. He might actually be waiting for you to make peace.”
“...Fine.”
Kaya clearly did not like the idea, but she walked towards Peter anyway. The atmosphere between them was still awkward, but at least they were talking. Minjoon turned his attention back to his own dish.
Making such a large quantity of bisque had both advantages and disadvantages.
The advantage was that the flavour deepened. Like most soups, bisque became richer the longer it simmered.
The disadvantage was the sheer amount. If the bottom of the pot started burning, it would be difficult to notice immediately with so much soup. A chef who had been smelling bisque for minutes—or even hours—could easily stop noticing subtle changes in the aroma because his nose would gradually become accustomed to it.
Of course, Jo Minjoon could check the cooking score of a completed dish through the system. But if he waited until it was finished before checking, it would already be too late. He could not afford mistakes, so he kept stirring without allowing his arms to rest.
His care paid off. The quality of the finished bisque was no worse than the batch he had made the previous evening.
Jo Minjoon looked down at it with satisfaction.
Now all he needed to do was keep it at the proper temperature and serve it to the customers. Ideally, soup would not be made in one enormous batch like this, but in a restaurant environment there was little choice. They could not possibly prepare each serving of every soup from scratch at the exact moment a customer ordered it.
“The customers are here! What are you doing? Start serving!” Alan shouted, looking already exhausted.
Carlos immediately carried out the bagels and banana cream cheese he had prepared. Then it was Jo Minjoon’s turn.
He placed bowls containing crab meat onto a tray, along with a kettle filled with hot bisque, and headed towards the dining room. As he entered, several customers who were already eating looked up at him and nodded as though they recognised him. A few even pointed in his direction.
Minjoon felt embarrassed.
A smile began creeping onto his face for no reason he could understand. He tried to keep his expression neutral, but he simply could not manage it. In the end, he walked on with an awkward smile.
At the first table sat a man and a woman who appeared to be a couple.
Jo Minjoon placed bowls of crab meat in front of them and poured in the hot bisque.
“This is crab bisque soup. I recommend tasting the soup first, then trying the crab meat.”
“Did you make this?”
“Yes. I made it.”
“Oh, this feels strange. Just yesterday, I was watching you make those catfish meatballs on television and practically drooling. But this looks even better. Right, Clark?”
“Hmm... I’ve never eaten crab before.” The man named Clark looked uncertainly at the bowl in front of him.
Jo Minjoon smiled gently. “It won’t taste fishy at all.”
“...I’ll try the soup first, then.” Clark hesitated before lifting his spoon.
Jo Minjoon watched nervously as it went into his mouth. Clark closed his eyes as though concentrating on the taste. A moment later, they opened wide, and he immediately lifted his spoon again.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
Then he scooped up some of the crab meat he had said he was unfamiliar with. The moment he chewed it, his eyes widened.
“Wow... My God. This crab meat melts before I can even chew it. How... It’s delicious. It really is.”
“I agree with Clark. It’s delicious. Thank you for the wonderful food.”
Jo Minjoon said nothing and simply smiled.
There was not the slightest trace of pretence in that smile. It was filled entirely with happiness.
His heart fluttered.
Hearing judges tell him his food was good and hearing actual customers say it was delicious were completely different things.
Then the woman grinned mischievously. “Is this how you seduced Kaya too? With your cooking?”
Jo Minjoon laughed helplessly. “She did say it was delicious.”