God of Cooking

“Are you kidding me? We’re open tomorrow, but do you want to take them out from the menu now? Didn’t you say you want to include them because our customers want them?”

“I know. June taught me how to run a business with dishes. And I was going to follow what she did. But I realized that I could not be a better chef than June if I followed her, even if I could be a perfect chef and businessman. And I can’t be satisfied with being like her.”

Even if he wasn’t perfect now, he wanted to become a chef who could one day achieve his ideal goal.

Kaya sighed. She felt that after he talked with Anderson, he was thinking too much. Then he insisted on changing the menu one day before the opening of the restaurant.

The problem was that she couldn’t decide whether she should stop him or support him right now. If he had mentioned it one week ago, she would have nodded easily, rather than encouraging him to do whatever he wanted.

But tomorrow was the opening day. It was almost impossible to develop and include new dishes that could replace Six Meats and Cho Reggiano. She knew he was not stupid not to know this problem. She could not understand why he was so stubborn.

“Let me promise you. I’m going to bring the perfect recipe by tomorrow morning.”

“You’re sure you have to do this?”

“Well, I just feel compelled to open the restaurant to the effect that it befits our reputation,” he stressed. “I can’t end up looking like another typical chef.”

She sighed and stared at him with her arms crossed.

Then she let out a sigh again and warned, “Okay, by tomorrow.”

He said with a smile, “Okay.”

It was time for him to challenge the impossible.

Even though he said confidently he would come up with the new recipe by tomorrow morning, he knew it was not as easy as he thought. Regardless of whether he could challenge it, developing a recipe overnight was actually a reckless and impossible challenge. How could he come up with the recipe to replace Six Meats and Cho Reggiano overnight?

As for Cho Reggiano and Six Meats, they were the most terrific and perfect recipes that Min-joon and Kaya could think of in their lives. How could he replace them with some other menu overnight? It was already an impossible task from the start.

‘Why?’ Min-joon asked himself.

There were too many restrictions. First of all, he checked all the ingredients in the kitchen. Of course, he had some other ingredients than those for the recipes already on the menu, but he didn’t have enough ingredients to make other recipes than those on the menu. In other words, he had to use the existing ingredients saved for Cho Reggiano and Six Meats to make other dishes he had in mind.

If he could come up with the recipe within an hour, it would be a different story. In that case, he could contact the food facility that was supposed to supply ingredients for Lotus Bridge. When he thought of that, he checked out all the recipes he had in mind. Rather than coming up with something new, he was more likely to succeed if he combined the stuff he had originally made.

He got one hour. It was a very short time, but it was actually not for him when he thought about it differently. As a participant in the Grand Chef, he made dishes that surpassed his cooking level several times in just 30 minutes. If he could bring out the same cooking skills, he felt he could make it.

One hour passed already while he was lost in thought. But he made little progress.

***

That day, it rained in Los Angeles.

It was raining so hard that one could hear a popping sound whenever raindrops touched one’s body. Considering it rained little in Los Angeles, this kind of rain could be called a heavy downfall, but people on the street were walking around barefoot or wearing a hood as if nothing happened.

It was not because they didn’t care about the rain. Perhaps more than half of them might not have an umbrella at home because they thought it was just meaningless to buy an umbrella because of the occasional rain a few times a year.

Rachel looked out the window for a while, then quietly opened her mouth.

“Gosh, I thought you came here alone, but you came with the rain in New York.”

“Well, I do have a lot of fans.”

“You must be here to attend the opening of Lotus Bridge, right?”

“Right. How can I stay put when my student is opening a restaurant for the first time?”

“What do you mean? My student is Min-joon. Who is your student? Kaya? I don’t think the two of you cooked together.”

“Don’t be mean. Just like you taught him a lot, I did, too,” June said in a sullen voice.

Rachel glanced at her, then let out a sigh.

“You’re still upset with me.”

“Well, I don’t want to pretend that I’m not.”

“I couldn’t give you special treatment. As much as you support your dream, I also have to support other guys’ dreams. That’s my duty as a teacher. Don’t you think so?”

“Well, I’ve never expected anything like ‘a teacher’s duty’ from you. I’ve just asked for your favoritism. Of course, even if you were swayed by your favoritism, you might not favor me anyway.”

June knew she was ranting like a child now, but whenever she met Rachel, she found herself speaking to her in a sullen voice like that. As a matter of fact, Rachel liked her, but she had never liked her the best among her students. She knew Rachel favored somebody else all the time.

What was the reason? Was she lacking so much? June thought she had been working so hard, but why did Rachel still feel she was lacking in something?

She began to feel a sense of inferiority. She took a deep breath quietly. She had lots of thoughts in her mind now.

Rachel didn’t answer. She wondered if it was meaningful for her to refute June’s words or make excuses. She just wanted to let June believe what she wanted to believe and see what he wanted to see. Rachel’s words didn’t really mean anything to her anymore as long as she said something June wanted to hear.

But Rachel didn’t lie.

“I’m sorry.”

So she just apologized like that, as always. Rachel did nothing wrong.

She did what she had to do. But as a result, June was hurt. It was funny. Each of them did her best, but one of them was hurt.

Rachel wanted to ask June what kind of dream she was dreaming these days.

She wanted to ask June if her justice completely destroyed her world, and as a result, if she was dying instead of living. She wanted to ask June what she wanted to do for her. But that was not something she as a teacher could ask, for the teacher was supposed to answer the student’s question.

“When did we get off on the wrong foot?” June thought to herself.

She still liked Rachel. To her chagrin, that was true. The fact that she sought Rachel as soon as she came to Los Angeles suggested that she still liked and respected Rachel.

“A ship must have a captain.”

“Now you are the captain of Rose Island.”

“Who would call someone who is under a four-year contract a captain? I can sail for up to four years, so I can’t plan anything beyond that contract period.”

“You can compete every four years, then get another four-year contract.”

“Yeah, begging for another four years every four years. Look, don’t you think I’m competent enough? So please recognize me fully!” June shouted sarcastically, then smiled at her.

She murmured in a self-mocking voice, “Is there any other captain in the world more miserable than me?”

Raindrops pattered against the window. It sounded big as if a castle was collapsing. It looked as if each stone that made up the fortress wall was rolling down with a roaring sound.

“If you win the competition, that’s it. Don’t you like it?”

“At first, I thought so. Yeah, all I have to do is win the competition. But if I have to compete with others to claim that position, it’s not my position, after all. No matter what I do, I should be able to get back to my original position. That’s my position. And that’s all I want. It’s not a temporary position, but a permanent position that I can stay with all the time.”

“You want to be the king, not the president, right?”

“Why can’t you allow me to be the king?”

“The moment that I make you the king, you are ruling over everybody instead of representing them,” Rachel said in a wary voice.

“You can satisfy your greed, after all, after crushing all the others’ dreams.”

This time, June couldn’t even rebuke her because what she was saying was true. She was too greedy. Everybody should enjoy the same rights equally. She thought it might not be fair to claim others’ rights just because she was better. As Rachel said, she might be too greedy.

But June continued, “I want to have it even if I crush others’ dreams. That’s my dream and greed. No matter how much you point your finger at me, my greed will never go away.”