Chapter 97: Four People, Four Dreams (5)
Chapter 97: Four People, Four Dreams (5)
If Jo Minjoon had heard that, he would probably have felt happy and sad at the same time. The ability he possessed was different from an absolute sense of taste. Fortunately, there was no way for him to hear what Rachel had said. He had no attention to spare for anything besides designing the menu with Chloe.
“You want to make pudding for dessert?”
“Yes. Chestnut or almond pudding would work. A bright mango pudding could be good too.”
“How good would a pudding have to be to win on its own? Still, I think it would fit well with the other dishes.”
“Good. Then salmon trout ceviche, lamb ribs, and pudding... Thinking about it, we could garnish the almond pudding with fruit. How about simmering the fruit in honey water? Mango, orange, and peaches would all work.”
“Peach sounds good. Ah, right. Avocado. We could mix avocado with lime and make a sorbet.”
“Sorbet with ceviche... Good. Then let’s organise the roles.”
While Jo Minjoon racked his brain, Chloe picked up an apple from the box and took a bite. Then she laughed.
“I’m really hungry. I haven’t eaten anything since exercising.”
“The judges are laughing at you.”
“So what? A chef should at least make sure their own stomach is fuller than usual.”
“That’s a strange thing to call a virtue.”
Chloe did not argue and simply took another bite. As the faint aroma of apple reached him, Jo Minjoon spoke.
“For now, we have three options. We can divide the work by dish, divide it between fire and knife work, or just move according to how things develop. If we can manage it, the last option would be best.”
“Then let’s do that.”
“Just go with the flow?”
“Yeah. In the end, we only need to coordinate with each other. We’ve done team missions before. I think we’ll be able to work well together this time too.”
“Back then, we divided things by dish...”
He had cooked with Chloe twice before. Even so, that was not enough to know how well they would truly coordinate without clearly divided roles. In the end, Jo Minjoon nodded. Just as Chloe respected his opinion, he wanted to respect hers too.
Chloe held out the apple. “Want some?”
“...Just one bite.” Jo Minjoon took a bite.
The refreshing taste spreading through his mouth seemed to lighten his tired mind. Chloe sat on the countertop, holding the apple as she spoke.
“How is it? Don’t you feel full of energy?”
“Not quite that much. But I do feel a little refreshed.”
“Why stop there? Think again. Still not confident?”
“This isn’t a magic apple.”
At his words, Chloe pouted. “You know about the placebo effect, right? If you believe something will work, sometimes it really does. So believe it. Believe that we’ll coordinate properly. If you do, things will go well.”
“...Fine. I’ll believe it. But if we realise halfway through that we aren’t coordinating well, we split the roles immediately. One of us handles the fire, and the other handles the ingredients.”
“Fine.”
“For now, I’ll check the proportions for the sauces and pudding.”
“Sounds good. Getting feedback from someone with an absolute sense of taste and all.”
An awkward smile appeared on Jo Minjoon’s face. Chloe suddenly wondered about it. Whenever someone mentioned his absolute sense of taste, he seemed uncomfortable. If he was embarrassed to possess such a remarkable ability, she could understand that. But thinking about it more deeply, perhaps what bothered him was all the attention it brought.
Chloe quickly added, “It’s a good thing for a chef to get feedback.”
“It’s not enough to call it feedback. And...”
“It’s time! Everyone, start cooking!”
“Turn on the heat first! I’ll get the ingredients.”
Jo Minjoon quickly gathered what they needed from the pantry and their ingredient box. Meanwhile, Chloe turned on the burners. Among the remaining contestants, Jo Minjoon was overwhelmingly fast at selecting ingredients. Dividing the work this way was only logical.
Chloe quickly toasted the almonds over the heat. Two hours. Honestly, it was enough time to make a three-course meal. That also meant the judges were not trying to crush them with an impossible time limit. Instead, it meant they would have to progress through the cooking without making mistakes.
For that, the order was important.
When time was limited, dessert naturally had to be started first. People unfamiliar with cooking might assume you should prepare the appetiser, then the main, and finally the dessert, but desserts often took the longest. Cakes and biscuits went without saying, and pudding, jelly, and ice cream were also difficult to complete quickly.
Of course, something like Chinese-style fried fruit would not take long. But the almond pudding they were making now would still require more than an hour even if everything went smoothly.
“Minjoon.”
There was no need for a long explanation. Jo Minjoon immediately held out a bowl and received the almonds from the frying pan. They would grind them in the blender and turn them into powder. Compared with commercially sold almond powder, a few coarse grains would remain, but they thought that would give it more character.
Chloe mixed rice flour and milk in a bowl, then placed almond powder, milk, and sugar in a saucepan and brought it to the boil. Later, the two mixtures would have to be combined, returned to the saucepan, and boiled again. Since it needed to be stirred continuously for thirty minutes, one of them would have to stay in front of it.
“Minjoon. Anchovy cream.”
“Okay. You can make the sugar syrup for the ceviche sorbet at the same time, right?”
“Yes. Handle the rest of the ingredients yourself.”
There was no need for lengthy discussion. Jo Minjoon and Chloe’s coordination was surprisingly smooth. Of course, preparing a single three-course meal was not exceptionally difficult, and their tasks were not so tangled that they constantly interfered with one another. Even so, the way each of them naturally found what needed to be done was impressive, especially considering this was their first time properly coordinating in a mission.
Jo Minjoon cleaned the anchovies, placed them in olive oil, and slowly began heating them. When they started to break down, he turned off the heat and seasoned them with salt and pepper. After adding lemon juice to remove the fishy smell, he put the mixture into the refrigerator. It needed a little time to deepen in flavour. Ideally, it would have been prepared the previous day, but in their current situation, they could not make everything perfect.
When he glanced towards Chloe, she was placing the sugar syrup for the avocado sorbet into the refrigerator, stirring it from time to time, while awkwardly mixing lemon juice, lime juice, and avocado in a bowl with her left hand.
Jo Minjoon took the bowl from her.
“I’ll do it.”
“Whew, thanks.”
Drops of sweat dotted Chloe’s forehead. Jo Minjoon pulled a towel from his apron and wiped them away.
He remembered the past—or perhaps it would be more accurate to call it the future. When he had worked as the junior cook in a restaurant, he had wiped sweat from his seniors’ faces countless times.
“Don’t push yourself. We aren’t that pressed for time. Relax a little.”
“...I just don’t want to be a burden to you.”
“You’re already doing more than enough.”
The judges watching the two of them could only look satisfied.
More precisely, Sergei was the sole exception.
He spoke in a bored voice. “Boring bastards. A kitchen is supposed to have people clashing, fighting, and yelling.”
“Please stop bluffing, Sergei. Listening to you is exhausting.”
“You think I’m bluffing?”
“Yes. Bluffing purer than rock salt.”
At Rachel’s words, Sergei grumbled and rolled his eyes. For an old man with the aura of a military commander, it was an unexpectedly childish expression.
Rachel watched Jo Minjoon and Chloe for a moment before turning her attention to the other team. Only now was she beginning to understand why Sergei had spoken so highly of Kaya Lotus.
Her senses are frightening.
At first glance, it might look as though Kaya was cooking roughly, but the timing of her seasoning and the moments when she moved the pan were almost artistic. An ordinary person might only admire her fast knife work or the flames surging from the pan, but Rachel was a professional.
Precise cooking at precisely the right moment.
She knew better than anyone that this was one of the most important points in cooking.
And Kaya executed it with astonishing sophistication. Anderson, working beside her, was also a refined cook, but even compared with Anderson, who had received an elite culinary education, Kaya gave Rachel almost nothing to criticise.
For someone who had never formally learned cooking and had merely watched amateurs prepare food in a market, it was extraordinary. There was a limit to how much one could learn from amateurs.
Which meant Kaya had developed the rest by herself.
“By the way, those two are unexpectedly quiet. I thought we’d hear shouting by now.”
“Yeah. I’m surprised too.”
Unexpectedly, Kaya and Anderson were not clashing at all. Their tempers might both resemble fire, but right now they had a reason to restrain themselves. They had argued somewhat while designing the menu, but that could hardly be avoided. Chefs would never have identical philosophies about food.
Fortunately, Anderson had loosened his stubbornness a little. Perhaps he did not want to show a petty side of himself in front of Rachel.
Alan spoke. “The Red Team may be in danger. It looks like one of the Blue Team’s biggest weaknesses has disappeared.”
“Weakness?”
“Yes. To be honest, Anderson and Kaya are the strongest among the remaining contestants if you look purely at ability. Chloe is good too, but I still feel a certain uncertainty in her cooking. And I acknowledge Minjoon’s potential, but he still has a long way to go before that potential is fully realised.”
“So what was the weakness?”
“Their personalities and their relationship. Honestly, the only people who can comfortably handle Kaya’s temperament are Minjoon and Chloe. If she teamed up with one of them, that would be different, but otherwise Kaya isn’t someone most people would want as a partner. And especially not if the partner is someone like Anderson.”
“So you expected them to fight. That was the weakness?”
“Yes. But I don’t know why, they both seem to have restrained themselves. Anderson feels calmer than usual too... Perhaps now that he’s this close to victory, he’s become more serious.”
After Alan finished speaking, the judges watched the contestants with interest.
Which team would present the better dishes?
The anticipation alone was enough to make their hearts beat faster.
Time was nearly up.
The dishes Jo Minjoon and Chloe had prepared were almost complete.
Their appetiser consisted of avocado sorbet made with lemon and lime juice, lime zest, and avocado. Beneath it sat diced salmon trout marinated in a sauce of coriander, shallot, chilli, rapeseed oil, lime juice, salt, sugar, and black pepper. Small leaves were tucked between the pink cubes of salmon trout as garnish, while the avocado sorbet perched on top in an imperfect yet charming shape.
(Translator’s Note: Rapeseed oil — Edible oil extracted from the seeds of the rapeseed plant, widely used in European cooking. Originated from Europe, especially northern France and Germany, with historical usage dating back several centuries.)
The judges looked at it and swallowed.
They could already imagine how softly it would melt in the mouth, how sweet and delicious it would taste. Rather than aiming for extravagant plating, the dish seemed to embody the idea of simply looking delicious.
The almond pudding, meanwhile, had a clean and elegant appearance. Chloe had poured it into a triangular wine glass, allowing the smooth white pudding to show clearly through the glass. Only a few pine nuts had been placed on top, yet even that gave it a luxurious feeling.
Compared with the other two courses, the lamb ribs they had prepared for the main looked somewhat less striking. The lamb ribs accompanied by roasted vegetables, anchovy cream, and wine dressing were appealing, but comparatively lacked the same impact.
Chloe placed the final plate of lamb ribs onto the tray.
It was done.
A faint smile appeared on her face as she turned towards Jo Minjoon. They would be evaluated soon. Before that happened, she wanted to enjoy this brief moment of calm.
“You did well, Chloe.”
“...It was because of you.”
“I didn’t do much.”
“No. You did much more than you think. For me. So thank you.”
Chloe held out her fist.
Jo Minjoon stared at it for a moment before bumping his own against hers. The instant their fists touched, he felt a warm sensation.
But that warmth could not melt away his anxiety.
Because he could see the scores.
He had hoped for a miracle, but at the end of their brief battle, every dish they had made scored eight points.
The cooking score was not everything. He had always believed that.
But there had never been a time when the eventual result overturned what the cooking score suggested.
That was why he could not summon much courage when he looked towards Kaya and Anderson’s dishes. He was afraid.
Eight points was an excellent score.
But was it enough to beat them?
That fear made him want to ignore the scores of Kaya and Anderson’s dishes. At the same time, it made him desperate to know them. Perhaps if their scores were lower than what he feared, this anxiety would disappear.
After struggling with himself, Jo Minjoon finally turned his gaze towards their plates as though pushed by some invisible hand.
And, just as though his weakness had predetermined the result...
It was the same.
Chloe looked at Jo Minjoon.
Was he so nervous and frightened that he could not even smile?
Seeing his expression filled her with regret. When she had been troubled, he had listened to all her worries. She wanted to become his strength in the same way.
She wanted to become something he could lean on.
Chloe reached out.
Her small, slender, warm hand settled on Jo Minjoon’s shoulder.
“Don’t tremble. I can accept whatever result we get. We did our best. We did well.”
“...Yeah. You’re right.”
The tasting began.