God of Cooking

Laura stepped to Kaya, letting out a sigh. She understood that Kaya was angry. In fact, Kaya struggled to deal with Brian every time he tried to hit on her. Nonetheless, Laura thought Kaya could not drive him into a corner too much because he was really distraught because of his humiliating defeat.

“I think he must have clearly gotten your message,” Laura said.

Kaya silently stared at Brian then slowly turned her head. Fortunately, it was Min-joon who first blew his top and taught him to behave himself. If he had not, she would have screwed him over in one way or another. She could put up with him flirting with her as long as he didn’t bother her, but she could not tolerate his behavior before her boyfriend.

“Kaya.”

Emily called her name. Kaya made eye contact with Emily and then moved to her.

Emily asked with a smile, “I think you feel good today because your gentle boyfriend kicked his ass.”

“Well, he was not gentle all the time. I think he is more manly than Alan.”

“Hey, why are you mentioning Alan out of the blue?”

Emily’s face turned gloomy all of a sudden.

Min-joon said in a regretful tone, “It’s a pity that Alan is not here. It looks like he is so busy with restaurant business.”

Alan was not the type of chef who wouldn’t want to appear on a TV cuisine show because he was busy with restaurant business. Besides, he wasn’t hostile to the idea of appearing on TV.

The fact that he declined to go on TV meant that he had a lot of work to do at the restaurant.

Instead of answering Min-joon’s question, Emily avoided his gaze, shrugging. It seemed she had a lot of things to tell, but she remained silent. If she didn’t want to say anything further, he didn’t have to ask more.

Joseph asked, looking at Min-joon, “By the way, what kind of dish did you make? I’m really curious about it.”

“Well, it’s not a special recipe. Sea bream steak served with a puree made of vegetables and sea bream broth.”

“It’s a simple recipe. And you won with that recipe. That’s even more surprising!”

Having said so, Joseph gave a meaningful smile. He was a chef who went through ups and downs throughout his long chef career. He was a veteran chef. So, he could discern well why Min-joon offered such a simple recipe and why he won with that simple recipe.

‘As they say, you can never tell what will happen tomorrow.’

When he first saw Min-joon at the Grand Chef, Joseph was the only one among the judges who said Min-joon was promising. Back then, however, what he felt about Min-joon was different from now. At that time, he appreciated Min-joon’s ability to bring out the combination of ingredients. He thought that even if Min-joon’s cooking skills were lacking, he understood the ingredients and how to use them well.

In fact, the reason Joseph thought Min-joon was promising was his brain. And his perception didn’t change throughout the contest. Sometimes, Min-joon made dishes with more amazing skills than he thought, but it was common for any chef to go through ups and downs in his or her cooking career.

‘I thought I would be a great chef who could stand out with fresh recipe ideas, but he has already begun to show skillfulness in cooking...’

Compared with Min-joon, Brian was behind him in fame and skills, but it didn’t mean Brian was a terrible chef. If he had been a terrible cook, he wouldn’t have won the Grand Chef Season 1.

Nonetheless, Min-joon beat Brian with such a simple dish, which meant that Mn-joon’s experience could create something sophisticated in a simple dish.

Joseph said in a calm voice, “To be honest, you’ve got a talent that exceeds my expectations. You showed it when you revealed you had a perfect palate, for example. You also showed it in every cooking mission.”

“But I couldn’t in the semi-final match.”

“Haha, if you’d like to blame the judges at that time, I’m ready to listen. I don’t believe that the evaluations of me and the other judges were perfect. We are human too,” Joseph said with a smile as if Joseph’s joking pricked his conscience. Min-joon said nothing for a moment. In fact, the moment he failed to win the Grand Chef often came to his mind. Since he didn’t win, he could stay with Rachel and get more from her, but he often regretted losing in the competition.

“Well, I don’t want to have any regrets about that. I lost in the competition. Whatever the reason, I couldn’t win the judges’ hearts. That’s a thing of the past, and I don’t have to make any excuses for that. I understand.”

“You’re more mature now, Min-joon.”

“You don’t have to cheer me up.”

“Oh, I’m not saying this to cheer you up. I’ve got lots of expectations for you. I want to know what kind of restaurant you want to open, what kind of dishes you will serve, and what kind of customers you will receive.”

“Let me get around to it slowly because you have a lot of time to think about it.”

“Well...” Joseph blurred before being lost in thought. It seemed like he had something to say, but in the end, he groaned with a smile.

Looking askance at him, Emily opened her mouth.

“Min-joon, can’t you make some dishes for us? It’s been a while since we met.”

Min-joon shrugged.

“As long as you pay me for it!”

***

The boughs that bear most hang lowest. To interpret it another way, the less mature one was, the stronger one’s pride was. This was nothing strange. If people didn’t recognize a person, that person had to increase his or her worth by himself or herself to be able to keep his or her self-esteem.

In that sense, the participants of the Grand Chef often had worthless pride because of their mediocre positions and skills. As ordinary citizens, not chefs, they had excellent cooking skills, but that was the problem because there were lots of people around them who praised their great cooking. Although they could be blamed for cooking in the kitchen, they deserved due praise back home.

That was why it was so rare what was happening to Min-joon at the moment.

“Chef Min-joon, I’m done chopping onions!”

“Shall I prepare extra virgin olive oil?

“There is dry-aged sauce and wet-aged sauce. Which one should I bring?”

Lots of participants approached Min-joon and spoke to him, so he found it rather hard to answer them one by one. All of them were volunteering to assist him. He wasn’t the head chef of a renowned restaurant, but he was just a demi-chef who worked at the restaurant only for a year. Nonetheless, the participants were too polite to him.

“It seemed the sea bream dish you showed Brian was very impressive.”

Takeshi watched them with interest. Amateur cooks often didn’t swallow their pride even before professional chefs because they were not in the same league. If the pros used their careers to give instructions or admonitions to them, the amateurs, who were on the borderline between ordinary cooks and professional chefs, drew the line clearly and protested, saying that they didn’t deserve to receive such a treatment.

But these amateurs swallowed their pride first before Min-joon. Or, they didn’t even seem to have swallowed their pride because it was clear that they felt very proud to be able to help him in one way or another. Not only Brian but also Laura and Kaya were looking very envious, watching them volunteer for him actively.

Brian, Laura, and Kaya were the winners of the Grand Chef. Naturally, the participants had a relatively favorable attitude when they first saw these winners. But when they were asked if they respected these winners, their answer was rather ambiguous.

It didn’t mean that they didn’t respect the Grand Chef winners. Without respect for them, the participants wouldn’t have welcomed them from the beginning. But when they were trying to coach, the participants were reluctant because they felt they were a little different from the winners.

Rather, they had less respect for the winners because they thought they were in the same league. There weren’t many contestants who weren’t confident of winning in the competition. Watching Kaya and Brian, some of them thought the two were their role models.

So, when they created a harsh atmosphere, there were many participants who openly complained. That was why the current situation was more embarrassing now. For example, that woman who complained to Kaya who pointed out her cooking was now busy helping Min-joon actively as if she was his assistant.

“Did they look down on me because they didn’t try my fish dish?”

Kaya narrowed her eyes and looked at them sharply.

Takeshi said in a quiet voice, “Charisma is one of a chef’s great qualifications.”

As if he was upset, Brian bit his lips at Takeshi’s remark. He could not understand what made Min-joon so distinguished from others including himself. He worked hard and diligently as a chef until now. He did the best he could. Even after winning the Grand Chef, he was so busy working at the restaurant.

‘But what the hell is this difference between him and me?’

He always knew the world could be so unfair, but the reality was far crueler than he thought. The moment when his face was about to turn depressed with despair, he heard Kaya opening her mouth.

“That’s why I like him. Min-joon always reminds me that I have a long way to go as far as my cooking career is concerned.”

Brian turned to her with a blank expression as if he was hit by her remark. He wasn’t hurt just because she defended Min-joon but because her attitude was so different now. He could not help but get more impatient when she had someone who got ahead of him, who happened to be her boyfriend. But the difference between the two was that Kaya chose to endure and get along with Min-joon while he was overwhelmed by his own impatience.

‘I lost again...’