God of Cooking

“So, these are all discarded recipes you mentioned?”

“Yeah, that’s true.”

“But you didn’t throw away all of them, right?”

When Min-joon asked, Nathan scratched his head with an embarrassed expression.

It was rather ambiguous of him to say that he gave up all the discarded recipes. In fact, he used them as the basic recipes on which he changed the ingredients, concepts, and cooking methods little by little, so that he could make sure his dishes could not lose favor with gourmets with their original taste intact as much as possible.

“This is what I ate before. Putting brioche and pineapple sorbet on the crepe, added with pineapple cotton candy and pineapple sorbet, right? But your original recipe was a caramelized pineapple at the bottom, wasn’t it?

“Yeah, that’s right. I changed it.”

“Why?”

“Well, that’s the trend these days. They tend to think that if the chef serves dishes that are difficult to eat with a fork and knife, the chef doesn’t care much about customers. If you don’t cut the pineapple thinly, it won’t be folded, but if you cut it thinner, it’s easy to break its original shape.

I just felt something unstable if customers tried it on a fork without folding it. I thought customers would react badly to such a recipe. That’s why I took it out.”

“Do you think you made a good choice?”

“Yeah, I think it was a clever choice.”

“Clever choice…”

At that moment, Min-joon tapped the desk with his finger gently.

Watching him quietly, Nathan’s kitchen staff swallowed, holding their breath.

“It’s almost the first time I have seen somebody pressuring Chef Natan like that since Rachel.”

“Well, when he came here last time, we didn’t notice him because of Rachel, but looking at the way he is dealing with Chef Nathan, Min-joon has also a really nasty temper.”

Now, Nathan was faithfully listening to him like a gentle sheep, but as far as they knew him, Nathan was far from such a personality. Of course, it didn’t mean that Nathan was a bad guy, but he was the type of chef who was only satisfied when he carried out something by all means that he decided to do.

Nonetheless, Nathan was accepting Min-joon’s advice and feedback without any complaint. He could have asked Min-joon questions or balked at his idea, but he was surprisingly obedient to Min-joon like a gentle sheep. So much so that Nathan’s kitchen staff even took his obedient attitude as very weird, something they had never seen before.

“What’s the reason? Min-joon isn’t that strict or harsh enough for Chef Nathan not to refute his idea, right?”

“Yeah, that’s right. Perhaps because what Min-joon is saying to him is right…”

“I guess so.”

Certainly, their reaction was understandable. Actually, what Min-joon said was right because he pinpointed the biggest weakness of Nathan’s dishes. This was something that could not be explained by the power of the system alone. And that also meant that Min-joon became a chef with a great cooking level even without relying on the power of the system.

Min-joon checked out each and every fear that Nathan had. And every time he took his breath, Nathan had to admit that he was very scared about trying something new, something that the public, gourmets, or other chefs would not admit. Of course, he didn’t fail in all his attempts, but when Min-joon pointed out the problems of his failed recipes now, he realized Min-joon’s comments were so beautiful, so artistic, challenging, and revolutionary. In the past, he gave up all such revolutionary attempts and challenges in his dishes. He didn’t look back.

“Why did you do that?”

He could fully understand the resentment in Min-joon’s voice when he asked that question because he also resented his indecisiveness and timidness in the past. But maybe, over time, he would be doing the same thing again. He would be scared, and he wouldn’t believe in himself over time.

“How did you feel when you worked for June?”

“I don’t know what you’re asking.”

“Was June also scared about you?”

Nathan knew how stupid his question was, so he felt so ashamed to find himself curious about it that he blushed. Only then did he find he had an inferiority complex toward June. He found out that he already lost to her even before he competed against her.

“Yeah, she is.”

“Are you sure?”

“But she is getting over it,” he said calmly. “Everyone is scared. They are wondering if it’s okay to make this or that dish, or what if the customers react unfavorably. You can never change if you stop there. June was more afraid of changing nothing. And she’s different from you on that point.”

“How about you?”

“I’m not afraid,” Min-joon said, glancing at his system window. “Because I have confidence in success.”

<hr />

“Alright. So, did you deal with Nathan well?”

“Well, I don’t want to describe it like that, but it seems like he has felt a lot of things about his dishes.”

“I guess so. I can feel it, too, because he called me to express his gratitude for sending you to him.”

“Did he make such a call?”

“Yes, he did,” June replied with a smile.

Min-joon looked at her with a strange expression. She looked softer than before. He thought it was not necessarily because of Nathan’s call.

“Anything good that happened to you?” he asked.

“Why? Do you think something good has happened to me?”

“You don’t think you can hide such a happy expression on your face, right?”

“Don’t be too curious about it. I won’t tell you anyway.”

“Well, I’m not really curious,” he replied with a little bit of a sullen voice.

She giggled at him, then said, “I just have one reason. I have a reason to win or I have a reason to feel okay even if I lost.”

“What’s that reason?”

“You’ve just said you’re not curious about it.”

“Well, you should not have told me as if you would like to reveal it all.”

“I just thought I would not have to live only as a chef. That’s all.”

Having said that, she smiled in a significant way. Obviously, she enjoyed watching him getting more and more curious about it.

So, he deliberately changed the topic.

“I think you will have to live your life as a chef only. You have been busy all the time, and now you have to prepare for the competition.”

“Well, someone has told me that the best preparation is to show what you have been doing until now.”

“So, you’re not going to prepare anything special?”

“I don’t mean it,” she said dryly.

“I’ve never been in the competition without preparation because I have been preparing all my life. If I can’t win the game, what am I going to live for during the rest of my life?”

People might think that she was enjoying her life as it was now, but she didn’t think like that. She didn’t want to make a reason to get weak because she needed to be stronger than anyone else like the Rose Island chefs or the richest people in the world.

“In that respect, you have a big role.”

“Me?”

“Because you will have to make me not sway. You have to make sure I would not lose my courage and ambition.”

“Don’t beat around the bush. Just cut to the chase. What do you want from me?”

He looked at her with a little bit of an anxious look.

June said with a mysterious smile, “How is Nathan doing right now?”

“Well, he’s trying hard to change because of how shocked he was, but that’s not enough.”

“That shock is important because he can feel stimulated to improve and at the same time know his place. He won’t have to feel a strong sense of rivalry with me. So, I expect it will be smoother for me to take over Rose Island. I really hope everybody can realize their reality like Nathan, so they can’t overstep with a lame courage.”

At that moment, he looked at her as if he knew what she was trying to say.

“So, you want to send me there to discourage Nathan’s ambition, right?”

“Well, it won’t take long if you can handle him quickly.”

“Should I go when he doesn’t want me?”

“Well, he will. Those who have watched Nathan cooking want to know their own position.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yep, I’m positive,” she said firmly. “Show them who is really talented and who is cooking dishes properly. Show them June is not a woman who is not foolish enough to engage people without any reason. Just show them as much as you know about me.”

“…”

“You’re a judge. You’re in a position to evaluate all of our chefs. You know what that means?”

“I don’t know.”

“You may know it, but practically, you are unconsciously standing on top of us. Even I have no choice but to look up at you.”

She laughed bitterly.

“Chef Rachel is so insensitive. I’ve been following her all my life. How come she entrusts such an important task with a young and cute chef like you? Oh my… does she also like a young and good-looking chef?”

“Pardon?”

“Oh, I just talked to myself. Anyway, you’ve become a judge of all the chefs competing for the position of Rachel’s successor. And what it means, what it symbolizes will not change in the future. You’re now above anyone else in Rose Island. So, you have to show people with your perfect palate and dishes who you are,” she said, twisting her lips after interlocking her fingers.

“Just show them who this young judge of Rose Island is.”