“Wow, this is the best of her cooking!”
“Yeah, I think she poured her everything into this dish and pushed her skills to the limit.”
To examine that dish itself, it was not strange at all to say it was actually Daniel’s dish with a cooking score of 10.
It was ironic that he discerned the limit Rachel reached when he tried the best dish she made.
Now, desserts were served. At the same time, Rachel, who didn’t have to make the dish for their sampling, approached them. She looked at Min-joon and Kaya. He was not sure if there was any expectation in her weary eyes.
He said, “Chef Rachel!”
“Did you enjoy the food?”
She didn’t ask what the outcome was or what was lacking in her dishes because she didn’t ask the questions as a chef. The first thing she had to care about was whether or not her guests really enjoyed the meal. And he liked her attitude.
So, he said with a bright smile, “I’ve found the answer.”
“Answer?”
Rachel looked a little surprised at his words because she never expected he would notice her problems by trying her dishes just once. But she soon nodded, with her arms folded.
“Okay, tell me what it is.”
“Well…”
He found it hard to speak out when she demanded, for he was about to point out her shortcomings. He just felt so sorry that he had to pinpoint her weakness as her student, so it was natural he could not easily open his mouth.
After all, he looked at Kaya. As if she understood the meaning of his gaze, she nodded.
Then he said, “You’ve got only one problem, Chef Rachel.”
“I’m listening.”
Kaya shrugged at that moment then said, “Well, You just don’t cook well.”
“Cough!”
The moment Kaya said that, he spat out half the water that he was drinking. With him coughing because something went down the wrong pipe, Rachel looked at Kaya blankly. She had never heard somebody criticizing her cooking in her life. Even when she was a rookie chef, people praised her cooking, but they never said she didn’t cook well.
But Kaya just said she didn’t cook well.
“You’ve said I’m not cooking well…?”
She was so embarrassed that even her voice was trembling. It was natural she showed such a reaction because she had never imagined asking somebody this kind of question, so she could not figure out how to respond. It was the first big shock that she had ever experienced during her long cooking career.
Even Min-joon didn’t imagine Kaya talking to her like that, so he just looked at Kaya blankly, as if to ask her how to cope with this embarrassing situation. But it seemed that Kaya wasn’t aware of the seriousness of her situation.
She nodded in a sullen way then said, “Of course, you’re better than normal chefs, but you are not showing your full potential in your dishes. Am I right if I describe it as something like ‘you are not cooking well’, Rachel?”
“Oh, I don’t get your point, Kaya…”
“Just assume it this way. There is a spaceship and there is also a plane. When a plane flies in the sky, no one is surprised because it’s there to fly. But if a spaceship flies in the sky, that’s really dumb because it’s designed for flying in space. Why? Because it is only flying in the sky instead of the space.”
“Do you mean I’m that spaceship?” Rachel asked with a complicated expression.
She didn’t know if she had to take Kaya’s remarks positively or negatively. In fact, what mattered was not whether she meant well or not. Her point was she stayed in the sky when she could fly in space.
Kaya continued, “The most delicious dish you made on this occasion was the stewed oxtail with corn puree. To be precise, it was so good that it made me forget all the other dishes I ate today.”
“Really?”
“Actually, he just got cold feet until a moment ago,” Kaya said, pointing at Min-joon.
Embarrassed by her sudden mention of his name, he turned his glance from her. Of course, she didn’t mention him to embarrass him.
She continued in a calm voice, “In fact, he was just afraid he could not find any problem in your cooking until a moment ago, and I could understand his feelings because I myself found it difficult to find fault with your dishes. And the reason I didn’t get cold feet was because it would not matter to me at all even if I didn’t find any problem.”
This time, Min-joon said, “And when we ate this corn puree with steamed oxtail, we had no choice but to find the answer. Your cooking taught us what your problem was, what was the answer, and what our ultimate cooking should be.”
Rachel didn’t say anything. Instead, she just looked at them for a moment. It was at that moment that the dessert was served, which had plenty of cream with vanilla beans encrusted on top of cinnamon-flavored cookies. And on top of it was a thin layer of vanilla film with a texture that seemed to be in between pudding and jelly. And a chocolate the size of a bean was on top of it.
As soon as the dessert was served, Kaya picked it with a fork and took it to her mouth. She opened her big mouth and got a bite of the cookie. The soft flavor of the cream and the scent of vanilla matched the cinnamon scent. By the time she enjoyed the taste a little, the chocolate she just chewed made the taste even more savory.
‘Marco has done a great job!’
Kaya nodded in satisfaction, thinking of Marco who made this dessert in the kitchen.
It was no exaggeration to say that Marco was in charge of the bread-type among the desserts of Rose Island because Lisa didn’t yet return to work.
Rachel was astonished at Kaya’s confident attitude because her personality was not meek enough for Kaya to mess with. Nonetheless, Kaya was just carefree and relaxed even after she made a bombshell announcement to Rachel. Obviously, she was a woman with lots of guts, Rachel thought.
“Chef Rachel?”
“Oh, yes.”
“Actually, I’m not comfortable with this situation either. I prayed I could see your problem, but at the same time, I wished I would not. You know why, right?” he said.
“You don’t have to feel that way,” Rachel shook her head, smiling at him.
“I’ve never thought of myself as the best chef, so even if you criticize me, it’s not anything new to me. Besides, I know you want to make me the best by pointing out my problems, so don’t feel uncomfortable. Just go ahead and tell me all.”
“When I ate the corn puree and steamed oxtail, I could not help but be surprised by the taste of corn puree first because it tasted more corn than corn itself. You brought out the unique taste of corn as much as you could then mixed it with the steamed oxtail naturally. That reminded me of Daniel’s cooking a bit.”
Rachel nodded with a groan. Certainly, that dish resembled Daniel’s a lot. In fact, it might not be right for her to think so. If he said that her dish resembled Daniel’s cooking just because it completely brought out the unique taste of the ingredients, it would look like he was speaking on behalf of Daniel.
So, he said simply, “It was perfect.”
At that moment, Rachel opened her eyes wide and looked at him because that word was what was in her mind. Yes, the steamed oxtail was perfect. So much so that she was surprised by that.
“You have to revive the sense, the feeling, and the idea that you used to make the dish. How did you make it? I guess you must have had some sort of inspiration before you made it.”
“Well…” Rachel laughed awkwardly. “I just happened to make it.”
“Uh?”
“While I was making it with the ingredients that just came to my mind, I just hit upon it by accident. I didn’t think I would make something really fantastic. I only thought that I had to devise some basic stuff before putting it out on the menu. But that dish I made without any calculated thinking ended up being ridiculously delicious.”
He couldn’t figure out how to respond to her. He was not sure if he should call it her abilities or her misfortune. The clue he found out after studying and analyzing her dishes today turned out to be one that she made by accident!
‘No, I shouldn’t have her treat it as a coincidence.’
Anyway, he found the clue to what was lacking in Rachel’s cooking. If that was the case, he had to fix it, so she could reach cooking level 10 by all means.
“Let’s contact each other more often from today onward…”
“Contact each other?”
“I’ve told Korean chef Hong the same thing. He’s always asking me for advice. My advice isn’t that great, but thanks to him, I got one lesson, in other words, seeing other people’s cooking and analyzing their problems. As for your problem that Kaya mentioned, it’s too abstract to say somebody is not cooking well. It’s not perfect because of this…”
