“Are you ignoring my dishes right now?”
“I already told you I was disappointed.”
“Well, it’s my mistake that I’ve expected a lot from someone who doesn’t know about Japanese food and its tradition.”
“As you said, I may not know what Japanese food and its tradition are, but I know what cooking is. There is no fun in your dish.”
“You don’t eat a dish for fun. You eat it for taste and happiness.”
“Well, I was less happy because there was no fun.”
Kaya talked back without getting cold feet at all.
Watching her interacting with the head chef, someone might think she was engaged in a battle of pride or a clumsy emotional battle, but Min-joon knew she was not. In fact, she was seriously disappointed with Yoshimoto’s cooking right now. And she felt sorry for that because she appreciated Yoshimoto’s cooking skills. Just like Min-joon did to Mangil Hong, the master chef of traditional Korean cuisine, Kaya could not help but express her disappointment when she found that Yoshimoto was bound by his old-fashioned way of cooking.
At that moment, Min-joon accidentally made eye contact with Yoshimoto’s sous chef standing next to him. Unlike his boss, there was no resentment or displeasure in his eyes. When Min-joon felt curious about his expression, Yoshimoto turned and opened his mouth.
“Well, I wish I had not come here, young men. I’m sorry if you didn’t enjoy the meal, but I don’t think it’s my fault. Your half-baked opinion is the problem. So, goodbye.”
Having said that, Yoshimoto turned and walked away. However, his sous chef didn’t leave right away. When Kaya and Min-joon looked at him, he asked in a quiet voice after confirming his boss was completely out of his sight, “What’s your rating?”
“To be honest, it isn’t very good.”
“Are you going to post it in Choters Guide?”
What he just asked was rather ambiguous. When Min-joon narrowed his eyes, the sous chef continued right away as if he wished Min-joon could not misunderstand.
“Please post your ratings.”
“Pardon?”
“Mr. Yoshimoto has received so many praises so far. So, he can’t even examine himself properly. There was fun in his dishes in the past, but he doesn’t even know that he has been addicted to customers’ praise and love.”
“So, you think we should attack Chef Yoshimoto with our ratings?”
“Yeah,” said the assistant chef. “Please scold him.”
Scold the head chef?
Min-joon didn’t even imagine that the sous chef would dare to mention it. So, he had no choice but to look at him with a pretty complicated expression. Given the way he spoke, he didn’t seem to have a bad relationship with his boss, but was it because the situation of Wasabi was so desperate?
“To be honest, I’m embarrassed because I didn’t expect you to ask for it,” Min-joon replied with a trembling voice.
Then he looked at the system window that appeared right next to the sous chef.
[Yohei Koyama]
Cooking Level: 9
Baking Level: 5
Gastronomic Level: 9
Decoration Level: 7
‘What the heck?! This guy is a great chef!’
He had fabulous scores in various fields. Compared with head chef Yoshimoto who walked away a little moment ago, this chef didn’t lag behind him. His cooking level and gastronomic level were the same 9 as Yoshimoto’s, and his decoration level was rather higher than Yoshimoto’s.
Min-joon thought that his own skills were as good as a head chef’s, but it was nothing compared with the chef standing before him. He just could not understand why this man was working for Yoshimoto when he could serve as a head chef anywhere.
Checking his cooking level, Min-joon took his request more seriously. But Kaya didn’t because she couldn’t see the system window like him.
She asked bluntly, “If you want to scold him, why don’t you do it by yourself?”
“Well, I’ve tried it before. But I’m his student anyway, no matter what. The teacher is supposed to look down on what his student says, and there is a red line I should not cross.”
When he heard that, Min-joon suddenly thought of Rachel. Of course, the relationship between Min-joon and Rachel was subtly different from that of Yohei and Yoshimoto, for Rachel wasn’t so stubborn as to make dishes that were behind the times like Yoshimoto. But they had something in common, which made their students feel frustrated, but they could not express their opinion about it freely.
“What do you mean by asking me to scold him?”
While Min-joon was agonizing over it, Kaya asked again coldly.
But Yohei didn’t care because he wasn’t displeased with her question at all. Rather, he seemed even polite to her.
“Just make him face up to the reality. There are not many people who have told the truth to Chef Yoshimoto.”
“What you mean is some people have already advised Chef Yoshimoto, but they have failed to change him. Do you think we can change him?”
“I can’t honestly answer your question, but I’m just hoping he can because you are not just ordinary evaluators. You probably know better why they’re not ordinary.”
Kaya touched her lips as if she was embarrassed by his compliment. She looked at Min-joon, wondering how to answer.
Finally, Min-joon opened his mouth with a sigh.
“Well, no matter what, we were thinking of giving you our honest ratings based on our actual observation. Of course, this rating reflects our own subjective opinion.”
“Thank you.”
“Oh, you don’t have to. It’s our job anyway. But I’m curious about one thing.”
“Sure, ask me anything,” said Yohei, smiling softly.
Min-joon wasn’t sure if he smiled naturally or for business, but his smile made him feel good anyway.
“Well, it’s not a big question. I’m pretty impressed with your attitude toward Chef Yoshimoto. Have you been working for him for a long time?”
“Oh, yes. Actually, this is where I first started cooking.”
“Have you been working only in this restaurant so far?”
“Yeah, sort of. I once worked at a local restaurant with Chef Yoshimoto’s permission, but even at that time, I was affiliated with Wasabi, not that hotel.”
“Somehow I feel like your dish is fantastic. I really want to taste it someday.”
“It would be an honor if you evaluated my dish! I want to welcome it anytime.”
Yohei laughed as if he was really happy. Watching his pure smile, Min-joon wondered if he, who thought he was leading a clean life, was too stuck in his mundane life.
“What you expect from us is just our evaluation, right?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
It was time for Kaya and Min-joon to wrap up their visit to Wasabi.
On the way back home, Kaya asked, looking at him, “It looks like you liked Chef Yohei a lot.”
“Why do you think so?”
“It’s so obvious. This is the first time you’ve ever asked a personal question to the chef. Besides, you guys informed each other of your Starbook ID. Isn’t that enough?”
“Yeah, you’re right.”
“Did you feel anything special about him?”
“Well, something like a sense of kinship.”
After hesitating for a moment, he mentioned that word because he was in a situation similar to his. He knew how tough and hard it was for a student to worry about his master chef. But that wasn’t all. In his eyes, Yohei was too competent to work for Chef Yoshimoto. Maybe he was more competent than Yoshimoto, but he could not outdo his teacher, trapped in a situation where he was supposed to be polite and humble to his master.
So, Min-joon thought it wouldn’t be bad for him to get acquainted with Yohei. But he could not tell everything to Kaya about things like this because he could not reveal the existence of the system to her.
At that moment, he asked himself, ‘Why don’t you reveal it to Kaya?’
He turned to her and looked at her pretty little face, her stubborn eyes, sharp eyes, her prominent nose, her thin and long mouth, and her wrinkles forming like dimples whenever she smiled. He realized how much he loved each of her facial features.
Kaya didn’t hide anything from him because there was nothing like a secret between them.
But Min-joon was different. And he asked himself why he couldn’t tell her the secret.
The existence of the system for him was certainly nonsensical. She might get confused and suspicious about him when she found it out, but she would trust him, after all. In some respects, borrowing her idea, he might be better off thinking about how to use his abilities more fully.
But at that moment, he had one question.
‘Then, should I reveal to her that I was back to myself seven years ago?’
When he was about to let her know the existence of the system, it was weird not to reveal the fact that he was back to himself seven years ago. However, it was hard for him to reveal it to her as easily as he thought. She once told him that one of the reasons why she had no choice but to like him so much was because he could identify and appreciate her abilities that even she herself could not.
But if she discovered he chose her just because he knew she had great potential in the future, how would she react? Wouldn’t she feel betrayed? Wouldn’t she get disturbed? She might give it a pass nicely, but she might not. He just wanted to stop worrying anymore and tell her everything.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Well, I’ve been thinking about something.”
“It looks like it has something to do with me.”
“No way,” he glossed over it with a feigned smile. But she was still suspicious about his weird behavior. Checking her expression, he cautiously asked, “If I did something wrong to you, what would you do?”
“Well, I think I’ll beat you first.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Did you have an affair with another woman?”
“Oh, no!”
“Then, what is it? Don’t you think you’re doing wrong to me?”
“Well, I don’t want to say I’m doing wrong to you now…”
