“It’s nothing. I’m a little tired. Let me go to sleep.”
Anderson answered briefly and entered his room. As if she was embarrassed, Kaya raised her thumb and pointed at him. Min-joon kissed her cheek without saying anything then smiled wearily. “Let’s go in first.”
She was obviously curious about what happened to them but didn’t want to ask Min-joon anymore. She kept silent until he took a shower. With her arms folded, she was looking down at him with the two beds in between.
“Now, tell me. Why did you quarrel?”
“It’s not a quarrel. Try this first.”
Min-joon took out the plate with Parmigiano Reggiano with five flavors and savory textures.
She looked at him with a suspicious expression.
“What is this?”
“Well, it’s a dish that Rachel okayed today. Try it. I wanted you to eat it. Other guys wanted to try more of this, but I declined because of you.”
“Ah, is it the dish you mentioned to me the other day?”
“Yes. I made Parmigiano Reggiano with different aging periods in different ways. It’s the best dish I’ve ever made until now. You’ll love it. I’m positive.”
He was convinced that even Kaya was going to give it a good review. Of course, he usually exuded confidence to her, but he was never more confident than now.
A little later, she put souffle and sauces air and foam, and galette on the spoon.
She looked back at Min-joon with a straight face.
“Man, I already brushed my teeth in the evening.”
“Even if you brushed your teeth more than ten times, you should try this dish.”
“Really? Are you so confident?”
She put the spoon in her mouth dubiously. At that moment, she could understand why he was so confident about this dish. If he couldn’t show such confidence in this situation, anybody would call him a fool. As if she was deeply touched, she put the spoon in her mouth again. Then, she hugged him tightly with a happy expression, “What a great dish!”
“Do you feel like crying because you are touched?”
“No, I don’t. Why should I cry when you have made such a delicious dish? But I’m just moved to tears for some reason. I’m happy, proud, and grateful that you can make this kind of dish. Well, I’m also very jealous. I think I know why Anderson feels under the weather.”
If someone asked Kaya to make a dish like this, she wouldn’t be able to do it.
No chef could make this kind of dish with his or her cooking talent alone. Without any spontaneous inspiration, no chef could make it. Even if a chef was really lucky, he couldn’t make this kind of dish.
For example, anybody can take a picture of a lightning bolt by sheer luck, but even that man who was lucky enough to take the picture held the camera and pressed the shutter at the right time.
How long was Min-joon looking up at the sky to take the picture? How long did he hold the camera and how many shutters did he press? When Kaya thought about it, she suddenly wanted to hug him more tightly.
She opened her mouth in a trembling voice, “What should I do? I think I’m in love with you.”
“You haven’t been in love with me so far?”
“Well, of course, I am, but this time, I am really head over heels in love with you. Great job!”
She kissed his lips and stroked his head.
As if he was a bit dumbfounded, he looked at her.
She looked down at the plate with regret, though.
“I want to give this to Zemma and Mom.”
“Just eat it. Let me invite them to the restaurant later.”
“Really?”
“Why should I lie to you? So, enjoy it as much as you can. Oh, it’s enough for three.”
“Even if it’s for ten people, I can eat it all. So delicious! I wish I could make this, too.”
“Don’t be impatient. You’re young and you’re a hard-working chef. I don’t know when, but when you have a restaurant someday, you can spread your wings wider than me. I believe in you.”
When he cheered her up, she smiled silently, leaning her back on his shoulder. It didn’t take long for her to empty the plate. Licking the last remaining sauce on the plate, she looked at it with regret and said, “Well, as a dessert, I feel like I can keep eating it.”
“It’s because you ate it as a dessert. If you are full, you won’t miss it once you have it as a dessert.”
“Well, I’m not saying it as a woman. You know what? This is the kind of dish you eat not as a dessert, but as a main dish that you just want to keep eating. Who can stop eating it when it’s so delicious? I guess even if you put it on lots of plates, you will never be able to put down your spoon until you finish them all.”
“Well, as you mention it, some picky customers come to my mind at the moment. Who was the customer last time? Was he Jasper? The guy who complained that there was a clear difference between demi chefs’ dishes and Rachel’s. Don’t you think they are going to complain, too, when they try this?”
In fact, there were thousands of gourmets like Jasper in the world. Of course, they didn’t openly attack the demi-chefs at Rose Island, but there were quite a few who indirectly criticized them by saying something like “Well, I think Rachel’s recipes are much better than their recipes.” Min-joon wanted to change their minds. He wanted to show them what kind of dish he could make with what he learned from Rachel.
Kaya quietly grabbed his hand and said, “Don’t be nervous. Whether they recognize you or not, I’m sure you are going to be the second greatest chef in the world.”
“Then, the first greatest chef is you?”
She smiled at him and joked, “You bet!”
***
Fortunately, it didn’t take too long to quench Min-joon’s curiosity.
Rose Island, the best restaurant in the world. Finding a gourmet there was so common and easy like a roadside stone.
Among such gourmets was a guy who always argued that the recipes that Rachel made in person were somewhat different from those made by the demi chefs. He was a Japanese gourmet named Akira. He used to show his unhappiness by leaving a half spoonful of food on the plate when he was served dishes made by the demi chefs or a sous chef.
He used to complain by saying, ‘I’m here because I want to enjoy Rachel Rose’s dishes.”
That was Akira’s fixed idea on Rose Island’s dishes.
Of course, he didn’t think that the dishes that the demi chefs made were bad. He knew they made the dishes under Rachel’s guidance. Maybe it was something to do with his prejudice.
While enjoying dishes at Rose Island, he suddenly lost appetite when he heard that the dishes he was eating were not made by Rachel.
‘Fortunately, we have got only dishes made by Min-joon today.’
Since other demi chefs couldn’t pass Rachel’s test, only one dessert made by Min-joon was included on the course today. They could endure humiliation because it was just one dish out of a long course.
“Oh, let me try this. I wonder if I can touch it…”
Mumbling in a low voice, Akira raised the spoon. The server said that it was created with Parmigiano Reggiano with different maturation periods and that it would give him a completely different savory texture and taste.
And the moment Akira tasted it for the first time, he leaned the spoon on the plate and looked at it blankly. He could not figure out what he just ate. Not knowing that the kitchen staff was looking at him on and off, he took the spoon again blankly.
‘Can he make such a variety of flavor with only cheese?’
Obviously, the dish he just had was far from an ordinary one that was made with the unique savor of various ingredients lumped together. It was certainly the same Parmigiano Reggiano, but it had different tastes and characteristics in it, stimulating his appetite greatly.
Watching him staring at the plate as if he could not believe it, Raphael muttered in a low voice,
“If you can overcome your prejudice, then you can recognize he is a real chef.”
“Pardon? What did you say now?”
At that moment, the cameraman turned the camera to Raphael.
Raphael said in a sincere voice without even looking at the camera, “It’s often not the customer’s tongue that the chefs have to confront, but their prejudice. When you hear rumors about a successful restaurant that they were using bad ingredients, the customers who hear the rumors start to complain, regardless of whether the rumor is true or not. Right now, the customers’ prejudice that Min-joon is fighting right now is their expectation of Chef Rachel. In other words, they have a prejudice that no demi chef can imitate Rachel’s taste.”
“What you mean is that the moment Min-joon overcomes that prejudice, he can become a chef who can meet even the customers’ expectations of Rachel?”
“It’s more than that. To break the prejudice, Min-joon should make more delicious dishes than Rachel’s.”
“Do you think he can break it with this dish?”
Raphael did not answer. Instead, he stared at the table. The cameraman turned the camera to the table he was intensely gazing at. Akira’s plate on the table was empty in a break with his usual habit of leaving a half spoonful of food on it.
Raphael grabbed the cooking table tightly and commented, “Well, Min-joon has now become a real chef, too.”
“Real chef!”
The cameraman repeated the word blankly. He was also at the scene of the Grand Chef competition. That was why he could not believe what Raphael just said. Just a year ago or even a few months ago, Min-joon was just a wannabe who wanted to be a cook.
‘How come Min-joon can grow so fast like that?’
Maybe that was why people have so many expectations for Min-joon because he always shows them the type of dishes beyond their imagination.
‘I just can’t believe that he can make a dish that can meet people’s expectations of Rachel Rose when he is only 22…’
How would people react when they see this on TV? Would they doubt it? Or would they be thrilled because a real genius cook has appeared?
Just imagining it made him feel more excited. There was always a man in the world who could be a star. And Min-joon had all the qualities necessary for being a star.
‘I think I know why Producer Martin had such a big expectation of him back then…’
A star in the culinary world. The moment this broadcast went on the air, people would realize that Chef Cho Min-joon was not a gemstone, but a gem that had already been processed to some extent. Min-joon would be a charming scent that attracted bees and butterflies to the flower of Rose Island as much as Rachel Rose,
If the wind blew, if only the wind blew, they would look up at Min-joon everywhere the scent touched. And the wind, as always, blew unexpectedly.
Was it because there were cameras around them? Interestingly, most Rose Island kitchen staff thought that most people would see Min-joon’s dish on TV, but they did not think that some customers could broadcast it live on their smartphones.
“I never thought that the day would come when people would praise me like this…”
Min-joon muttered with an embarrassed voice.
