Honestly, Min-joon thought that Willard would get angry with what he said. He even expected Willard’s rebuttal. The moment Willard revealed his true intentions hidden in his crude pretense, Min-joon would be able to change his attitude toward him more coldly.
But Willard didn’t get excited. Rather, he only smiled at Min-joon mysteriously.
He replied in a calm voice, “So, what you mean is you don’t have anything to learn from me? I think you have overstepped the line.”
“Oh, sorry. I’m not good at English. More precisely, what I mean is I can’t learn from you what I can from June. How can I dare say there is none that I can’t learn from anyone?”
Although Min-joon had hardly stumbled over English, this time, he took advantage of his identity as a Korean to make such excuses to Willard. Thanks to his witty response, Willard could not even catch him tripping.
Willard fumed, ‘By the way, this guy keeps calling me Mr. Willard instead of Chef Willard.’
Willard felt that Min-joon deliberately called him Mr. Willard while he added the title ‘chef’ to June when calling her. Of course, he was not sure whether Min-joon wanted him to notice his intentions.
Honestly, Willard was angry. But Willard didn’t make his anger explode because he was rather used to the way he was treated like this.
“Would you like to hear an old story about me?”
“Is it a long story? Unfortunately, I don’t have much time.”
“Then, let me summarize it for you. There were two demi-chefs. One of them considered cooking like art and always wanted to show off his skills to those around him. And the other one was pretty much a calculating guy, though he was a poor talker. He knew for sure what stimulated customer’s desire for consumption and what could satisfy their preferences.”
“I don’t think you’re talking about somebody you already know.”
“And one day, a sous chef left the kitchen to open his own restaurant, so the head chef picked one of the demi chefs as his sous chef. The guy he chose was the demi chef pretending to be an artist. Then the head chef told the other demi chef something like this, “You don’t respect cooking. You don’t care about communicating with customers. I can’t have you as my sous chef because you only think of cooking as the means of making money.”
Willard, who was lost in such an episode for a moment, came back to the main topic.
Looking at Min-joon, he asked, “So, what do you think the two demi chefs are doing now?”
“Well, judging by what you said, I think that you want to tell me that the calculating demi chef succeeded while the other one didn’t.”
“That’s right. Why do you think so?”
“I don’t know.”
“Well, when it comes to cooking, all the dishes are just more of the same, after all.”
When he said that, Min-joon narrowed his eyes and looked at him. Honestly, he was not appropriate as a chef. Of course, Min-joon had once thought so, for the taste of food could not be absolute. However, after eating various food and developing his own recipes, he realized that apart from what the system showed it or not, the level of cooking was more finely graded than he thought.
However, Willard didn’t even feel the basics when he devoted his life to cooking for such a long time. Accordingly, Min-joon found his respect for Willard fading away gradually. But Willard began to passionately speak as if he thought Min-joon’s silence meant he was on the same page with him.
“The most important thing is how to express the dish. Think of it as a painting. Even if it’s the same picture, you totally have a different impression when it is painted by a nameless painter or a famous painter of the Renaissance period, right?”
“Of course it’s different. But I don’t think you can apply that same logic to cooking.”
“Do you think so?”
Willard laughed as though Min-joon was still young. Min-joon felt unpleasant with that laughter. If he reached level 8, Willard must have made lots of effort in terms of cooking techniques, but he just made light of his abilities.
Min-joon thought June was great because she didn’t tilt to any of the two. Actually, she must have invested more effort in cooking. And that was why she had not forgotten her innocence in her cooking.
Without trying to read his mind, Willard continued, “You may not have noticed it, but the reason they evaluated you highly was not just because of your excellent culinary skills. You have a perfect palate, you’re Rachel Rose’s student, and you are widely known because of your performance at Grand Chef. Because of all this background, your dishes can be more delicious and more meaningful than others’, so I can tell you one thing for sure. What you need to learn now is how to use your worth.”
“I am fully using my worth.”
“I’m telling you this because you can raise your worth even higher in my eyes. Why are you working as a sous chef? Don’t you think you can achieve more by yourself even without relying on Rose Island?”
Honestly, what Willard just said was not true. Min-joon admitted that no matter how great a chef was individually, he or she couldn’t easily catch up with what Rose Island achieved.
“So, let me tell you once again. Come work with me. I don’t want you to spend your time working as a sous chef. Life is short, but there’s a lot you can do. What’s the point of wasting your time like this?”
“…”
“As for the compensation, I’ll give you the most generous you can think of. I can give you three times the basic salary you get from June. Of course, you will receive additional income. What do you think about my offer?”
Min-joon chuckled unwittingly, but Willard thought Min-joon chuckled because he was so satisfied with his offer. But Min-joon was so upset and frustrated with the way Willard only focused on money from A to Z. As a matter of fact, Willard’s lifestyle was what he hated the most.
“I’m sorry, but I don’t want it. Actually, I received somebody’s offer of a tenfold increase in my salary, but I declined.”
“Ten times? Hahaha, you must be kidding.”
Even though Willard laughed big, there was no change in Min-joon’s expression.
At that moment, Willard felt bitter. Did he really receive such an offer? Was he worth more than he thought?
Honestly, Willard didn’t care whether he accepted or rejected his offer. Even if he rejected his offer, Min-joon would probably have some lingering thoughts about it later, which might drive a wedge between him and June. Of course, if he accepted it, that would be fine. If he succeeded in hiring Min-joon, then fired him later for some plausible reasons, Min-joon would be in big trouble. Even if he joined hands with Min-joon and took him for everything he got, that would be also good for Willard.
After calculating the gains and losses, Willard said with a smile, “Anyway, my offer is…’
“Hey!”
At that moment, somebody called Willard in a cold voice. Startled, he turned his head.
June was staring at him coldly. Willard made a feigned smile at her.
“It’s been a while, June. Nice to see you.”
“I’m not glad to see you here, so let me skip the greetings. I don’t want to smile at the bastard who’s trying to play a dirty trick in my area.”
“Oh, you seem to misunderstand me…”
“Shut up.”
June swore at him in a cold voice. Willard flinched and looked nervous.
Come to think of it, Willard always thought June was hard to deal with. And he hated her. He didn’t like the way she conducted herself, but gourmets always praised her restaurant, and there were lots of people trying to follow her.
June put her hand on the table. When she bent her waist, her eyes were now at even level with his, and her red scarf on her neck was lowered down.
As if she was threatening, she snapped sharply.
“Hey, Willard. When did you think I was so easy? How dare you try to take away my chef in my restaurant? Have you forgotten business ethics? Or did you think I was so foolish that you didn’t have to show business ethics to me?”
“No, that’s not what I mean…”
“I don’t want to listen to your poor excuses. I’m advising you now. And I’m teaching you at the same time. Willard, I have a lot to think about, such as the future of my restaurant, my future, my relationship with customers, not to mention how the trends will change in the future or how to keep the value of my restaurant in New York. Do I have to worry about your shallow, dirty tricks, too?”
“Chef June, sorry, but I don’t…”
“Do you want me to expel you from New York?”
Willard opened his eyes wide at her cold voice. Actually, he wanted to ask her if she had that power, but her glaring eyes clearly showed she was not kidding.
With his face turning pale, he stood up.
“I made a mistake today. Let me leave now.”
Willard hastily left. With his secretary following him, he took out the phone from his pocket.
Then he saved the taped conversation she had with him until now.
‘You guys shouldn’t have looked down on me.’
He wondered what he could do with the audio file, silently sharpening the blade of vengeance.
But soon he had to realize that reality was more brutal than he thought.
***
“Why can’t you report about it?”
“I told you already, Willard. I’m telling you for your sake. Even if I report about it, you are going to get hurt. You are different from Min-joon in terms of recognition and popularity. Min-joon’s brand value is not just because he is famous. A lot of people like him and say they love him!”
“I want to break his fame and popularity! I’m going to reveal his true colors!”
“All right. Let’s assume I’m going to report on that audio file. Do you think people would say, ‘Man, Min-joon is too mean’ if they knew about it? Nope! They would rather blame you for having made him say that. So, think of it more rationally. Rose Island is behind him, and June, the smartest lady in New York, is behind him.”
“Well, a castle is supposed to collapse with one small crack.”
“Even if the castle collapses, there are still soldiers inside the castle. Don’t you think you’re making light of June too much? How many reporters did you approach with this audio file?”
“Well, a lot.”
“Oh my God… Willard. I can’t help you anymore. I don’t want to be on June’s black list in this restaurant world. Wish you good luck. Let me give you my last advice as a friend, Just give up! Rainwater breaks a rock when it keeps falling, but all the rainwater that breaks the rock gets crushed in a more messy way than the rock.”
Their conversation ended like that.
Willard muttered, glaring at the phone, “Damn advice!”
He was about to throw the phone right away, but he put up with his anger and sat on a chair.
It was the first time that he felt so helpless these days. Aside from Min-joon, he felt June’s name was too powerful. All his reporter friends that he turned to for help were afraid to get into the ring with a fighter named June, or they didn’t want to be part of an evil group who would harm Min-joon.
In short, there was nobody who would be willing to disclose and report about the audio file. And it was funny for him to disclose it by himself.
At that moment, the secretary jumped into his office without knocking.
He fiercely frowned and shouted, “What the heck? I told you to knock before coming!”
“I know, but it’s too urgent.”
When he saw her face turning pale, he suddenly got cold feet.
She said in a trembling voice, “New York Food Street, Culinary Times, Chef in East America, and all other magazines that we dealt with just informed us that they would drop our restaurant from the list of their recommendations.”
He looked at her blankly, with his eyes wide open.
“What did you say?”
