Chapter 90: The Weight of a Restaurant (3)
Chapter 90: The Weight of a Restaurant (3)
Kaya’s expression froze in bewilderment. Marriage. It was a word she had never even imagined. Minjoon happened to glance towards her, and Kaya flinched before blurting out instinctively, “What? What is it? Why?”
“...Why are you so startled? I only looked at you.”
“Your gaze was greasy.”
“I don’t think eyes can be greasy.”
Minjoon frowned and tugged at the skin around his eyes. He had no double eyelids, nor were his upper eyelids particularly deep. At least compared with Westerners, he did not exactly have the sort of eyes that could produce a profound, seductive gaze.
Kaya coughed awkwardly. “Shut up. Just eat. You need to understand the flavour.”
“But you’re the one who wasn’t eating until just now because you were busy doing something else.”
“For whose sake was I—... Forget it.”
Kaya glared at him irritably, then ground her teeth and began chewing with such force that it was questionable whether she could properly taste anything.
Minjoon slowly surveyed the dishes in front of them. Most scored seven or eight points. Considering the restaurant’s reputation, that might have seemed slightly low, but it was still respectable. The head chef’s own skills were probably far superior to those of the rest of the kitchen staff, but a head chef’s primary role was managing the kitchen and overseeing the dishes rather than personally cooking every plate.
Of course, if someone prepared the same menu repeatedly, the quality of their cooking would naturally improve. Even so, something about these dishes felt slightly lacking. There was a reason head chefs sometimes personally cooked for VVIP guests, although pointing that out could easily turn into an accusation of discriminating between customers.
That was why Rose Island had impressed Minjoon so much when he visited before. Its quality did not come solely from the head chef’s management or recipes. The individual chefs responsible for each section possessed considerable talent of their own. There were many factors to consider, but even after accounting for all of them, the restaurant’s standard remained remarkable.
Compared with Rose Island, Minjoon could identify several weaknesses here, but that did not mean On the Lake was a poor-quality restaurant. It served a constant stream of customers, and maintaining nine-point dishes under those conditions was hardly easy. Even the two-star restaurant he had visited in New York had offered only two dishes that scored nine points.
“Does the food suit your taste?” Alan asked.
“Yes, it’s good. How expensive is this place?”
“I’m not sure about the à la carte prices, but even if you order the most expensive items, sixty dollars should be enough.”
“I think it’s worth sixty dollars. That doesn’t mean there aren’t things that could be improved, though.”
Alan did not ask for the scores. Judging from Minjoon’s reaction, he clearly had not been overwhelmed by the food. If he had nothing especially flattering to say, there was little point asking him to assign a number that would make nobody happy, particularly when Minjoon was about to work in this restaurant’s kitchen.
Once the meal ended, Kaya and Minjoon stood in the kitchen reading through their recipes. Minjoon asked calmly, “Have you memorised everything?”
“...I’m bad at memorising things.”
“Don’t think of it as memorising words. Remember the cooking process instead. Or should we divide it this way? You handle the roasting, and I’ll take care of everything else. We should be able to work pretty efficiently like that.”
“Do restaurants actually work that way?”
“I don’t know. Every kitchen probably has its own system.” Minjoon answered casually.
Kaya shot him a sharp look, then returned to the recipe as though his attitude had suddenly sparked her competitiveness.
The dishes assigned to her were the fish courses that would serve as the mains. There was hardly anything except fish, which made sense considering On the Lake stood beside Lake Michigan and presented itself as a seafood restaurant. Even so, not all of its seafood came from the lake.
It’s part of the concept.
Seafood served in a restaurant overlooking a lake. From a customer’s perspective, there was something romantic about that combination.
Minjoon glanced towards Kaya. “How was the meal?”
“How was what? The food?”
“That too, but... you told me before that you’d never been to a restaurant in your life. This place is pretty nice. Did it feel like a good experience?”
“...Ah. Right. That was my first time.” Kaya frowned. Now that she thought about it, this really had been her first proper restaurant experience, but because it was part of a mission, she had not been able to enjoy it at all. The realisation left her strangely disappointed. “Today doesn’t count.”
“Why? You didn’t like it?”
“How could I? This place is full of cameras. I can’t even hunch over while I eat.”
“Isn’t sitting upright while eating normal?”
“I don’t like eating while pretending to be dignified. Normally, you put your face close to the plate. It’s annoying enough having to move a fork around. How are you supposed to eat comfortably like that?”
“Then why didn’t you hunch over?”
“If I ate like that, those bastards would start talking rubbish about me again. They’d say you can tell I’m uneducated just from the way I eat. It’s true, but I still don’t like hearing it.” Kaya pushed out her lower lip and sank into a sulk.
Minjoon looked at her beak-like pout for a moment, seemingly distracted, before speaking gently. “If I ever get the chance to run a restaurant, I’ll let you eat however you want.”
“...And when exactly will that happen?”
“Who knows? Even if I’m late, I should be able to do it within twenty years.”
For a chef to take charge of a restaurant in their early thirties was already considered fast. Of course, there were rare cases of geniuses becoming head chefs or owners of Michelin-starred restaurants while still in their twenties, but that required more than skill alone. They also needed popularity, funding, and the right circumstances. Cases like that were rare enough to count on one hand.
“Come to think of it, maybe I could take charge of one much sooner. They said the winner of season one recently became the head chef of a restaurant. There’s a separate owner, of course, but still... for someone who came from an ordinary background to rise that far says enough. If I win, I might be able to do that for you pretty quickly.”
“...I’m the one who’s going to win, though. Forget about that and keep talking about the restaurant. If you opened one, where would you do it? ...Not Korea, right?”
“I don’t know. Considering familiarity with the ingredients and people’s eating habits, Korea would probably be the easiest place for me...”
“You have more fans in the US. Why don’t you just open one here?” Kaya’s voice was unusually gentle.
In truth, immigrating through marriage was ridiculous, so she had started wondering whether Minjoon might instead be able to immigrate through his work as a chef. She simply did not like the thought of him returning to live somewhere she believed war could break out at any moment.
Minjoon, however, could not understand why Kaya had suddenly become so interested in the subject. He looked at her strangely.
“Why are you suddenly asking about all this?”
“No reason.” Kaya avoided his gaze.
Her behaviour was suspicious, but Minjoon did not have time to keep pressing her. The other contestants in the kitchen were already beginning their practice.
“Let’s focus on cooking for now.”
“...Okay.”
Kaya knew this was not the time to worry about it either. As she prepared to clean and descale the fish, a teenage boy in a chef’s uniform approached and handed her a basket containing the ingredients. He smiled brightly.
“I already removed the scales, and the fish has been coated with olive oil and sauce. If you’re not planning to serve it with a separate purée, you can just roast it.”
“Ah, thanks. Are you a chef here?”
“It’s embarrassing to call myself a chef. I’m still a trainee. I’ve watched both of you on the programme the whole time. Ah, my name’s Eddy Reedus.”
“I’m Jo Minjoon. And this is...” Minjoon turned towards Kaya, but she merely stared at him without saying anything.
He poked her in the side. Kaya frowned. “...This whole self-introduction thing is really corny. Kaya Lotus. You already know my name anyway.”
“Ahaha. Your personality really is exactly like it is on television. I like how straightforward you are!”
“Since you like honesty so much, I’ll give you some more. You’re bothering me, so go away. I don’t have time to stand around chatting.”
At Kaya’s harsh words, Eddy raised both hands and quietly backed away.
Minjoon frowned at her. “I told you to fix that attitude.”
“If I fix my personality, is it still my personality? It’s part of the concept.”
“...I understand what you mean, but why are you being so harsh towards someone who approached us with good intentions?”
“He was bothering me. He isn’t my customer or my superior, so why do I need to humour him?”
“You don’t only treat people decently when there’s something to gain from them.”
“Whatever. Stop using difficult words. Let’s cook the fish. You need to get a feel for how the burners here behave too.”
With that, Kaya placed a frying pan over the flame. Minjoon brought the basket closer.
“How should we divide the work? I think it’ll be inefficient if we each take complete responsibility for separate dishes. Wouldn’t it be better if one of us handled the cooking over heat while the other prepared the fish and did the plating?”
“That guy already prepared the fish. What was his name, Edd?”
“Eddy. Even so, if we have to make something like mousse, we’ll need to separate the fish meat ourselves.”
“...Fine. Then let’s do this. I’ll handle everything involving fire. You do everything else. Can you manage that much on your own?”
“Yeah. I can.” Minjoon smiled confidently.
His hands had never been especially slow, but recently cooking had become part of his everyday life, and his speed had improved considerably. The only remaining concern was stamina. After the food-truck and buffet missions, however, he felt he had learned how to pace himself through long periods of work.
“Minjoon, if you’re free, check whether the fryer light has come on.”
“It has. Anything else?”
“No. I’m starting on the fish now. Cut the vegetables.”
“Okay.”
It felt strange. This was the first time they had worked together since Kaya’s elimination mission. More precisely, it had been a long time since they had properly cooperated during a challenge. Remembering that earlier mission and realising they had both survived all the way until now left Minjoon strangely unsettled.
Kaya, meanwhile, was concentrating on the cooking while still wondering how she should bring up the issue that had been troubling her. More precisely, she was not thinking about how to tell Minjoon, but how she could persuade him.
...Think about that later, Kaya. Focus on cooking first.
She poured white wine over the salmon steak as it turned a delicate pink. Flames surged upwards, heating the air around her hand. She behaved as though she were accustomed to it, but every time fire flared close to her skin, she still felt a flicker of fear. There had even been a time when she had panicked and overturned a frying pan. She had grown far more accustomed to fire since then, but the instinctive fear had not disappeared completely.
“Cool this down for me. I’m going to make the garnish to go with it.”
“...I’ve got nothing to do.”
“Once you finish that, I’m making fried sea bass. Coat it in potato starch for me.”
“Fine. Got it. Here are the vegetables.”
Kaya seasoned the vegetables with nothing but olive oil and salt before roasting them. Once they were finished, it was time to taste the dish. Minjoon put a piece of salmon steak into his mouth and nodded.
Seven points.
There was no elaborate sauce. The fish had been seasoned only with salt and the aroma of white wine, yet it tasted excellent. In fact, its straightforward seasoning might appeal even more strongly to customers precisely because the natural flavour remained so clear.
Kaya watched Minjoon’s lips anxiously. Eventually, she could no longer stand waiting.
“Is it good?”
“Try it yourself. You know how it’s supposed to taste.”
“When I eat something I cooked myself, I feel like my tongue gets dull.”
“That does happen. But it’s good. Customers will like it if we can keep it at this level.”
The real problem was maintaining that same quality throughout service.
Kaya sighed and carried the frying pan towards the sink, intending to rinse it quickly. The moment she turned the tap, however, she frowned.
“Why isn’t the water coming out?”
Keeg. Keeg.
She twisted the tap several times, but hardly any water emerged. Then, after a brief blockage, water suddenly burst out with tremendous force. It struck the frying pan and sprayed upwards like a fountain.
Kaya froze in surprise.
Minjoon’s eyes immediately followed the direction of the water.
Then he saw the pan of hot oil nearby.
“Get down!”
His body moved before the words had even fully left his mouth. Minjoon rushed towards Kaya and threw himself over her.
Bang! Bang!
Explosive sounds like gunshots burst through the kitchen one after another. The splattering lasted only a few moments, but that was more than enough time for the hot oil to scatter.
Kaya stared blankly, stunned by what had happened. Then she suddenly came back to herself and hurriedly lifted Minjoon away from her.
“A-Are you... Are you okay?” Her voice trembled from shock.
Minjoon did not answer. His face twisted in pain instead.
Kaya’s gaze immediately moved to the right side of his neck. Hot oil had struck him there, leaving a large patch of skin red and inflamed. Her face crumpled as though she were about to cry. Without thinking, she reached out and wiped away the oil still clinging to his skin. Every time her fingers touched it, the heat burned her own hand, but she did not care.
“Minjoon! Minjoon!” Her terrified voice rang through the kitchen. “Doctor! What the hell are you all doing?!”