God of Cooking

The competition to determine the new head of Rose Island was over. And the winner was decided, namely, June. She would serve as the head of Rose Island for the next four years.

This was a historic moment, but none of those holding the cameras could not focus on the final outcome of the competition. They instinctively felt that Rachel’s conversation with June was far more important to affect the future of Rose Island than the change of the current head of Rose Island. Their conversation as well as each of the words they described captured their lives and expressed their thoughts. There was something magnificent in their conversation that ordinary chefs could not even think of.

“Yujin Nah?”

One of the cameramen called her name cautiously. Startled by his call, she, who was looking at the podium, looked back at her cameraman.

He said with a smile as if he understood her feelings.

“Why don’t you go and interview the winner?”

“Oh, yeah, I will.”

As if possessed by something, she frantically nodded. Rachel’s conversation with June was already over. But what they argued over fiercely left a strong impression on her.

Of course, a chef and a reporter were different. It was much easier to find differences between them than something in common. But they were the same as human beings. For example, they want to grow further and achieve the top position of their company or organization. She could understand their feelings such as desire, greed, and ambition.

So, when she watched Rachel arguing with June, she supported June, not Rachel. People often regard greedy people as immature, but Yujin considered them immature. One’s greed could become ugly when one was greedy for other people’s things. She hated those who recklessly babbled on others’ lives, disparaging their way of lifestyle.

“You’re interviewing Min-joon first, right?”

“Yeah.”

“I’m sorry to hear that. But I really want to interview Chef June.”

It was virtually impossible for her to interview everyone here unless she made an appointment with them in advance. Besides, dozens of reporters already approached them. So her supervisor at the newspaper asked her to interview only one person, and Min-joon at that, although it was important to interview others.

It was quite unusual that when other reporters were busy interviewing June, the winner of this competition, she was ordered to interview Min-joon, but the thing was that she was a Korean reporter. Koreans had no interest in who would be the winner of the Rose Island competition. Even she was not much interested in it.

‘That’s funny.’

What June coveted so much as to argue with Rachel was just worthless to many people watching this competition. Of course, if anybody was given the position of the head of Rose Island, he or she would not turn it down. Even so, Yujin could not feel so empty about the head position of Rose Island. That was why she understood Rachel to some extent when she said the position of the head of Rose Island was not just “honor” or “glory” only.

There was nothing like a closing ceremony. Rachel mentioned a few more things as a mere formality, then she and Min-joon came down from the podium. At that moment, reporters began to gather around Rachel, June, and Min-joon. Those who could not get close to them reluctantly tried to interview other head chefs who participated in the competition.

There were quite a few reporters around Min-joon than Yujin expected. At that moment, she was startled, but she elbowed her way into him. Although she didn’t have many years of experience under her belt, she was pretty good at pushing others in front of her. It was not difficult for her to push her way into them.

Min-joon was showered with lots of questions. Some of the questions were excellent, but some were really childish. Reviewing her questions for a moment, she made a gloomy expression.

‘Are you planning to go back to Korea someday?’

‘How does it feel to have established yourself in America as a Korean chef? Do you see the potential for the globalization of Korean food?’

‘There are rumors that Rose Island will open a branch in Korea. What do you think?’

Compared with ridiculous questions like ‘Do you prefer Kimchi or bulgogi?’ her questions befitted her status as a correspondent, but she still felt her questions were irrelevant to the competition. Given that the competition was just over, how could she ask him personal questions, rather than the competition? Such questions showed how indifferent Koreans were to this competition even when Min-joon was a Korean chef.

So she felt she needed to ask more decent questions. She just felt ashamed about the questions she had prepared in advance. So, she raised her arm holding a microphone high, as if she was holding a bottle of wine at the club, and moved closer to Min-joon.

And she touched him accidentally.

“Are you Korean?” Min-joon asked.

She was now right in front of Cho Min-joon’s eyes. Startled by his question, she looked aside quickly and answered, “Yes, I’m Yujin Nah, a reporter with JBC.”

Having said that, she suddenly stopped. Dozens of questions came to her mind at that moment. So, she chose one of them. More precisely, she just asked one question before she knew it.

“Don’t you want to be the master of this competition?”

She asked it almost instinctively. In fact, other reporters also wanted to ask it but couldn’t because such a question could break the atmosphere of this competition. The winner was already announced. Who would be the hero of today’s competition other than the winner? So, it would be definitely ridiculous to ask such a question, but she did.

Yujin bit her lips. She made a mistake. She didn’t know how he would answer, but her question was too general and ambiguous. How could he answer such a vague question?

Nonetheless, he replied to her question.

It would be June who was probably the most shocked by her question, but Min-joon was as much shocked, too. He was appointed a standing judge who would evaluate this competition every four years. When Rachel retired, he would probably be the sole judge of this competition.

“How can she trust me so much?”

Min-joon sighed deep down. Honestly, he felt burdened. He wasn’t sure of running a restaurant for now, for a good chef could necessarily lead the kitchen staff well. Running a restaurant was not just about cooking.

He once asked Rachel if she knew how dangerous it was to let him be a judge of this competition. He even told her that if he really wanted to, he could join hands with one of the head chefs to take over Rose Island.

Watching him, though, she smiled as if he was cute and said she was not worried about such things.

Rachel’s words were quite meaningful to him. He was not sure if she just believed he would not do so, or if she already took the measures to prevent such things systematically.

But he didn’t have to think about it now. Standing in front of the bar named Rooster and Bull on Lincoln Street, he pondered over that matter for a moment. It seemed like it would be more difficult for him to say what he wanted to say to the person he was supposed to meet here than actually solving the problem.

“Whew.”

He let out a sigh for a moment, then took a deep breath. He opened the door and went inside.

Beyond the people playing darts, he could see June sitting blankly in front of the bar table.

He said in a sullen voice, “What are you doing here? You look miserable!”

“That’s why I called you.”

“I thought you were here with Chef Dave.”

“Well, that idiot would get cold feet and try to check my mood.”

“I’m checking your mood right now.”

“But I know you can speak out if you want,” she said, taking a sip of brandy.

He ordered a glass of beer and sat down next to her. He had never imagined that the day would come when she looked so small like this.

She cut a sorry figure on her most glorious day, or more precisely, on the very day when she won the victory of this competition.

“Do you also think I’m dreaming a wrong dream?”

“If I had thought that way, I wouldn’t have said I respected you.”

“Then is it Chef Rachel’s fault?”

He could not answer that question easily. He knew the answer, of course. It was not Rachel’s fault. Rachel did her best. To be honest, he also thought that Rachel’s new system of choosing the new head of Rose Island was the best option for Rachel as well as Rose Island. But it was not the best one for June.

“Should I fight over this new system?”

“Well, you said that we didn’t have to take the trouble of fighting when you want something badly.”

“I did. But I don’t know. Rachel is so stubborn. Can I break her stubbornness?”

Breaking Rachel’s stubbornness? He got goosebumps for a moment at her words. At the moment when her ambition collapsed, she was thinking of rebuilding it all again. By persuading Rachel out of the new system, she was trying to rekindle her dream.

Could she do it?