Chapter 403: New in Various Ways (4)
The reason why Min-joon and Kaya’s dish drew the judges’ attention was not just because it was delicious. Everyone in the venue including the judges knew how the pair made the dish. While other chefs made the escargot dish using the existing recipe, the pair made it using their own recipe for the first time here. In some respects, Kaya and Min-joon made the escargot dish hastily as if they crammed for an exam, for they had little knowledge of the cooking method of this signature French dish.
If the judges had not seen it, they would not have believed it. Even now, they could hardly believe the pair made the escargot dish so original and fresh with their own recipe. So much so that they suspected the pair cooked it based on the recipe they had devised in advance while pretending to be unfamiliar with cooking snails and sampling them to prove their sincerity. It was so fantastic for the judges to believe that the pair analyzed the taste of snails with their senses and made such a fantastic escargot dish.
‘Is it true that they made this for the first time?’
The judges could not believe it while trying the escargot dish.
Bastien looked at Min-joon and Kaya. He wondered whether he could have made this if he had been in Min-joon’s shoes. He also wondered whether he could have overcome the difficulties and made a perfect dish in the cooking contest if he had been tasked with cooking something with the ingredients he had never used in his life.
‘Well, I can still make a delicious dish anyway.’
Bastien thought he was confident about it. Of course, the thing was how delicious he could make it. But he was confident in making people happy about his dish. But the snail dish that the pair made was completely different. It was a delicious ‘escargot’, not just a delicious dish.
When the judges saw the pair making the snail meatballs, they understood it but felt disappointed deep down because they thought the pair gave up emphasizing the unique taste of escargots by making snail meatballs instead of using the escargot. But they were wrong.
When they ate the snail meatballs, the judges felt as if they were chewing escargots, not meatballs.
In fact, that wasn’t what the pair intended at first. Of course, they intended to make the taste of the escargot stand out, but the process of steaming it maximized its unique taste beyond what they expected.
“Are you sure you have made this escargot dish?”
It was natural that the judges asked the pair such a question. They knew that Min-joon and Kaya had no reason to deceive the judges, but they really couldn’t believe the pair could make such a fantastic snail dish with the ingredients that they had never used before. They just wanted to believe that this was a joke. If the pair could cook well with the ingredients new to them, lots of young chefs who could not bring out the taste properly would lose their face.
“That’s right. I’ve added something like a foam sauce to the escargot dish before, but it’s the first time I trimmed and cooked snails like this.”
“Well, frankly I would like to applaud you for that. Regardless of whether you cook well or not, I just admire the fact that you can cook so well with unfamiliar ingredients. Most of all, I was really impressed by your sampling the roasted snails.”
“I thought you would. Well, we had no choice because we could not start cooking without understanding the ingredients properly.”
“It must have been scary. Cooking time is the life of the competition. Haven’t you thought that the moment you spent the time wrong, you would be far behind others?”
“Well, we would be better off falling behind rather than making the wrong dish. Bad chefs are everywhere. If somebody cooks something without knowing if it tastes good or not, he is a bad chef. I don’t want to be a bad chef. I won’t become one in the future, too.”
When he said that, Kaya nodded silently. The judges turned to Kaya.
“Kaya, I’d love to hear your opinion, too. I still remember you guys making a smile after trying the finished meatballs. How did you feel?”
“Well, I thought I could see your faces even in the next contest.”
“Are you sure?”
“Don’t scare me. I’m not scared at all. If you don’t give a high mark to this snail meatball dish, it means you have a problem with your tongue. Of course, I’m not going to complain about it. In my mind, all of you seem to have a pretty good tongue…”
Sticking out her tongue, she smiled mischievously. The judges wanted to offend her brimming pride at the moment, but unfortunately, they agreed with her. Actually, the taste of the escargot meatballs was much better than they expected. What they were most impressed with was its fresh scent that was as strong as that of typical escargots. Since meatballs were made with various ingredients, the taste of each ingredient was hard to bring out, even though its complex taste became stronger.
“You’re right. I was definitely impressed. Since this was a meatball dish, I was a little disappointed before trying it. But that disappointment made it even more delicious.
It looks like I saw a dramatic turnaround of events in a movie. I liked the mix of the taste of black tea and the escargot, and you brought out the original taste of the escargot. Should I say that it feels like a mixture of French and Asian cuisine? So, let me give you 9 points. I think 8 points would be appropriate when it comes to cooking itself, but considering your fresh idea and wit, I guess 9 points would be the most appropriate,” judge Sophie said.
“Let me give you the same score as Sophie. 9 points. To be honest, I don’t think any chef can bring out the best taste of escargots in meatballs better than you. Maybe this could be the most delicious escargot meatballs I would be able to eat for the rest of my life. I’d love to believe that. Not only its seasoning but also its cooking is just perfect.”
“I want to give you 8 points for this. It’s a good dish, and I highly evaluate the fact that you have brought out such a sophisticated taste when you cooked the escargots into meatballs when you have never dealt with snails in cooking. But when I think about whether you have fully utilized the 90-minute cooking time, I’m a little puzzled. In fact, what you actually spent cooking properly was less than one hour,” said Bastien, giving a surprisingly low score.
Min-joon nodded, though, because it was his and Kaya’s fault that they could not make proper use of the cooking time due to their lack of understanding of the escargot. The pair could not make excuses by saying they had not much experience with cooking snails before.
Anyway, snails were also a cooking ingredient. Escargot wasn’t a common ingredient, but it wasn’t a dish that could only be tasted in certain countries like a wombat, so if they had no experience with cooking escargots before, it was purely their own matter, Min-joon thought.
“But I think that you have proven your cooking ability enough by making such a good snail dish like this in an unfavorable situation. Although you may not have enough experience yet, I am really curious about what kind of chef you will be when you have enough experience. .”
“Thank you.”
“10 points.”
The moment when Min-joon smiled and waved at Bastien, he heard somebody muttering behind his back. That voice was small but loud enough to be heard. Kaya momentarily opened her eyes and turned her head.
Judge Parnella’s eyes sparkled, looking at the pair.
“I want to give you 10. Asher said earlier that he thought your dish would be the most delicious escargot dish in his life. Well, I feel almost the same way, but let me express it this way. I think this is going to be the most memorable escargot dish in my life. It’s a meatball, but it doesn’t taste like a meatball, and you didn’t use escargot as the main but brought out its original taste perfectly. So, I came to realize after a long time what kind of taste the escargot should have. So much so that I think there are two kinds of escargot dishes in my life, namely one before I tried this dish, and one after I tried this.”
When she was showered with such unexpected praise, Kaya was dumbfounded a bit because she would not have given this perfect score, though she knew it was delicious. She thought 8 or 9 would be the most appropriate score, but she got 10.
“Then the average score is 9 points,” Norris muttered in a calm voice.
Kaya and Min-joon looked back at each other. 9 points, even though there were eight pairs competing now, their score was too high to drop them from the quarterfinals. It meant it was highly likely they would pass even the quarterfinals.
As if the judges felt the same, Norris said calmly, “Let me tell you briefly. Thanks for the good dish. I hope you make another good dish in the next final round. Thank you.”
It was the moment when the pair’s survival was almost guaranteed. At that moment, the spectators’ clapping began to resonate all over the venue. Min-joon and Kaya looked around. The spectators as well as the other chefs were applauding them, who got over the difficulties that ordinary chefs could never overcome.
Kaya clenched her fist and muttered, “Great!”
She had never appreciated how sweet their hoorays, encouragement, cheering, admiration, or support were. Watching her trembling with thrill, Janet said, “You guys have survived!”
“We should survive.”
“Yeah, let’s keep moving.”
It was a secondary matter whether they won the contest or not. Janet never wanted to be pushed out by other pairs from Rose Island’s main restaurant, for everything she built over the years would mean nothing the moment she admitted it.
Now, the judges were approaching the Janet and Havier pair to evaluate their dish and skills.
‘They’re going to evaluate my life, too.’
Janet’s eyes turned sharp. She was used to having her dish evaluated because her life was always placed on the scales of other great chefs. And she was always the heaviest on their scales until she joined Rose Island. She had nothing to fear. Above all, she could not swallow her pride because she was confident that as far as cooking abilities and quality were concerned, she was the best. Her confidence was without any ground. In fact, she was competent as a chef with full credentials.
But she was not that confident since she joined Rose Island. When she looked at other demi-chefs, especially Min-joon, she felt like she was just an ordinary chef. So, she hated living like an ordinary chef. There were a lot who were content with living as an ordinary chef, but she wanted to be a star chef. In this cooking career she chose, she wanted to get ahead of others as a star chef.
But after about five minutes, her scale collapsed.
