There was a lot of stuff on the screen of her smartphone. Most were about the employee benefits or compensation such as accommodations for the employee and salary, budget for recipe research. The title of the new opening was written as sous chef, but with such salary and benefits, the sous chef position offered by June was comparable to the head chef of a large restaurant.
“What the heck is this message? Are you sure you’re going to have Min-joon work as the sous chef here on these terms?”
“No, not me. It was sent by June.”
“Gosh, how typical June is! If a sous chef receives such generous compensation and benefits, most restaurants who hire such a sous chef won’t make any profits.”
“As far as running a restaurant is concerned, none of my students is as good as June. She isn’t to be pushed around by anybody as far as her goal is concerned.”
“I’d rather join her. Look at that big monthly salary! I thought it was an annual salary first.”
“I know you don’t want to go there since you don’t care about the salary.”
“Well, isn’t it the same with Min-joon? I don’t know if June thought she could hire him on these terms or if she just put out a feeler. As you know, even Delia failed to hire him as the head chef of her hotel restaurant though she offered him an enormous salary and compensation. I don’t think Min-joon would accept June’s offer just because of such generous compensation.”
“Yeah, I don’t think Min-joon would be swayed by this kind of condition. June knows that, too.”
“Then, why did she send this kind of message to you when she already knows his position?”
“Because someone else has been swayed by her offer.”
At that moment, Raphael looked at Rachel with a perplexed expression. Someone else? It was only he and Rachel who saw June’s message right here. Who else did June reach out with her offer? Probably not, but there was already an answer to that question. Regarding Min-joon’s next move, there was somebody else who could influence his final decision other than Min-joon himself. It was none other than Rachel.
“Are you looking for a reason to send him to June now?”
“I didn’t bother to find the reason for that because I didn’t want to, but June knows me so well. June is convinced that I won’t be greedy about him anymore if I know it’s my best choice to send him to her.”
“Do you think sending him to June is good for him?”
Raphael seemed to know the answer. If June was really serious about making Min-joon grow instead of keeping him in check, he would find no better nest than June. Of course, it wouldn’t be as comfortable as Rachel’s nest, but Raphael thought that it could have a negative effect on herself if Rachel tried to continue to keep him at Rose Island.
‘Her obsession is the problem.’
Her excessive obsession with Min-joon prevented her from getting close to him. It was a bitter irony.
Aside from Rachel’s obsession, Min-joon needed to learn June’s management style while working at her New York branch. In the case of Rachel, she was only taking on the role of the mascot of Rose Island, while Isaac was in charge of all the details of the restaurant.
But June was different. She was one of the world’s best chefs, the CEO of Rose Island’s New York branch, and a politician. She was a more versatile woman than they thought. When she was faced with a barrier in cooking, Rachel overcame the barrier by raising the level of food coordinating, while June raised the level of everything related to cooking. In other words, June upgraded everything ranging from food coordination to interior, serving, the servers’ way of presenting menus, and wine matches.
June would have been an ordinary chef if she had stopped there. June made acquaintances with all kinds of celebrities in order to increase her value. She tried to make people miss or admire her whenever they looked at her, and she made the dishes reflecting their admiration.
Her management style might look simple, but there were not many chefs who were as qualified as her in that field. So, it was natural that Rachel nodded at his question.
Rachel said, “June will be able to show Min-joon a lot of things. He might not like her style entirely, but he will learn from her anyway.”
“Then, what about the Rose Island main store?”
Rachel said, shrugging, “Other demi chefs here are pretty competent. They have grown surprisingly over the past year. I’m not worried even if I let any of them take over the sous chef position here.”
“I’m not asking you about that main store,” Raphael said in a calm voice.
At that moment, Rachel could not help but stiffen her face.
Rafael asked again, glancing at her, “I’m talking about the original Rose Island, Venice, in Santa Monica.”
“You know it already. It’s not our main restaurant anymore.”
“That doesn’t mean that the place disappears. You have already renovated the whole building. I don’t think you will leave the place as something like a museum for your old memories. You must have a plan, right?”
He didn’t ask her for whom or for what purpose she prepared it, because he seemed to know why. She looked at him quietly. He pretended to be dumb, but his loaded question sometimes surprised her.
“You wouldn’t believe me if I say I have restored it for my memories?”
“I can believe you, of course, even though I don’t believe it.”
“Well, I don’t think I have to answer then.”
“What do you want?”
“When the fire broke out, the Rose Island sign there was burned down. So, The name of Rose Island no longer remains there,” she muttered in a dark voice.
Even though she tried to say it casually, she could not help but feel heartbroken.
She said, “I wish I could put up a new sign there one day, even if the sign doesn’t bear the name Rose Island.”
At that moment, her voice seemed like a girl, unlike her age, as if she was a girl smiling with thrill and excitement, not an old woman trapped in the wrinkles created by sadness and remorse.
“Then, I’ll be happy like a child and a mother.”
***
Anderson and Chloe departed for Los Angeles on the day Havier left after finishing his stint job as the sous chef at the Paris branch. As it turned out, Min-joon and Kaya participated in the semi-finals on that day.
Havier looked at Min-joon and said, feeling sorry, “Today you’re competing in the semi-finals, so I’m sorry I have to leave like this. I wish I had delayed my flight by one more day.”
“That’s alright. If you want to do it, you might have to wait until I win the finals and have a celebration party. You can’t wait until then.”
“Anyway, your confidence skyrockets…”
As if he couldn’t help it, Havier shook his head, grinning at him. Those who knew Min-joon thought that he didn’t pretend to brag about himself because of his calm personality, but he radiated confidence as much as Kaya all the time.
Watching him, Chloe suddenly became sentimental.
‘Come to think of it, he wasn’t like this before.’
In fact, Min-joon was often teased by his friends because he was not that confident, given his fantastic talent. Was it because of Kaya’s influence that he changed like this? Or did he begin to recover his confidence after discovering belatedly he was a superb chef?
Anderson briefly said goodbye to him.
“Goodbye, man.”
“Okay, let me bring you the trophy.”
“Bring the prize money, too.”
“Uh… I can’t guarantee that.”
Min-joon shook his head after thinking over it with a serious expression for a moment.
Anderson sincerely seemed to think he would win the contest and prize money. But Anderson didn’t think his guesswork was absurd because Min-joon could really win it. If Min-joon alone had to compete with Dobby or Enzo, it would be hard for him to beat them, but if he can work with Kaya, the pair could probably win.
But Anderson didn’t want to tell Min-joon about what’s on his mind. Anderson showed his fist. As soon as Min-joon touched his fist against his, Anderson got into the car.
Looking at Anderson, Chloe said to Min-joon and Kaya before she got into the car, “I believe you will win the contest.”
“Any substance to back what you said?”
“Because I can’t imagine you guys losing. It’s my imagination that makes me believe so.”
Giggling at that, Kaya said, “Go and wait for us. We’ll be there soon.”
“You can’t come right away. You have to come slowly to finish the finals.”
“Oh, you’re right. We’ll be late, so don’t wait.”
Their eyes met, but the next moment, Chloe was getting into the car.
Havier looked back at Min-joon and Kaya for a moment and moved his lips as if to say something, but in the end, he only said goodbye.
In an instant, Min-joon got sentimental because of a lonely atmosphere.
He looked back at Kaya and said, “It would be funny if we lost in this contest. Hope they could wait a little longer, so we could depart together.”
“Don’t think about losing. You have to take back your knife, right?”
“Oh, that’s right. At least, I want to beat Dobby.”
“We can beat Enzo, too. He was beaten by Daniel in the past anyway.”
“Well, Enzo is a chef from a different generation.”
“What’s the big deal about his generation? We’ve got two hands and one brain like him. By the way, why do you want me to prepare clothes to change?”
“Well…” Min-joon didn’t finish his words.
Was it because of the upcoming semi-finals? This time, the organizers made a pretty strange announcement that the participants should prepare plenty of clothes to change. It suggested that the participants would have to spend cooking overnight. Min-joon could not figure out what kind of mission the judges had in mind this time.
“Do they want us to cook something in the oven?”
“Even if it’s oven cooking, it hardly doesn’t take more than a day. I can understand if it’s a sous vide dish.”
“I’m curious about our mission in the semi-finals.”
“We’ll find out soon.”
In fact, he was anxious rather than curious. He didn’t know what kind of dish it was that they had to cook over two or a few days. Besides, he was worried about his stamina, although he was in a better position than Dobby or Enzo who was older than him. And it was the same for other pairs.
The Enzo pair and the Dobby pair spoke to Min-joon in a tense voice, as if they were nervous, too, “Do you have any idea what our cooking topic is this time?”
“Well, I suspect it might be sous vide cooking.”
“Well, sous vide is largely controlled by the cooking machine, so I wonder if they really can give us a mission like that.”
“But you can make different types of dishes with sous vide. It’s about time that France also stood out in terms of molecular cuisine. They lag far behind Spain these days.”
They exchanged various opinions, but after all, what they guest most closely was sous vide. The best dish that required a long cooking time was sous vide. In addition, it was quite meaningful for them to select today’s mission as a sous vide cuisine at least once in this competition to clear the prevalent prejudice that France was narrow-minded about molecular cuisine.
‘But is it really sous vide…?’
Min-joon’s eyes shone sharply.
And his premonition was confirmed by the judges who appeared at the podium soon.
“Congratulations to all of you who have advanced through the semi-finals. I am very impressed that you have not lost your spirit of challenge to compete with your great skills. Today, I hope you can tell both France and the world what you mean by the chef’s challenge.”
“The most frightening and nervous thing for a chef is tomorrow. In other words, you have to think about the changes that will come tomorrow, what ingredients you want to use, and how you should organize the course dishes. Each of those changes is an adventure that you take for granted, but at the same time, you can never get used to it. It’s joyful but burdensome.”
“You’ll have 3 days of cooking dishes in the future. During those three days, you’ll have to prepare all the processes, including aging, to prepare a dinner to serve guests.”
At that moment, the participants stared at the judges blankly. Preparing dishes for 3 days? It was common in restaurants, but it was never quite common for the participants to consume as many as three days. Even at the Grand Chef competition, they gave the participants only one day.
‘Three days!’
