Chapter 87: The Pig and the Fire (3)
Chapter 87: The Pig and the Fire (3)
[Jo Minjoon]
Cooking Level: 7
Baking Level: 5
Tasting Level: 8
Decoration Level: 5
Level seven. Had that number ever looked so beautiful before? It made Minjoon even happier than the eight-point score floating beside the pork galbi. He had finally reached the same level as Anderson, Kaya, and Chloe. Of course, even if their levels were identical, there would still be differences between them, but at the very least, he felt as though he had finally managed to catch up to their backs.
Minjoon gazed affectionately at the number floating in the air. The only problem was that Kaya happened to be standing directly behind the window he was staring at. Sensing his intense gaze, she turned slightly, saw Minjoon staring in her direction, frowned, and quickly looked away again.
What is it? Why was he looking at me like that?
She found it uncomfortable, but she was too busy to pay much attention to it. The same was true for Minjoon. His level might have increased, but he still had to finish plating.
He deliberately kept the portions small, though he had no intention of imitating French cuisine by leaving most of the plate conspicuously empty. The problem was simply that overly generous portions would be burdensome. Each contestant had prepared three pork dishes, meaning the judges would have to taste at least twenty-one dishes in total. No matter how delicious they were, too much food could easily become unpleasant before the judging was even halfway through.
Tasting began with the flavour a person imagined before the food ever entered their mouth, and if that was true, then Minjoon needed to make the judges anticipate the dishes as much as possible. This was the first time he had produced three eight-point dishes in a single mission, and they were also the final dishes he had made while still at Cooking Level six. It was a meaningful moment, and he wanted to present them perfectly.
By the time he placed the bite-sized pieces of meat in the centre of each plate, less than a minute remained. Minjoon licked his dry lips and looked towards the judges. Alan glanced at the clock and shouted in a firm voice.
“Time’s up! Hands off!”
The judging began. Minjoon slowly surveyed the other contestants’ dishes. Only two people besides him had produced eight-point dishes across the board: Kaya and Anderson. Chloe had made two eight-point dishes, while her remaining dish scored seven.
Ivanna was judged first. All three of her dishes were worth seven points, which was a respectable result. The contestants this season were so strong that she rarely stood out, but if Ivanna had competed in the previous season, she probably would have made a much greater impression. Her cute appearance aside, she had both the qualifications and the ability. It was not easy for an amateur to consistently produce seven-point food.
The judges appeared to take that into account as they evaluated her dishes. Of course, they could not literally distinguish between a seven-point and an eight-point dish the way Minjoon could, but they were perfectly capable of sensing the overall level.
To think I can taste dishes like these and still feel disappointed... This season really will go down in history.
Alan thought that there might never again be a season with as many skilled contestants as the third. The fact that one contestant possessed an absolute sense of taste already made this season extraordinary.
They did not give Ivanna any special treatment, but her evaluation still ended with largely positive comments. Her cooking was stable. Unless someone was an exceptionally demanding gourmet, most people who tasted Ivanna’s food would probably be perfectly satisfied.
Sasha and Hugo were not very different. Their dishes ranged between six and seven points. None of them were bad, but they lacked the extra something needed to make the decision easy. The judges were forced to rack their brains. It would almost have been simpler if someone had made a terrible mistake, because then eliminating one contestant would have been obvious. As things stood, they had little choice but to rely on a more subjective assessment.
“Minjoon, bring your dishes.”
Before deciding anything, they first needed to finish judging the remaining contestants. Alan looked at Minjoon’s plates with anticipation. At some point, judging Minjoon’s food had become less of an obligation and more something Alan genuinely enjoyed. He could see the young contestant’s growth with his own eyes, and every time he tasted Minjoon’s food, that growth became even clearer on his tongue.
“Is there a particular order we should eat them in?”
“I recommend starting with the meatball. It has the least intense flavour of the three.”
“The least intense...”
Joseph picked up one of the meatballs and put it into his mouth. The soft smoked paprika and the meatball coated in wine sauce were chewed together. The paprika still retained an unexpected crispness, and alongside it, the coarse yet tender meatball stimulated both his tongue and palate.
The wine sauce, reduced with balsamic vinegar, was fairly conventional, but conventional did not mean colourless. No one criticised barbecue sauce simply because it tasted like barbecue sauce.
“You made this wine sauce to appeal to a broad palate. It isn’t merely sweet. The acidity and sweetness are balanced specifically to complement the meatball, and on top of that, there’s the distinctive flavour of the dry wine. Where did you learn this? It would be difficult to find something this specific on the inter—... Ah, right. You can read recipes.”
Alan had begun asking the question with genuine curiosity before suddenly understanding the answer himself. Minjoon could recognise the recipes of dishes he ate. It was such an unrealistic ability that even knowing about it did not make it easy to remember all the time.
In theory, Minjoon barely needed a teacher. By visiting famous restaurants and tasting their food, he could obtain the culinary information those chefs had built over years. Every time he mastered a recipe that another chef might normally guard closely, he gained knowledge far beyond what someone his age should have possessed.
Alan’s fork moved to the next plate. This time, it was the Dongpo pork. The pork was so tender that it could barely be compared with ordinary versions of the dish, and as he chewed, juices mingled with the sauce and slowly coated his tongue. Beneath the flavour of vegetables fried in Chinese-style oil lingered the rich aroma of kaoliang liquor. It genuinely felt as though he were eating luxurious Dongpo pork at a good Chinese restaurant. Considering that it had been prepared in only two hours, the amount of effort and care contained in the dish was remarkable.
Emily looked at Minjoon with the delighted expression of an ordinary girl enjoying something delicious.
“It’s amazing that you managed to develop this much flavour in only two hours. I thought Dongpo pork needed far more time...”
“Thank you.”
“I’m the one who should be thanking you after eating something like this. Is it really all right for us to eat food like this for free?” Emily smiled. At times, she could seem as sly as a fox, but when she evaluated food, she often displayed the pure enthusiasm of a child. That was one of the reasons Minjoon could never bring himself to dislike her.
It would be nice if she’d stop telling me to become a food critic, though. Minjoon smiled bitterly.
Now it was time for the final dish: the pork galbi. The judges’ expressions became noticeably more serious, and Joseph spoke first.
“You should already understand this, but among the three dishes you prepared today, these pork ribs are the most important. They reveal your actual ability most directly. And...”
Joseph examined the ribs and slowly widened his eyes.
“Judging by the exterior, I can’t see any obvious flaws. The sauce has penetrated the meat properly, there’s no burning, and the surface has been seared to an excellent colour. Not burning something sounds like the simplest requirement in cooking, but it can also be one of the hardest, especially when you’re grilling meat coated in sauce.”
With that, Joseph put a piece of pork galbi into his mouth. The sauce combined barbecue sauce and soy sauce, a mixture that could easily have become excessively salty. However, the wine, vinegar, and lemon juice lightened the heaviness. More importantly, Minjoon had not simply poured the sauce over the finished meat. He had marinated the ribs and cooked them with the sauce already clinging to their surface.
With a single bite, Joseph could feel how much Minjoon had grown. The difference was subtle, but it was the sort of dish that could not be made without understanding the exact moment when fire touched meat. The flavour itself was not dramatically superior to the meatballs or the Dongpo pork, nor was the overall level of completion visibly higher. But anyone who cooked professionally would recognise the difference. The concentration, control, and skill contained in those ribs were anything but ordinary.
Alan spoke. “...I’ll be honest with you. I’m sorry, Minjoon. Until now, I didn’t think your chances of winning were particularly high. But after tasting your dishes today, I’m beginning to think differently. Maybe you really can do it. Yes. You could win.”
His voice was completely serious. Minjoon gave a faint smile, unsure what he could say without making the moment awkward. Fortunately, Emily stepped in before he had to answer.
“Today, all three of your dishes were difficult to criticise. More importantly, I think this is the best cooking you’ve shown us so far. No, actually, every time you complete another mission, I feel as though you’ve improved. I’ll be expecting even more from you in the next one.”
That meant he had passed.
Minjoon smiled and gave a slight bow.
The evaluations of Chloe, Anderson, and Kaya were naturally no worse than his. They had prepared dishes including hamburgers, shredded five-spice pork, ravioli, and other dishes, and none of them appeared inferior by any meaningful margin. That left only Ivanna, Sasha, and Hugo as possible candidates for elimination.
They wouldn’t eliminate all three of them.
Regardless of whether there would eventually be a revival round, the number of remaining contestants now had to be managed carefully. At the very least, the production needed enough people to keep the programme moving.
Then the only question is which one of them goes...
Minjoon slowly looked at the three. Ivanna did not seem likely to be eliminated because all three of her dishes had scored seven points. Hugo and Sasha, however, had each made two seven-point dishes and one six-point dish. Even so, predicting elimination based solely on the system scores was difficult.
“Sasha, Ivanna, Hugo. Come forward.”
The three walked towards the judges with nervous expressions. They had already guessed that they were not among the top performers but among those in danger.
Joseph looked at them with a somewhat weary expression.
“I believe you understand why we called the three of you.”
“...Are all three of us being eliminated?”
“No. Only one person will be leaving. The truth is, there wasn’t a great difference between your cooking today. All three of you were fairly good. But this is not a competition where being merely fairly good is enough to survive. When there are dozens of contestants and some of them make terrible dishes, the decision is easy. That’s no longer the case. Among everyone who has survived this far, there is no one who is truly incompetent. Simply being better than average is no longer enough.”
None of the three replied. They understood better than anyone that their dishes had not stood out.
Joseph opened his mouth, then closed it again as though he was struggling to say what needed to be said. Emily seemed to notice and raised her voice instead.
“That’s why we looked beyond today’s dishes. We considered everything you’ve shown us until now, and we’re going to save the person whose future cooking we most want to see. Sasha!” Emily paused, then lowered her voice. “Why do you think I called your name?”
“...Please. My heart feels like it’s shrinking.”
“I’m sorry. To make up for it, I’ll give you some good news. You’ve survived. Based on everything you’ve shown us so far, we decided we want to give you more opportunities. Go back to your station.”
“Thank you...” Sasha answered in a trembling voice, wiped the tears gathering in her eyes, and returned to her workstation.
Only Ivanna and Hugo remained.
Ivanna swallowed hard and clenched her fists. Joanne came to mind.
I said I would win for Joanne.
Yet here she was. At that moment, she could no longer tell where all the ambition she had felt before had gone, or whether she still had any left at all. Every time her eyes met the judges’, her heart pounded harder, and before long she even began to hiccup.
Alan watched her for a moment before speaking.
“To be honest, Ivanna, among the three of you, your cooking today was the strongest.”
“Thank you.”
“...But that’s all. Fairly good. Until now, you’ve never shown us anything that breaks beyond that description. You haven’t shown us something that belongs unmistakably to you, something that stays in our memories. Hugo, on the other hand, gave us his osso buco, and he has also shown that he can lead other people effectively. Ivanna, can we really place our expectations on you?”
Ivanna bit her lip. Her face was paler than usual and trembling slightly, but she had no immediate answer. Alan was right. She had never shown them anything distinctly her own. She had simply survived until now, and at this stage of the competition, survival alone was no longer enough.
But—
“...Yes. Expect something from me.”
“What should we expect?”
“I-I... I only know how to cook well. And just like you said, Chef, I’m only fairly good right now. But that doesn’t mean I’ve given up on improving. I want to show you that I can become better than this. Please give me a chance.”
Alan did not answer. Instead, he turned towards Hugo.
“Hugo, what do you think? Do you believe we should give Ivanna that opportunity?”
Hugo pressed his lips together, unsure how he was supposed to respond. If he said she deserved the chance, then he would be the one eliminated. But saying that she did not deserve it felt equally wrong.
“...Does my opinion matter?”
“I don’t know. Perhaps not. I’m simply curious what you think.”
“I’m grateful that you think highly of me. But I still have a lot to learn. If Ivanna’s food was better than mine today, then I think it would be right to judge us based on the food rather than on our future potential.”
“Even if that means you’re the one eliminated?”
“...Being greedy for something beyond what my ability deserves would only make me petty.”
At those words, one corner of Alan’s mouth lifted. He looked at Hugo warmly. “One thing is certain. Just like me, you have Italian blood running through you. That was a fine answer. And because you said it so well, I hope you can accept what I’m about to tell you with the same dignity.”
Silence settled over the room for a moment before Alan ended it with a blunt declaration.
“Hugo, you have been eliminated. Return your badge and leave the Grand Chef house.”