God of Cooking

Entertainers get by when people love them. They had various kinds of talents. Some of them were famous for humor, and others were famous for singing. Some entertainers were famous for acting. If there was anything they had in common, all of them were directly connected to culture.

In that respect, a chef might actually be the most appropriate job for an entertainer because food was the most intuitive and universal culture in the world that people neither like nor dislike.

The reason why there were not many famous chefs who become entertainers was because they didn’t have many opportunities to get exposed to the general public. Even if they appear on TV, people couldn’t taste the dishes they make. It was important to see the food, but what was most important, after all, was actually taste it.

No matter how gleefully those who appear on TV cheered for the delicious food, it was hard for them to be impressed a lot. Mostly they end up thinking, ‘That chef cooks well,’ or ‘The dish looks delicious.’ But it was really difficult for them to go as far as saying, ‘It’s really delicious.’

‘Oh, I think I can find the way.’

June, the head chef of Rose Island’s New York branch and one of Rachel’s best students, tapped her finger on the desk, with her legs crossed. A sound that wasn’t very sharp rang out sometimes regularly and sometimes irregularly, depending on her mood.

“Min-joon raised the public awareness through appearing on TV and landed a job at Rose Island to clear the concerns about the difference in skills between a pro and amateur. Besides, he made a great success by developing his signature dessert Cho Reggiano…”

Recalling Min-joon’s brilliant career, she smiled cynically. It seemed as if somebody designed his career on purpose. She wondered if it was possible for a man to achieve such a successful career so easily. If Min-joon aimed at such a career from the beginning, she thought he was a terrific guy that deserved real praise, but if he could achieve it by sheer luck, she thought even that was really amazing.

In fact, June already knew the answer. Min-joon was not the type of man who led a calculating life. He was not the type of man like her. He did what he wanted to do. It didn’t matter whether he could do it or not because he didn’t care about the odds of success or failure. Although he looked like a teacher, his strong determination was really manly.

Watching her quietly, her sous chef Dobby, opened his mouth.

“When I see you sometimes, I don’t know what’s on your mind. Didn’t you hate Min-joon?”

“Why are you suddenly asking me that?”

“You’re weird. Min-joon must be an obstacle to your career success, but you even smile when you are talking about him.”

“Min-joon is my obstacle?”

“Don’t you think so?” Dobby asked carefully, wondering if she was upset with what he said because Min-joon could really stand in her way. Fortunately, the smile on her face didn’t disappear when he asked that.

She shook her head slowly and said, “If I think of him as an obstacle, he really becomes one at that moment.”

“Do you intend to make him your man?”

At that moment, a smile on her mouth disappeared, and she turned to the computer monitor.

The moment Min-joon and Kaya, along with Chloe and Anderson, were there together, they became clear issue makers. Aside from Anderson who was not yet widely known, the other three were certainly as famous as entertainers.

At last, June also decided to compete with them in the Paris International Cooking Competition.

Whether people were interested in cooking or the famous three chefs or not, it was no wonder that their participation in the Paris competition drew lots of interest among the general public.

June opened his mouth while trying to read the posts uploaded on the internet by one.

She said to Dobby, “I don’t have to make him my man. He’s not the type of person who wants to be somebody’s man. So, Chef Rachel won’t be able to have him as her man, either.”

She also wasn’t a person who liked to work for other people. Of course, it would not matter if she worked for a brief period. However, she could never accept the kind of life that she would have to live under someone else or somebody’s sous chef.

Nonetheless, there was only one reason she was still under Rachel’s wing. What she was hoping for wasn’t just to be the head of Rose Island. What she wanted was the power she could gain by taking over the chief of Rose Island, so that she could be the “sun” shining more than anyone else in the American and global food industry.

“I realized it clearly when I saw Rachel this time. Time makes even giants smaller.”

“Did you feel Chef Rachel’s presence was small?”

“Did you not feel it? She’s holding a straw now, a straw named Min-joon.”

That was what made her anxious and at the same time reassured. Rachel’s obsession with Min-joon wasn’t because her choice was right. Without even that obsession, she would lose all the driving force she had. June thought that Rachel was more obsessed with raising her students to avoid that while turning away from reality.

She muttered in a cold voice, “As time goes by, I’ll face the same fate as Rachel’s. I’ll become less courageous and less passionate. Maybe I’ll seek stability, not adventure. I’m going to end this game before that happens. So, Dobby…”

“Yep.”

“You must win in this competition. If you win, you will get the position that you want.”

Dobby grinned at her and said, “I’m going to win easily.”

[Dobby Caston]

Cooking Level: 9

Baking Level: 5

Gourmet Level: 8

Decoration Level: 7

***

“Wow. Parisians have great pride in their cuisine,” Chloe muttered in a tense voice inside a plane bound for Paris. Anderson glanced at her, then said in a sullen voice, “We can put them in their place by beating them in the contest. So, don’t be scared.”

“I’m not scared. I’m just telling you the truth. The roots of European food are France. In their eyes, they must think of us as just little twigs. Don’t you think so?”

“Well, they may think the twigs are pretty, but they don’t see the roots. And…”

Then, he continued in a subdued voice, with some regret in his eyes.

“I’m sure if they don’t see the roots or the soil is bad, but there is lots of controversy over the roots these days. Critics say French chefs are gradually regressing because they just focus on authentic food. You have heard it, too, right?”

“I know that they are not as powerful as they were in the past. Recently, Spanish chefs are more powerful in the food industry.”

Actually, Anderson was right. Compared with Spanish chefs, who allegedly made the best molecular cuisine in the world while devoting themselves to creating modern recipes, French chefs still stuck with their authentic cuisine while focusing on adding subtle change to the existing taste of such food.

Chloe said rather gloomily, “But this is France. They respect their own traditional method and even love it. I just wonder if I can be helpful to you.”

“It won’t help me at all if you keep saying it with diffidence.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Oh my… Look at them.”

Anderson raised his finger and pointed to one side, where Min-joon and Kaya were in sound sleep with their heads dropped. He said to Chloe, who was massaging her neck, thinking their necks would pretty hurt when they woke up.

He said, “Do you think they are so relaxed like that because they are sure they can win this time?”

“Don’t you think so?”

“No. They might not think about it at all. They might not be even interested in winning or losing. All they care about now is probably what kind of dishes they can see or they can cook. I think that’s what they are most concerned about now.”

When he said that, Chloe looked at them again. She looked at Kaya then Min-joon, thinking that the way they were fast asleep was really cool.

He said, “I think that’s the right attitude as a chef. In other words, they don’t care about anything other than cooking. As you know, there is a big difference between the chef who cooks in the kitchen because he likes cooking and the chef who cooks to make more money.”

Saying so, he turned to Chloe, whose mischievous smile on her face made him flinch for a moment.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Because you’re funny.”

“What the heck?”

“Hey, Anderson, you look a lot like Min-joon while I haven’t seen you for a while. I’m surprised you know how to speak eloquently about cooking.”

“Man, let me hit the sack. Wake me up when the plane arrives.”

Anderson, who could not reply for some time, turned his head toward the window and closed his eyes. Chloe chuckled, finding him clenching his fists.

Although she answered jokingly, she also thought he was right.

‘Yeah, let me try to enjoy cooking regardless of winning or not in this competition. That’s what a chef is supposed to be, and that’s a chef’s duty.’

***

“If you guys even fail in the preliminary round, get ready to be sacked!”

When Rachel’s staff participating in the Paris competition entered the kitchen of the Paris branch of Rose Island, they heard somebody’s warning to his staff. That was what Brandon, the head chef of the Paris branch, said first. Of course, he didn’t say that to Min-joon and his colleagues from America. Brandon was talking to his demi chefs.

Among the demi-chefs, a man who appeared to be of Hispanic descent opened his mouth hesitantly. He, who made an expression full of regret and even resentment, was apparently upset with what his boss said.

“But Brandon, you know what? It’s very unlikely that demi chefs like us will survive the preliminary round!”

“Well, that means you are not qualified to cook here in this kitchen. If you don’t pass the preliminary this time, you’ve got only two options—Get out of this kitchen or my restaurant.”

“Well, don’t we have any chance either way?”

“Yeah, just like your future.”

Chloe decided only a few hours ago that she would think of the final results or victory as secondary, but she was just dumbfounded to find the tense atmosphere here in this place where the head chief focused on the results of the competition.

Turning to Min-joon and his colleagues, Brandon cleared his throat and said, “Anyway, since we have guests from our head office in America, I’m going to take up the slack if you guys don’t work hard. They are our guests. Let me introduce you guys to them. Oh, your name is… Damn it, I can’t remember. Just introduce yourself one by one,” he said, waving his hand as if introducing them was a pain.