God of Cooking

Kaya and Min-joon walked the streets of France for a long time. They tried lots of street food and tasted French baguette here and there for some time. After all, Kaya opened her mouth as if she could not stand it anymore.

“Stop frowning like that!”

He looked back at Kaya and replied with a quiet voice, “I’ve never frowned.”

“You’re still frowning. How come you have the nerve to lie to me?”

“It’s just because I have a lot of things on my mind.”

“What are you thinking about? Are you wondering why you lost to him?”

“No, I’ve been thinking how I can make his recipe mine.”

When he said that, she moved up and down her eyebrows for a moment. She could not understand how greedy he was about owning somebody else’s recipe.

She opened her mouth in a soft voice.

“Don’t you think it’s better for you to refine your recipe rather than covet someone else’s?”

“That’s my way. In other words, I want to steal the merits of the chefs around me little by little. And I brought the most from you.”

“That’s really amazing. I wasn’t there when you started cooking in earnest. I just wonder how come you and I have so many things in common when it comes to cooking style.”

“Well.”

He just smiled at that.

Watching him feeling a bit relaxed, she also felt comfortable and looked around. They were now inside a famous French dessert cafe. Normally, women were the main customers here, but there were some men here, too, perhaps because this was a French cafe.

“I think Marco would have liked it here very much if he had been with us here.”

“I guess so. He is quite busy now.”

Anderson had suggested to Marco about the idea of pairing with him in the Paris competition. However, Marco had to refuse his offer because he was an employee at Lisa’s bakery. Of course, if he asked Lisa a favor, she would have allowed him to take vacation leave, but Marco would not want to cause any trouble by making such a request.

While he was lost in thought for a moment, a patissier approached them in person and put down the plates. Min-joon began to appreciate the plates blankly. What he ordered was millefeuille.

In French, it means a thousand folds of leaves. As the name suggests, a thousand layers of pie sheets are piled up, with fruit or cream between the pie sheets.

Along with pastries, macaroons, and baguettes, millefeuille was like the mascots of French baking. Min-joon glanced at the millefeuille while swallowing.

Then he muttered, “Aside from French cuisine, it seems that no country can surpass France in banking for hundreds of years.”

“How can you say that even before you eat it?”

“Well, I can feel it even before you eat it.”

He replied rather awkwardly, for he confirmed the baking score for the bread in front of him was 9 out of 10. Given that it was basically easy to get a high score in terms of kneading the dough, fermenting, and putting it in the oven for a long time, the score was very high.

The millefeuille on the plate consisted of hazelnut custard, cream, and pie sheets. There was a cute white chocolate on top, but Min-Joon personally wondered if it was for taste or just for decoration.

In fact, it was quite tricky to taste something like millefeuille. It wasn’t possible to eat millefeuille, which was usually about 5 inches thick, in one bite, even if one’s mouth was big.

So, there are two ways people eat it.

First, one could eat by chopping it with a knife. But this was also by no means easy.

Unless one used a sharp knife, the cream or custard pressed between the pies easily came out at the moment when one pressed the pie sheets.

That was why many people choose the second method. Just pick up one of the pie sheets and dip it in the cream and eat. But Min-joon did not like this method very much.

“Oh, you are very good at cutting as a knife,” Kaya said jokingly.

“If I can’t do this, how can I cook?”

“I think it’s more tricky than trimming the ingredients for cooking.”

In some respects, she was right. He shrugged then put the millefeuille, which was cut cutely, on the long fork blade. It was a combination of pie sheets, hazelnut custard, pie sheets then hazelnut cream, and pie sheets.

If Min-joon chose the easy way of cutting it, he could not enjoy all these flavors at once.

And that was why he took pains to cut the bread. She tapped the table in front of him with her finger. He could guess what she wanted now. He cut another piece of millefeuille and handed it to her and said, “It’s delicious. I wonder if it’s possible to get a better balance. They brought out the best taste of hazelnuts, but its sweetness isn’t that strong.”

“Really? Let me try it. Try this macaron.”

“Give me that yellow one.”

“No. That’s my favorite thing. Choose another one.”

“How about that white one?”

“That’s my second best.”

“Just give me anything.”

When he said that, she looked at that plate with a bit of anguish then handed him a green macaron. He bit the macaron which was neither too warm nor too cool.

And he felt it right away. ‘It’s a very well-made macaron.’

He could feel it the moment he bit it. The crispiness on the outside and chewiness on the inside made him feel like he was eating a properly roasted medium-rare steak, and he could feel it the most when he saw its bitten section.

Most macarons were crushed, with the crumbs splattering, as soon as one bit it, but this macaron was holding all the powder firmly as if it were a little crispy rice cake.

The cream or jam put between the two macaroons, often called filling, contained apple jam. When it was served with a macaron dough that seemed to be almost jelly, he thought to himself, ‘Yeah, it’s good that I chose the second method!’

Starting off with that dessert, the two then kept trying other desserts for some time.

Passion tart made with passion fruit, chocolate mousse, financier, etc.

After all, she muttered with dejected expressions, “I just wonder how they could come up with all these recipes.”

They hadn’t yet been to many dessert cafes in France. They just stopped by one dessert cafe with a good reputation in the neighborhood, but they were already satisfied with the quality of the desserts.

“Can we do well in the competition?”

“That’s a cooking contest, not a baking contest. And I have a reason to do well,” Min-joon said sharply. It seemed he was still upset because he lost to Dobby. In fact, Dobby’s cooking was so simple. Deep down, Min-joon thought he could be the head chef of any decent restaurant, so his pride was so hurt when he lost to Dobby.

“I won’t lose next time.”

Kaya didn’t hate the way he spoke harshly. She wanted to see him showing such an aggressive stance sometimes. Of course, the subject of his anger was someone she didn’t expect at all, but she didn’t feel bad about it.

She said, chuckling, “You know that?”

“What?”

“The prize money of the winner in this competition is roughly $1,000,000.”

“Really?” He looked at her blankly.

He had not tried to find it out on purpose.

Grinning at him, she said. “Let’s win and move to another house.”

***

The fact that Min-joon lost to Dobby wasn’t so painful that he could not stand it.

Actually, he was used to being defeated. Although things worked out for him well, it didn’t mean he always won.

For example, at the Grand Chef competition last year, he lost to Anderson and Kaya, after all.

After that, he sometimes lost to Anderson when betting on something. Sometimes he felt he was lacking after being defeated by Anderson.

Anyway, it wasn’t just the bitter pills of defeat for him that really mattered. In hindsight, it was a draw, so it was not something like a complete defeat. And considering that Dobby was in his thirties while he was in his 20s, Min-joon could feel he did good enough.

‘The aesthetics of simplicity.’

That was the shock that Dobby made him realize. Even if Dobby made a simple dish, he made it delicious. In fact, that was what Min-joon had been feeling all the time. He first felt it when he tried Chloe’s potato soup. When Kaya liked the dish, which seemed to be casual, Min-joon realized that cooking scores didn’t show everything about the dish.

Since then, he had gone through lots of experiences with that. When he attended the disqualifying mission, he tried to reflect the beauty of simplicity in Korean food. He also learned that the skills of master chefs in Japan and Korea could not be easily rated with their cooking scores.

So, Min-joon wanted to get hold of something invisible and something that they could not rate with cooking scores. In the past, he thought he was just busy cultivating his cooking skills only, but he didn’t think so now.

‘Maybe if I had it…’

That could pave the way for him to obtain cooking level 9.

Come to think of it, he began to feel thrilled. He now could see the path. Then, all he had to do was just keep walking that path. As far as walking steadfastly, Min-joon was more confident than anyone else.

“Are you nervous?”

I heard Chloe asking him from the side. Min-joon glanced at her and the lost men standing behind her. They were not her party. They were the participants of the Paris International Cooking Competition. And this was the place where the preliminary contest was being held.

“Yeah, I am nervous. It’s never easy to satisfy people with different tastes.”

“That’s what you said when you came to America. You are from Korea anyway.”

“Yeah, you’re right. Anyway, I don’t hate this kind of tension anyway. I think I’ve been too complacent these days, so I think I had better reaffirm my original intentions on this occasion.”

“Man, you’re tired all the time.”

Chloe felt he was really tired in his life, but at the same time, he looked great. Min-joon never stopped working. To put it precisely, it seemed that cooking was his most interesting break.

So, she respected, or had to respect him. For Chloe, the best chef in the world or her role model was Min-joon.

At that moment, people around her began to whisper among themselves, which Chloe found was very stimulating. Some of them talked loud enough for her to overhear.

“Look over there. I hear they are the Rose Island chefs, and they are from its main restaurant.”

“‘Then, that Asian guy over there must be that Min-joon. He made Cho Reggiano…”

“‘I’ve been interested in him since they said he had a perfect palate. I didn’t know I would see him here!”

“I heard he could be Rachel Rose’s successor.”

“No way! How could she take that young guy as her successor when June had been aiming for it until now.”

“But that guy made Cho Reggiano. We have to give him credit for creating such a great menu on his own. Did you hear the sales of Parmigiano Reggiano increased by 30% after they began to sell that dessert?”

Chloe smiled proudly, hearing them praising Min-joon, but Min-joon looked ahead.

He could see Dobby behind his back.

He muttered to himself, “Thank you, Dobby.”

Thanks to him, he could widen his horizon. To put it precisely, he had a strong motivation.

He could refresh his determination to challenge a new cooking method. Maybe it could be pretty risky for him to try it in the contest, but he thought he could not obtain treasure without taking the risk.

Right at that moment, the door opened, and a man, who looked like an emcee or a judge, came in. Min-joon could find out that he was a judge with cooking level 9 that any emcee could not surpass.

The man raised the microphone.

“Everyone, welcome to the 72nd Paris International Cooking Competition.”

The curtain has risen. Min-joon could feel instinctively at that moment that this competition would be his main stage, and that he would use it as an occasion to make his name known around the world.

‘I can also make use of this contest to grow my potential.’

He looked at the judge’s mouth, clenching his fists. As if she thought he was nervous, Kaya hesitated for a while and then grabbed his hand gently.

“Don’t be scared. We’ll win.”

“I haven’t gotten cold feet.”

“Don’t pretend to be relaxed. I know you are nervous now”

She smiled and patted him on the back with her fist. Touching his back, he looked at her mischievously. He wasn’t relaxed at all. This was only a qualifying round. He might not win in the final round, but he was confident he was qualified enough not to be dropped from the qualifying round.

“Let’s show the guys here what our LA cooking style is.”

“I don’t even know LA style yet.”

“Okay, then American style.”

Min-joon replied with a dejected voice. In the meantime, the judge was saying something at the top of his voice. He spoke in French first then in English. There was no interpreter. It was a little difficult for him to understand the judge because of his accent peculiar to the French, but he could understand in one way or another.

The judge said, “A lot of people came here today. Among you are the chefs who just started their careers or master chefs who handled the heat in the kitchen for decades. Anyway, you have come to this competition, so I think you have recognized the value of this competition. Let me introduce myself. My name is Bastien. I have a small restaurant.”

When he said that, some of them giggled because they knew that Bastien’s restaurant was one of the most famous restaurants in France that maintained three Michelin stars for decades.

faces of French madames who had been defending the Michelin Three stars for decades.

“The reason all of you are here is to compete in the qualifying round. Probably not one out of ten among you who are here won’t be able to come here again.”

That would be a big disgrace for those who really were not qualified. Min-joon looked around. There were at least one hundred participants here, simply too many for the kitchen tables in the place. Because of this, they were supposed to take part in the contest according to their assigned cooking schedule.

He felt somewhat bitter when he thought lots of them here would be disqualified at the end of the day. And at the same time, he felt strange. All of those people were serious chefs. But he was confident that he would be selected as one of the top ten finalists.

When had he grown as what he was today? Obviously, he was no more than a mere cook who could not proudly tell anybody he was a chef six years ago or even a year ago.

Now, Kaya, who he had been content with just looking at, was with him now.

She was here as his girlfriend as well as almost a family member, not as one of her acquaintances or friends. He always dreamed of cooking with her, which was not the everyday reality. He almost achieved all of what he wanted.

‘So, let me achieve my goal again.’

He had many goals. He wanted to make a change while working with Rachel. He wanted to make himself a perfect chef and help her complete her goal. He also wanted to make the kitchen she wanted. He wanted to make the shadow she missed come true in the real world.

To achieve that goal, winning this competition was a threshold he had to cross.

If he could not achieve a meaningful result in this competition, his goal would end up being an echo just like the unrealistic dream of an elementary school kid.

“First of all, let me say something about this contest and cooking. Right now, this is an international culinary competition, so they recommend chefs to take part in it. But I think you agree that this is a French competition held in Paris, France. So, you will feel the very strong French taste in the first mission. It is of course up to you how to recreate it in your own way. It can be very difficult, of course,” the judge said in a calm voice.

Then he paused for a moment and continued, “The first theme of cooking is bread. Whether you make the bread itself or a dish that comes with bread, you have to cook something related to the bread!”

“Oh my God! Why do they want to start with bread from the beginning? Anyway, these French guys are so insidious!” Kaya grumbled.

She was really annoyed because assigning the participants to the bread mission from the start was like giving an advantage to the French chefs or those who learned French cuisine.

Of course, this was understandable, given that the competition was held in France, but Kaya agonized over how to make a bread-related dish right now.

“So, what are you going to do? Fortunately, other guys say we don’t need to make the bread. You agree, right?”

“I think that’s good enough, given the condition of the bread. It’s not as good as the one in your shop, but this is okay.”

They were given one hour. It was almost impossible to bake bread in one hour. Even if they could, it would not taste better than the bread they were holding right now. Of course, the warm and fluffy taste peculiar to freshly made bread might taste better than that of the pre-made bread, but the opportunity cost was not right for making such bread now.

She said to Min-joon, “How about making bread butter pudding?”

“I know what you’re thinking about. How are you going to add some change to it?”

“Let me use the raisins basically, then I think jam would be okay.”

“Jam, it should match raisins and butter. How about apricots?”

“Good. Let’s think about a recipe for a minute?”

Min-joon and Kaya quickly sorted out the recipe. In the meantime, Min-joon tried not to forget the taste that Dobby brought out. Putting a lot of stuff would raise the quality of food on the assumption that all the ingredients were used properly.

However, if anybody could bring out such taste even without using many ingredients, he or she was the one with real ability. That was what Min-joon thought at the moment.

Was it because of that?

When the two were done organizing the recipe, they didn’t use many ingredients. Their cooking score was really good in that respect.

‘8 out of 10…’

Normally, he would have tried to improve the recipe because the score wasn’t 9. But he looked at the score for a long time. He thought not all dishes were worthwhile when their cooking score was 9. Likewise, not all the dishes that use lots of ingredients and involve a luxurious cooking process were necessarily worthwhile. He had personally experienced it again and again but forgotten it repeatedly.

The beauty of simple food.

He muttered that word in his mouth again.

Then he looked at Kaya and asked, “What do you think?”

“There’s nothing more we can do. I think we can bring out a fresh taste with this. It’s pretty similar to what you’re cooking these days.”

“What is that?”

“You don’t really like to cook something complicated these days. It’s been a few weeks since you started it. In the past, you liked to use lots of ingredients and several cooking methods, and you tried to spend a little more time trimming the ingredients. I don’t see that kind of obsession anymore these days. You know that, right?”

When Kaya pointed it out, Min-joon also seemed to have understood what she meant. In fact, the reason he was shocked after tasting Dobby’s dish was not because he didn’t know how to cook simply but because the way Dobby cooked was more detailed and delicate.

“Okay, let’s finish talking about the recipe here.”

Having said that, he smiled with a relaxed expression.

Kaya muttered, leaning her head on his shoulder, “I’m hungry.”

“Can they blame us for making some French toast with the ingredients here?”

“I think so. Shall we try?”

“No. Let’s put up with it. What if we are disqualified here? It would be so unfair. Wait a minute. I’ve got some protein bars.”

He rummaged through his bag. He took out a sausage and handed it to her.

Chewing it, she said, “Something to drink.”

“No. Drink tap water.”

She picked up a paper cup. She filled it with tap water and drank it at once.

He also took out a sausage and put it in his mouth. Others didn’t notice it, but they were the only couple now eating on the spot. They were so nervous as to forget they were hungry.

Some of them noticed Kaya and Min-joon eating something, but the two didn’t care.

With laughter escaping his mouth, judge Bastieng approached them.

“How are you?” he said.

Min-joon and Kaya couldn’t answer right away because they were chewing sausages.

Min-joon first swallowed the sausage and opened his mouth.

“Oh, how are you?”

“Other participants seemed to be pretty nervous because they had to come up with recipe ideas, but you guys look relaxed. Where are you from?”

“I’m from Rose Island’s main restaurant. It’s in Los Angeles.”

“Ah… Then you must be Min-joon.”

Min-joon was not surprised that somebody in a faraway place like this knew his name, for he was now an international celebrity in the cuisine world.

Bastieng opened his mouth with a smile, “So, are you done coming up with the recipe?”

“Yes, I’m going to make a simple bread pudding.”

“Bread pudding… Okay, I’m looking forward to it.”

Smiling at him, Min-joon began to chew the sausage again.

When the judge left, thinking that the two were weirder than he thought, Min-joon and Kaya were drinking mint tea to rinse their tongues. Havier was blushing at a distance as if he was more embarrassed, and Janet was almost done coming up with the recipe while making up her mind that she would not reveal her identity as a demi chef of Rose Island.

“Everyone, please bring your ingredients here now.”