Just What Taste Could It Be?
As morning sunlight washed over the West Lake Number One Inn, a long line had already formed at the door. A week after the Taste Guide's release, the inn's atmosphere had transformed completely.
"Welcome! We're full again today, so you'll have to wait a little!"
Jo Seol's bright voice filled the inn. Sweat beaded on her forehead, but her face shone with a happy smile.
"Aigoo, if I'd known the line would be this long, I should've come earlier."
"Tell me about it. Ever since it got the top rating in the Taste Guide, getting a seat is like plucking stars from the sky."
Even with the customers' not-quite-complaints, no one left the line. Passersby joined the end out of sheer curiosity.
Sizzle. Sizzle.
In the kitchen, Kang Yeon and Jo Hwan worked without pause, turning out dish after dish. Nang Hyeon moved busily as well, helping with the inn's work.
"Young master, at this rate we'll truly become the finest inn on West Lake!"
At Nang Hyeon's words, Kang Yeon only smiled mildly.
"The finest, huh… We've still got a long way to go. There are plenty of impressive inns around West Lake."
In one corner of the inn, a suspicious figure ate while surveying the room. He wore ordinary clothes, yet his gaze was anything but ordinary. He examined every dish meticulously and carefully recorded the customers' reactions.
Just what kind of taste is this…
The man's eyes trembled as he took a bite of the pork cutlet. The harmony of the crisp batter and juicy meat was exquisite.
"Mm…"
He let out a low hum, finished the rest of the food, then quietly rose, settled his bill, and left the inn.
Meanwhile, the other inns around West Lake were desolate.
"Boss, customers are scarce again today."
"It's all because of that West Lake Number One Inn! With their Taste Guide nonsense and weird marketing tricks, they've stolen all the customers."
The situation was especially dire at Jianghu Number One Pavilion, one of West Lake's three great inns. At an hour that would normally have seen the place packed, more than half the seats sat empty.
In the kitchen of Jianghu Number One Pavilion—
"What? We're only rated upper-middle?"
Head chef Chae Myeong-won's voice shook the kitchen. The Taste Guide was clenched in his hand, his face flushed red.
"Yes, Head Chef. And West Lake Number One Inn is marked with the highest grade."
"Ridiculous! My cooking skill, honed for thirty years, beaten by some upstart inn?"
Chae Myeong-won was a massive man in his mid-fifties. His spectacular fire techniques in the kitchen had earned him the nickname Fire Dragon Chef. The dishes he created with flame were one of West Lake's famous attractions.
"Did you go check for yourself?"
"Yes. Deung Hu just returned and reported. It's… definitely delicious."
"Better than ours?"
"…"
The mysterious man who had been carefully noting things while eating pork cutlet at West Lake Number One Inn was none other than Deung Hu, a cook from Jianghu Number One Pavilion. After tasting the cutlet he had rushed straight back to deliver his review.
"Hmph!"
Chae Myeong-won flung the Taste Guide onto the table. He shot to his feet and roared,
"I'll go confirm it myself! How dare they look down on our Jianghu Number One Pavilion!"
The next afternoon, an oppressive presence swept into West Lake Number One Inn.
Boom!
The door flew open and Chae Myeong-won strode in wearing a flamboyant crimson robe. Behind him, the kitchen staff of Jianghu Number One Pavilion stood arrayed in formation.
"Who is the head cook of West Lake Number One Inn?!"
His booming voice silenced the inn in an instant. Customers exchanged uneasy glances. Kang Yeon stepped out of the kitchen and faced him calmly.
"I'm Kang Yeon, in charge of the kitchen here. And you are? What business brings you to an inn in the middle of service?"
Chae Myeong-won looked him up and down. The man's youth and ordinary appearance only stoked his anger further. That a cook on West Lake would not even recognize him wounded his pride as well.
"So you're Kang Yeon? A green brat like you dares—!"
He pulled the Taste Guide from his robes and flung it at Kang Yeon's feet.
"Explain this! Why is Jianghu Number One Pavilion, with its thirty-year tradition, only upper-middle grade?!"
Kang Yeon did not even bend to pick up the book. He answered evenly.
"I didn't write that. Nang Hyeon did the ratings. It's an objective gourmet's evaluation. Apparently the cooking only deserved that much."
"Objective? Don't make me laugh! I heard this Nang Hyeon works here. How can ratings from someone like that be objective?"
"Are you suggesting that Nang Hyeon—famous even among solvers—would lie? Seemed like an accurate assessment to me. I've actually eaten at Jianghu Number One Pavilion myself."
Chae Myeong-won's face turned an even deeper red.
"Is that so? Fine. Then let's settle this with skill. I, Fire Dragon Chef Chae Myeong-won, formally challenge you to a cooking duel!"
A stir ran through the inn.
The name Fire Dragon Chef was famous enough that no one around West Lake failed to recognize it.
"Fire Dragon Chef? Is he a martial artist?"
"No!! I'm a cook!"
Jo Seol grabbed Kang Yeon's sleeve with a worried look.
"Oppa, 'Fire Dragon Chef' is the nickname West Lake people gave him. His skill is that impressive."
But Kang Yeon's expression remained serene.
"A cooking duel… I'm not particularly interested."
"What? Trying to run because you're scared?!"
"No. I simply think it's meaningless. Cooking isn't about competition. It's about conveying the heart."
Kang Yeon's calm reply only enraged Chae Myeong-won further.
"Then admit the Taste Guide is a fraud."
"Hmm… That I can't do."
Kang Yeon thought it over carefully. Refusing the cooking duel now would be as good as denying the Taste Guide's credibility.
That won't do.
The Taste Guide was an important promotional tool for West Lake Number One Inn. He could not damage the reliability of a guide that would only grow more famous.
"Fine! Then let's do this. If you lose, shut down for a full year. That's the price for trampling another's reputation with baseless ratings!"
"Shut down for a year?"
Kang Yeon frowned. The condition was far too extreme.
"What, no confidence? And you call yourself a top-rated inn?"
At Chae Myeong-won's mockery, the customers began to murmur.
Then Nang Hyeon stepped forward.
"One moment, Fire Dragon Chef. I'm Nang Hyeon, the one who wrote the Taste Guide."
"So you're the insolent bastard who wrote those ratings!"
"My ratings are based on my own palate and experience. But your point has merit as well. So how about this?"
Nang Hyeon made his proposal calmly.
"We hold the cooking duel, but the loser learns one of the winner's recipes, and the result is published in the Taste Guide. A condition that benefits both sides, I believe."
Chae Myeong-won snorted.
"Hmph. What could I possibly learn from a greenhorn like him?"
"Then you must be confident?"
At Nang Hyeon's words, Chae Myeong-won hesitated. Jo Hwan carefully interjected.
"A cooking duel would need fair judges…"
"Of course! We'll invite famous figures from West Lake as judges."
Chae Myeong-won answered with full confidence. Kang Yeon sighed and nodded.
"Very well. We'll go with Nang Hyeon's proposal. But I have one condition."
"What is it?"
"Hold the duel after my workday ends. I don't want to inconvenience the customers."
Chae Myeong-won laughed as if the idea were absurd.
"We set the time. Three days from now, at noon, in West Lake Central Square. In front of everyone, we'll settle once and for all who's the real deal!"
After the Fire Dragon Chef left, the inn grew noisy again.
"Heavens, a cooking duel with the Fire Dragon Chef!"
"This'll be fun. I'm putting ten nyang on the Fire Dragon Chef."
"Nah, twenty nyang on Chef Kang!"
Betting pools sprang up at once. Jo Seol approached Kang Yeon with a worried face.
"Oppa, are you sure? The Fire Dragon Chef has thirty years of experience. And his famous fire cooking is known for stealing people's eyes."
"Seol-ah, don't worry. Cooking isn't all about the show. Taste is what matters."
But Jo Seol's worry did not ease. Jo Hwan felt the same.
"Yeon-ah, the cooks under the Fire Dragon Chef aren't pushovers either. Especially the way they support him—it's no ordinary skill. Every one of them has spent decades at his side."
Kang Yeon grinned.
"It's fine. I've got you, Uncle. The two of us can handle them all. And if we need a spectacular show to capture people's eyes, there's really nothing to worry about."
If Kang Yeon put his mind to it, he could put on a spectacle no ordinary cook's display could ever match. Then Nang Hyeon, standing beside them, spoke with a guilty look.
"Young Master Kang, I'm sorry. This is all because of me… I should have written the Taste Guide more carefully."
"No, Nang Hyeon. Your ratings were honest. That's what matters most. I think this cooking duel is actually a good opportunity to secure the Taste Guide's credibility."
From the next day, all of West Lake buzzed with talk of the cooking duel.
"Did you hear? West Lake Number One Inn is going up against Jianghu Number One Pavilion!"
"Really? The Fire Dragon Chef will win for sure. Thirty years of experience doesn't just disappear."
"I don't know—looking at West Lake Number One Inn's popularity lately, I wouldn't bet on it. Have you even tried their food?"
The common folk of West Lake, the market merchants, the martial artists around the lake, even the officials of the government office—everyone took an interest in the match.
It had become the hottest topic heating up all of West Lake. As the cooking duel gathered attention, Jianghu Number One Pavilion began large-scale preparations.
"Prepare every top-grade ingredient! The rarest things fit for the Imperial Palace!"
"Yes, Head Chef!"
"And recheck all my signature dishes. Especially the Dragon-Phoenix Soup…"
Chae Myeong-won threw himself into practice day and night. He had grown a little careless after becoming famous, but this duel filled his eyes with resolve. He vowed to crush West Lake Number One Inn and restore Jianghu Number One Pavilion's renown. The owner of Jianghu Number One Pavilion encouraged Chae Myeong-won and the cooks, promising great rewards if they won.
West Lake Number One Inn, by contrast, was no different from usual.
"Oppa, shouldn't we be preparing something?"
"Like what?"
"You know, duel prep… practicing special dishes…"
Kang Yeon grinned and prepped ingredients just as he always did.
"I'll do what I always do. That's my cooking."
"But everyone's watching! Aren't you being way too laid-back?!"
"It's just a duel between inn cooks. No need to go that far."
Unbeknownst to Kang Yeon, however, all of West Lake was placing enormous bets on the outcome. The odds were two-to-one if the Fire Dragon Chef won, four-to-one if Kang Yeon did. Separate from the Taste Guide, the weight of years made everyone mentally favor Jianghu Number One Pavilion's victory.
The night before the duel.
"Nang Hyeon, who are the judges tomorrow?"
"The magistrate of Hangzhou Prefecture, the master of Heavenly Treasure Trading Company—West Lake's premier merchant house—and the retired head chef of Seorae Inn."
Seorae Inn was the oldest traditional inn on West Lake. And the retired chef Nang Hyeon mentioned was a legendary figure in West Lake's culinary world. Kang Yeon knew exactly who he was.
"A reasonably fair selection of judges."
Kang Yeon remained as calm as ever. But Jo Seol, Jo Hwan, and Nang Hyeon spent the night wide awake.
And then the next day arrived.
The day of the cooking duel between Kang Yeon and Chae Myeong-won.