Chapter 514: Glimpse of Jack’s Last Days (7)
Chapter 514: Glimpse of Jack’s Last Days (7)
Minjoon and his party boarded the plane back to New York.
During the flight, Chloe murmured in a depressed voice, “Why do people have to die?”
Knowing nobody could answer that question, Chloe asked it anyway. She wanted to believe death wasn’t something sad, but seeing Lisa, Jack, and Ella made it impossible not to feel broken-hearted.
The flight from Los Angeles to New York was long. Leaving their worries behind, Chloe and Kaya soon fell asleep while Minjoon began reading Daniel’s cooking journal. Each of Daniel’s recipes made his heart tremble. The value of the journal was undeniable, as it contained all of Daniel’s thoughts and inspirations while cooking. Yet the more Minjoon read, the more ambivalent he felt—skeptical about defeating such a formidable chef, but still fueled with desire to do so.
Daniel must have a perfect gastronomic and cooking level.
Judging by others’ comments, Daniel was a perfect chef, no less. Finishing the journal only confirmed that. It wasn’t just the impressive recipes, but Daniel’s agonies were on a different plane. When lost, Minjoon wandered aimlessly, whereas Daniel grappling with so many possible paths ahead. Daniel’s confusion seemed beautiful to Minjoon—even evoking jealousy.
Once his envy and admiration cooled, Minjoon began to understand Daniel’s cooking better and to glimpse what was in his mind. Yet he found no clue—no breakthrough. He bit his lips. He hadn’t even reached cooking level 9, and his gastronomic level was worse. Even after reaching gastronomic level 9, he didn’t know what defined a perfect gastronomic level.
Is it impossible to reach level 10 without a perfect palate from the start?
Achieving gastronomic level 10 was an immense challenge. In fact, he had never seen anyone with gastronomic level 10 except Kaya. Rachel was the only chef with decoration level 10. And he had yet to see anyone reach cooking level 10.
Why didn’t Chef Rachel reach cooking level 10?
He pondered absentmindedly, feeling the question was valid. Daniel’s cooking had shown a clear gap between him and Rachel. In this light, it was unlikely Rachel had achieved a cooking level 10. Even if their levels were equal, her cooking wasn’t as flawless as Daniel’s.
Then why hadn’t she attained it? Why didn’t she reach Daniel’s echelon? It might not have been his place to agonise over, as he hadn’t yet reached cooking level 9. Still, curiosity gnawed at him—not simply because he wanted Rachel to reach that level.
Cooking level 10 was one of Minjoon’s ultimate ambitions. Though baking and decoration were not his strengths, he bore no regrets—that wasn’t his calling. Cooking, however, was different. He had devoted his life to it, racing against time. To end his days without exceeding his limits would fill him with lifelong regret.
Well, given where I am now, I’m hardly in a position to judge Chef Rachel.
He once believed being the best chef was the goal, but after hearing June and Rachel speak of being “the best,” he reconsidered. He now understood greed. Some dream of peaceful lives, but those dreams can become prisons.
He was willing to regard his dream—and its prison—as his own.
In other words, he had changed, thanks to June, Rachel, those around him, and himself; he wanted to make cooking his, as much as he loved it.
“Should I look for it?” he muttered.
Rachel was giving up further development. That was why she sought vicarious satisfaction through Minjoon. He couldn’t ignore her wishes. He hated to see her forgotten and disappear from the cooking world like this.
Rachel was the finest chef he’d ever met. She had to be remembered as such.
She said she would make me the best chef.
He clenched his fist.
I must repay her.
“As I have received, I will return it.”
Contrary to worries, Lisa wasn’t as bad as expected. Her doctor reported significant tumour shrinkage and halted metastasis. Her postoperative condition was stable.
Recently, Lisa focused more on Jack’s health than her own. Attempting to speak to Jack about it meant being scolded for worrying over herself, so she seldom got her message across. Still, Jack’s condition worsened daily.
After all, Jack was an elderly man in his nineties. The doctor said Jack’s body aged prematurely, likely from overwork. Jack nodded bluntly at this but immediately set about caring for himself after hearing it.
So he shocked Lisa by working again.
Jack was making bread.
“Dad! What are you doing?”
“Why such fuss over the patissier making bread?”
“I wouldn’t mind if a healthy patissier was baking, but your condition is terrible, right?”
“Yeah, my joints ache and muscles are damaged. But my breathing will stop before those get worse. What’s the point of saving them?”
“Dad!”
“Daniel cooked up to his last moment.”
Suddenly changing the subject, Jack continued slowly as Lisa struggled to respond.
“Back then, people focused on trivial things. Who cared that he was Rose Island’s owner, how wealthy he was, how Rachel would inherit his wealth, which celebrities were customers, or how people lamented. They even talked about how liberal he was. But the most important thing was that he died as a chef.”
“Dad, you criticised him for neglecting his health, right?”
“But I never disparaged him as a chef. He was a chef to his last breath, Lisa.”
He regarded her with unusual gentleness, uncharacteristic of him.
“I want to follow his path. I don’t want to look like an old man afraid of dying. I want to be a patissier at my last moment. A baker. I want flour on my arms, not IV marks. That’s my pride. Then, I'll be able to face Daniel proudly in death.”
“Why say this only now?”
“Well, because I realised I’d hidden behind weakness—my aching arms and frail health.”
Belatedly aware, but better late than never.
“From today, watch me bake from start to finish. That’s the last gift and legacy I can give you. Please continue the bakery I dreamed and practiced. This is my final request as an old father.”
“Dad…”
Lisa bit her lips—not to refuse but because she knew her time was short. Lung cancer wasn’t easy to defeat; metastasis had stopped and surgery succeeded, but death still lurked. And she was afraid.
Jack pressed on. “After you master it, teach your students. Let them carry on our legacy here.”
She stared blankly. He wasn’t insisting without reason—he truly believed she wouldn’t die. It seemed he didn’t even think she would.
So she feigned belief.
“Okay, I will.”
Jack smiled. That day and the next, he baked bread despite trembling arms barely able to grip a spoon, enduring pain with countless doughs.
Lisa realised how foolish her earlier thoughts were. She believed she had surpassed her father, that their skills were nearly equal.
But she was wrong. Watching his true capabilities revealed the gulf between them.
She felt she could master his skills if only she had more time watching him.
Time passed, and she finally approached his mastery.
Kaya and Minjoon later returned to Los Angeles, dressed in black, heavy with sorrow, to attend Jack’s funeral on a hot day.