Actually, it was Theo himself who invited Kaya, Min-joon, and other chefs from Rose Island’s main store to his restaurant. So, it was impossible for Theo to ask them to stop trying his dishes for fear they could figure out his recipes. Even an ordinary man could not do that. How could a named chef like him do that? Even if they found out all the recipes of his restaurant, Theo could not ask them to stop eating and leave the place.
“… Please enjoy the food,” Theo said feebly.
“Sorry, let me stop talking about the recipes from now on.”
“But you’re analyzing everything in your head, right?”
“Well, once I taste any food, I find myself analyzing its recipe before I know it.”
“Yeah, I understand. You can’t help it.”
Theo shrugged, pretending to be calm and stable, but he was gloomy deep down.
“Even if all the chefs refuse to accept you because you can find out their recipes, I can promise I won’t do it like them.”
“Why are you saying that suddenly?”
“Because I was worried about that for a moment when you were eating my dishes. I wondered if it’s okay for me to allow you to continue to try my dishes. And maybe other chefs will feel the same. As you know, it’s not pleasant to see somebody accurately figuring out the recipes you have developed for a long time.”
If everyone rejected them for such reasons, or if the restaurant owners would not accept anybody because he or she had a perfect palate, and if this kind of person couldn’t enjoy food around the world, it would be a terrible tragedy. And Theo didn’t want to contribute to such a tragedy.
Theo looked back at Min-joon and Kaya’s faces. Although their cheeks looked haggard because they had a tough day, they had still young looks on their faces. He could not help but respect and feel dumbfounded to know that they could display such fantastic talent with such expressions.
However, Theo’s invitation to Min-joon and Kaya on that day was a mistake, after all. It wasn’t because his recipes were all exposed. In fact, Kaya and Min-joon had been exposed to countless recipes made by high-quality chefs. Enzo and Theo’s recipes were certainly great, but they weren’t enough to give them a special impact.
But Theo’s dishes for Kaya and Min-joon were different. That was the intuition for French cuisine. At Paris Park led by Enzo and Theo, the kitchen staff was making the most optimized dishes for France. According to the reviews of gourmets, their cuisine showed the most appropriate combination of French authenticity and modern refinement.
Having enjoyed their dishes, with such review in mind, Min-joon and Kaya could figure out how to cook in the most pleasant way for the French. Of course, the Paris International Culinary Contest, as its name suggests, was not about French cuisine but about making the most perfect dishes according to the themes of many countries around the world.
What elements do the French delight in? What kind of dishes do they find beautiful and perfect? Even if ordinary men eat this dish now, it would be impossible for them to get a complete picture of it, but Kaya and Min-joon were exceptions. They experienced a lot of international cuisines, compared to other chefs at their age. It was not just about the dishes made from the recipe from another country. They tasted lots of dishes from other countries, by chefs from other countries, made with ingredients unique to those countries.
Min-joon traveled to several countries through Hunger Trip, but Kaya had been to so many countries. In the past year, she traveled to many countries where the catering industry had developed to some extent. At the end of her numerous trips, she could find out what the commonalities and differences of the dishes in different countries were. With such a wide culinary background, they ate Enzo and Theo’s dishes. So, it was not unreasonable that they could get a clearer grasp of the taste that the French regarded as ideal.
“So, this is the essence of French taste…”
“The question is how to make it our own,” said Min-joon while looking at the flounder.
To put it precisely, it was flatfish on top of pasta. At first glance, flatfish fillets, which looked like grilled dumplings, were placed on top of lemon cream pasta, and fatty-rich cheeses baked in the oven were plated in the margins of the plate. Min-joon recently liked the dishes with the beauty of such simplicity. It might seem simple at first glance, but he found out that bringing out the taste of luxury in that simplicity was more difficult than people thought.
Those colleagues who looked at Kaya and Min-joon had mixed feelings. Not only ordinary people, but even some genius chefs thought what they regarded as worthy seemed shabby when they saw the two surprised them with fantastic and original dishes. When they thought of how to catch up with the two, they just felt gloomy and frustrated.
That was exactly the case with Anderson and Janet. But Havier and Chloe didn’t express that feeling openly. Chloe even asked Kaya and Min-joon about what kind of recipe it was while enjoying the sorbet.
Meanwhile, Min-joon was feeling somewhat anxious to find out something.
‘Maybe this is…’
He wasn’t sure because he could not properly express what he was feeling right now. Differences between countries, and subtle differences in the taste created by differences in ingredients, and the differences in the cooking methods due to such differences. It was not that difficult to enumerate the differences one by one, but figuring them out comprehensively in one’s head was a completely different matter.
But Min-joon seemed to know what it was. He believed that it would surely be an opportunity for him to raise his gastronomic level. And the moment he recognized it, a system window appeared right in front of his eyes.
[You have realized the last condition for reaching cooking level 9!]
[The first element of the last condition is the ‘pan-national view of gastronomy’.]
It was a very ambiguous expression. He was pondering over how to interpret the pan-national view of gastronomy for a moment when Theo approached him.
He said, “I’m very envious of you, Chef Min-joon and Chef Kaya.”
“Why are you envious of us? Because we have found out your recipes?”
“Well, I’ve got mixed feelings. I envy you because you actually have the abilities lots of chefs hope for in their dreams, and you are a perfect partner with such abilities. Besides, you have the culinary talents to make use of such abilities. I just feel that you’ve got many things that I don’t, but what I envy most is …”
Theo paused for a moment.
He wondered for a moment if it was okay for him to talk to them about it as a chef, but he was not just here as a chef anyway.
So, he said calmly and quietly, “What I envy most is that you two have the qualities as the star of this contest.”
“Did you mention star?”
“Yes, star. This competition is certainly creating a lot of issues compared to past contests, as you know. And no one can deny that the biggest reason for that is because of your fantastic performance during this whole process. Even if you come from America, you’ve beaten other competent chefs from all around the world and stood tall as the star of this contest. You have shown such abilities and talent. I respect and envy your charisma personally a lot.”
“I’m flattered. I don’t know how to respond because I’m so flattered at the moment…”
“Oh, you don’t have to reply, of course. I’m not asking you anything, and this is not a question,” said Theo with a smile, which was definitely a good smile for his age.
Then he asked a question with a smile, “Do you happen to know about the term “scene-stealer”?
When he said that, Kaya looked back at Min-joon as if she could not understand it.
Nodding at her, Min-joon asked Theo, “Do you mean that even if you’re a supporting actor, you’re getting more attention than the main actor thanks to his or her overwhelming acting or some scenes involving him or her, whatever it is.”
“Yes, you’re right. I now admit that I’m in the supporting role right now. In my life, I still believe that I’m the main actor, but at least in this contest, I’ve become a supporting actor.”
“Oh, I don’t know what to say about that.”
“Of course, you don’t have to reply. I just want to tell you something.”
“What do you mean?”
“Me and my dad are going to be the scene stealers in this competition,” Theo said firmly.
It was rather ambiguous to say that he was looking at the two as if they were his enemy, but his eyes were sparkling with his strong determination to surpass Kaya and Min-joon in this contest.
“I’m not going to repeat my father’s defeat. I’m going to erase his defeat decades ago with my victory because that’s the only thing I can do as his son. I’ll be the one that gets the most attention in this competition.”
“…”
Min-joon could not answer at the moment. He felt rather embarrassed to hear that, but how could he respond to Theo’s strong determination like that? As a competitor, he could not cheer for Theo, nor could he say, “You can’t do it.” That was all he could think of.
But Kaya was different. She could not hesitate to speak out, as always.
“Wait a moment.”
At that moment, people’s attention turned to Kaya. She moistened her mouth by sipping a glass of wine for a moment. She frowned a bit as if it felt bitter because it was dry wine. She quickly put down the wine glass and said, “I think your father would feel very hurt if you lost again.”
“Yes, I think so. So, I won’t…”
“Sorry,” Kaya interrupted him and apologized. At that moment, he looked at her with a puzzled expression. She adjusted her expressions and took the wine glass to her mouth. It tasted bitter, and she frowned again.
Then she said, “You’re going to lose again, Chef Enzo and Chef Theo.”
