Min-joon listened to her silently. He now understood what she was trying to say. Maybe he was also learning instinctively from her what success was, who could achieve success, and how one could achieve it.
“I’m not saying I’ll give you America because you can have it. I’m just telling you about it because I know that you are the only one who can hold America most certainly. Come to think of it, it’s really funny that you are getting the most attention and expectation in America when you are not born in America. Don’t you think so?”
“There is a saying in Korea that a stone that just rolled in takes out the embedded stone.”
“Yeah, I understand that. How can you beat the guy who is constantly busy moving around when you’re just standing still and doing nothing? That’s why I want to help you. Let me help you crush and get rid of all the stones that are stuck in this country.”
“Can you explain in detail?”
“I told you several things a little while ago. Your perfect palate, Cho Reggiano, your affiliation with Rose Island, and your victory at the Paris International Culinary Competition. Which of them do you think makes you the most brilliant?”
“Well, isn’t it my absolute taste? In fact, the fantasy people have about me is their fantasy about my perfect palate.”
As a matter of fact, the perfect palate was his strength, but at the same time, his weakness because it was almost a trauma to him. Everyone expected a perfect palate from him, but he had to miserably struggle to hide them from the fact that the secret of his perfect palate was the system.
Watching him, June smiled comfortably as if she read his mind as if she understood his agony and stress related to his perfect palate. Then she opened her mouth in a sullen voice, which made him expect some kind of answer he could not find until now.
“Well, your perfect palate might have triggered people’s interest in you. But if you had not produced the results of your perfect palate, you would not have been able to get noticed. No matter how many embers there are, you won’t be able to light the fire if you don’t have any firewood. The reason I’m telling you that you can have America is not just because you have such a great palate. It’s because you have made people’s fantasies about your perfect palate come true. You have made everyone in the United States know your name and your cuisine by developing Cho Reggiano. By winning the Paris International Culinary Competition, you proved that your skills weren’t just a coincidence. Such factors were like your embers, and you got respected for that. As a matter of fact, people were not always respectful to you when you had only a perfect palate, right?”
When she said that, he slowly traced his old memories. She was right. When people came to know about his perfect palate first, some chefs highly praised him, but others were in doubt.
Since he used to believe that just because a chef had the perfect palate, the chef’s qualities were not the best, Min-joon didn’t refute what she said. Back then, his gastronomy level was not that high. Of course, he might think differently if he had the perfect palate.
But the situation was different now. These days, there were almost no chefs who think Min-joon was an inexperienced chef who relied on his perfect palate. Their perceptions of him were greatly changed when he developed Cho Reggiano. When he won the Paris International Culinary Competition, they changed their perceptions of him once again. So much so that they could no longer say he was a chef who only relied on his perfect palate.
It was not because of his perfect palate that he made such great achievements. He achieved all of them by himself, and people were thrilled by that, appreciating the fact that they could embrace this young genius in America.
June asked, “Do you think you now know what you need to do?”
He replied, “Well, I think I have to burn more firewood….”
“I can’t do it for you because it’s you who are responsible for making firewood. But you know me, right? I know better than anyone how and when the flames will burn the prettiest… So, just watch me.”
She pointed to his plate with a mysterious smile as if she had something in mind.
“Just watch how I’m going to burn this firewood.”
***
June was a dangerous person.
Of course, she didn’t have any ties with the gang, she had never committed any crime, and she had never ruined someone’s life. But when ordinary people saw her, they thought that she might be involved in things like that. It was natural they thought so. If there was an elephant or a rhino or a giraffe in front of them, they would naturally get cold feet even if these wild animals didn’t intend to eat them.
June was like a beast. She was like a roaring storm, pouring heavy snow, and a tsunami that devoured the land. It was natural that people were afraid they might be drowned on her plate if they faced it. Even Chef Rachel, who made her what she was today, felt a bit embarrassed whenever she thought about June.
“When I look at June, I sometimes wonder if I’ve led a narrow-minded life. I just wonder if my vision is not as wide as I have thought, or if all the efforts I’ve made until now are in vain.”
“June is a great chef,” said Isaac in a calm voice.
Rachel laughed in her sleeve at his words. In fact, when June first entered Rachel’s restaurant, he didn’t like her very much because she was always spiteful, and she made the peaceful and warm atmosphere of the kitchen hawkish in an instant.
But now, even Isaac not only cheered for her, but he also cared for her. Perhaps that was her charm.
At first, she made people sick and tired of her because she was spiteful, but as time passed, they gradually accepted and liked her.
“It seems you have made the good decision to send Min-joon to her.”
“Yeah. Actually, what I expect of him is his mastery of June’s style in some respects.”
“But can he deal with her? June will constantly grow him, so it might be hard for him to handle it someday.”
“I’ve sent him to her because I believe he can handle it.”
Having said that, Rachel looked into her smartphone’s screen. There were lots of rave reviews of his Chinese dishes by gourmets. This was Min-joon’s great strength. If she had kept him next to her at Rose Island, people might have been content with commenting something like, ‘Yeah, he’s done it as expected!’, but the moment June began to take care of him, she shook the restaurant world in New York.
June did not try to make Min-joon’s recipe something like another new recipe. First of all, she began to spread her concerns about the stagnant New York culinary world to New Yorkers by mobilizing all of her connections in New York. She also began to inform them about the latest gourmet trend of the world by writing articles, and tried to rekindle their interest in fusion cuisine, which they once craved for, but lost interest at some point.
Generally speaking, an ordinary chef might disclose their recipe, but June didn’t. She approved a TV show program recording on Min-joon’s dish and explained the process of him developing the recipe from start to finish. As a result, his journey to all branches of Rose Island around the world was portrayed like a valiant adventure, and his dumpling dish was treated as something like an art, not just cooking.
“June had an eye for his potential. She knew that what Min-joon should do was not just work as her sous chef.”
In fact, Min-joon was good as a sous chef. Of course, with not much experience yet, he had a lot to learn, but given how fast he was growing, he would be able to make up for it surprisingly quickly. So what he needed right now was the attention of people, not anything else. She wanted to make his fast growth, his fantastic dishes, and his unbelievable talent get noticed by as many people as possible.
People would soon know what kind of chef Min-joon was. They realized that they couldn’t judge him only by looking at his perfect palate. After all, they would realize that his dish could be the best gift they could receive in their lives.
Once they believe it, his dishes would always stay in their fantasy. He would have to show them whether his dish could break their fantasy or have them dream about it forever. But Rachel, Min-joon, and June believed that he had the ability to make people have a great dream about his dish.
“It’s going to be a happy dream,” Rachel muttered.
The New York cuisine world or American cuisine began to change. Lots of gourmets who tasted Min-joon’s dishes said that his cuisine was the direction that American chefs should pursue, and they could not ignore the gourmets’ call.
Maybe his first step in this direction might look trifling because those who once became famous for their dishes took the lead in setting the cuisine trend.
However, Min-joon began to take his step in that direction only now, and he was also setting the trend. The culinary world finally began to seriously realize who he was.
