Was it because this tournament was heading toward the semi-finals? Or was it because of their growing curiosity about cooking while the participants were preparing their own dishes for the next 72 hours? There were as many spectators at the convention as those who protested against the American chefs. Even though they were not making any big noise this time, the venue was full of their breathing and whispering here and there.
“Aren’t you nervous ?” Angela asked.
Min-joon and Kaya were the pair she came to interview first as soon as she was allowed to interview the participants. In fact, there were lots of journalists who wanted to interview them, and even now, several reporters were listening for the pair when Angela spoke to them.
However, only Angela was allowed to ask questions because it was the only gift that the pair could give her. Fully appreciating such a privilege, she looked at the two.
It was Kaya who answered her question, “If you look at us, you can see we are not nervous at all.”
“I want to tell the public why you’re not nervous at all. Can you tell me why?”
“Because we don’t have to be nervous. We’re not interested in winning this competition or losing. First of all, I would like to say my pair won’t be eliminated today.”
“How come you are sure of that?”
“Because we have made our dish very well.”
“Don’t you think other pairs have done as well as you?”
“We have done better.”
It looked like Kaya insisted her pair was the best, but Angela was persuaded for some reason.
Angela asked again, “Can you tell me what’s the composition of your dishes today?”
“It’s an Asian style full meal on one table—bamboo with rice made with sage leaves, wonton soup made with steamed dumplings in a broth that boiled for about 70 hours, abalone marinated in a sauce boiled with ginseng in black garlic juice, and chicken breasts cooked with sous vide method, and deep-fried sea bass served with a sauce made with oranges and strawberries. What we’re boiling right now is braised ribs, but it’s not the typical ones.”
“Why?”
Min-joon replied, “Because I used a bit of beef bourguignon. And the sauce is not common at all.”
“Beef bourguignon method?”
“First of all, the aging process of the ribs was different. After she and I exchanged opinions, we wanted to have some taste of blood in order to bring out the taste of beef bourguignon properly.”
In general, the first difference between braised ribs and beef bourguignon was in how much to remove blood from the ribs. They didn’t use bloody meat for beef bourguignon. Unlike steamed ribs, which usually removed blood by soaking the meat in water, they removed blood from beef bourguignon mainly by wiping off the blood of meat using a kitchen towel.
Most chefs didn’t think much about the difference between braised ribs and beef bourguignon, but Min-joon didn’t. He realized that as the French people got used to the taste of beef bourguignon, they might find a slightly thicker beef taste better.
Min-joon did not completely remove the blood. However, he could not let the taste of the blood ruin the cooking balance. To solve that, he used tomatoes and red wine because the moderate acidity of tomatoes and alcohol of red wine would cleanly remove the blood left in the beef.
“I used beef brisket. And the sauce included not only tomato and red wine but also soy sauce and banana.”
“Banana?”
“Well, bananas have their own light sweetness unlike the rich sweetness of sugar.”
In fact, this was a recipe he created to include fried sea bass in the full meal. Since the jam used for the deep-fried sea bass contained a lot of sugar, the taste of the sugar inevitably overlapped even if the other ingredients that made up the sauce were different, for people tended to think that sugar was simply sweet, but it also had a taste of sugar, not just sweetness.
And the taste of sweetness was also a problem because if it tasted too sweet, the composition could be monotonous as the pair discussed the other day. However, it was a problem if the ribs didn’t taste sweet at all. In that respect, bananas were the best the pair could take for braised ribs for now.
Her interview continued. While she was doing the interview, Angela discovered a pretty interesting thing, which was that while the pair were cooking, smiles were always on their lips.
Since they got stuck in the same venue for three days, they might feel exhausted, but they just looked happy. When Angela asked about it, the pair looked at each other for a moment.
Min-joon and Kaya had talked over and over again with Bastien, Norris, and many judges about what this competition meant to them, such as their challenge to French cuisine, the exploration of their own limits, and an opportunity to cultivate the courage that would help them not get cold feet even in a completely new environment with many people paying attention to them.
However, while preparing for this mission, the pair forgot all the reasons and meanings because it was so much fun to express this moment when they could freely make what they wanted to cook without being conscious of anybody.
Of course, it didn’t mean that Min-joon and Kaya didn’t have time to cook freely. They had lots of time to cook together. But their cooking together in this contest was very special. Three days was not long, but they felt like they set up a restaurant here.
It was natural that they felt so because what they did was not just develop a single recipe, but a formal dinner that they could serve at a restaurant. Of course, it could take them not three days but three weeks or months to open a restaurant, but they felt like they enjoyed such joy in advance. And that was the greatest happiness they had been dreaming about. Of course, it would be a lie if they denied they would want to have a high-rise building or if they didn’t want to have media limelight. They would feel it very sweet to see other chefs looking up to them. But if all of that were a spice to add flavor to their lives, the restaurant they would open in the future would be meat, bread, and rice to them. These things might be invisible because they were basic, so the pair wanted to have them unconditionally.
“Well, it’s our mission to make them feel like they would like to open a restaurant by looking at our full meal on one table.”
“Why?”
“Well, as we supervise everything from start to finish here, I can imagine how much fun it would be for me to cook when I become a head chef later.”
“Yeah, I’m looking forward to that because I am so curious what kind of restaurant you would run when both of you become head chefs. Are you also thinking of opening an Asian restaurant?”
“Well, It’s my primary dream to open a restaurant where I can cook whatever I want to cook anytime, but it’s difficult right now.”
Even now, the pair should have put so much effort into showing the French people some other dishes than French cuisine. So, if they wanted to prove that it was possible to open a restaurant that could serve cosmopolitan foods, what kind of process would they have to go through? In fact, Min-joon would not be able to believe such a restaurant actually existed. For example, there were people in Korea who thought the rice soup would not taste great if the restaurant they visited served several types of rice soup.
Min-joon and Kaya introduced each of the remaining menus to Angela. While hearing their explanation, she was frankly thrilled. It wasn’t because of the uniqueness of each recipe. Actually, she saw lots of unique recipes before. There were lots of chefs in the world, who mostly loved developing their own recipes.
The pair were much younger than her, but she didn’t care about it at first. Actually, it was too late for her to express admiration for their fantastic cooking for their age. She was surprised for the same reason Norris was the other day.
‘How can they cook so logically? Is it possible?’
They calculated every ingredient in cooking. When he explained how each dish could make harmony with one another and how cooking could touch people, she could not help but share his cooking philosophy in admiration.
At last, Min-joon said, “I’m sorry I have to stop the interview here. We have to focus on cooking now.”
“Oh, thank you. I will cheer for you.”
“Yes, thank you.”
Angela left them with a smile. It seemed that she was pondering over lots of stuff when she turned, but the pair didn’t care. It was time they focused back on cooking.
“You are done cooking bamboo with rice, right?”
“Yeah, I can put it in the steamer.”
“What is the steam temperature?”
“I have already checked it. Don’t worry.”
“Okay.”
She put bamboo with rice in the steamer, while he put the cooked dumplings in the steamer. The broth for the dumplings had already been boiled. It had been brewed for the past three days before boiling it again with lemongrass, red pepper, onion, and soy sauce.
‘I think it feels more like a Southeast Asian style rather than a Far East Asian style.’
But in this situation, such diversity didn’t reduce their cooking score anyway. In many ways, this mission helped him a lot. In fact, over the past three days, he had improved a lot in cultivating his pan-national gastronomic view. He was almost perfect.
‘Maybe by the time I’m done with this contest…’
While he was lost in thought about it, he stopped. He could not afford to give it a thought for now. He had to focus on showing them the best delicious taste of his dish.
Looking back, it was rather funny. Although he was born in Asia and more familiar with Asian cuisine, it was Asian, not Western, cooking that made him decisively establish a cosmopolitan gastronomic view. He put a sea bass thinly coated with flour in oil. The sound of searing oil seemed to bless him.
He decided not to have a half-baked inferiority complex anymore. He had been afflicted with inferiority complexes or a sense of shame that he could not beat other chefs in Asian cuisine. He was full of determination that his dishes could not or should not be framed in the cuisine of any particular country.
A little later, he could see the fruits of his determination on the system.
[You have completed an Asian style meal free from any particular format!]
[Kaya Reuters and Min-joon’s Asian Full Meal on one table.]
List: Steamed bamboo with rice and sage leaves, spicy wonton soup with beef and shrimp dumplings, rib bourguignon with tomato and banana, deep-fried sea bass with strawberry and tangerine jam and jelly, steamed abalone with black garlic juice sauce, chicken breast in sous vide style, matsutake eggplant rolls, and deep-fried mozzarella shrimp with plenty of paprika puree sauce.
Average Cooking Score: 9.1/10
Composition score: 10/10
Evaluation: A perfect one table meal that fully captures the sentiment and taste of Asia. Through constant exploration and ideal cooperation, you have produced extraordinary results.
[By making the perfect dinner that is not bound by any particular country, you have fully mastered pan-national gastronomic skills!]
[After meeting all the conditions, your cooking level has gone up!]
