God of Cooking

Weirdo (4)>

Her words felt oh so sweet to him. The happiness of customers was important, sure, but nothing made him happier than Rachel’s praise.

Minjoon turned to look somewhere else for a second. He could see Lisa make the cassoulet at the oven. He felt sorry for giving her so much more work, but the oven was her area to begin with. He didn’t want to intervene in her area of expertise. Minjoon looked down at his gel. He was supposed to wrap vanilla cream and crushed peanuts inside it to make dumplings. He grabbed one of the dumplings and popped it into his mouth.

‘Tastes good.’

No matter how tired he was, eating something tasty made him feel way more energetic. Minjoon turned to look at the hall. He could see a couple of people eating his cassoulet sandwich. Watching their confused faces turn into a happy one made Minjoon smile along with them.

Annie smiled as she watched Minjoon.

“You’re a total weirdo, Minjoon,” she said.

“That’s a compliment, right?”

“Of course. Geniuses are all weirdos. Like Einstein and Beethoven.”

“It’s embarrassing being compared to people like them, please stop.”

“It’s very charming, you know that?”

“You know I have a girlfriend, right?”

“Eh, you’re not even married.”

Annie smiled when she saw Minjoon’s confused face.

“Don’t worry. I’m not gunning for you or anything.”

She walked away back into the hall. Minjoon looked at her a little bit nervously before turning back to his station. There was no reason for him to get occupied by random thoughts like this. Especially not when he was losing so much focus to begin with. Maybe that was why he got scolded by Rachel later in the day.

“Minjoon, come here.”

“Yes?

“What do you think about this here?”

Rachel was pointing at the soy sauce jelly on top of foie gras. Minjoon peered into the jelly before letting out a small moan. The jelly had little bits all over it.

“I’m sorry. I’ll make a new one right away.”

“What happened to you? Usually you’re really good with catching this kind of stuff.”

“I think I just lost focus. I’m sorry.”

Minjoon lowered his head heavily. Rachel looked at him with strange eyes before patting his shoulder.

“We have a lot of orders. Go back. I trust you won’t make this mistake again.”

“Yes, of course.”

Minjoon stopped himself from bowing like usual and turned away biting his tongue. He could see the jelly on top of the stainless steel plate. It was beautiful enough to make him feel excited, but it also somehow made him sleepy.

He was tired. Maybe that state of his reflected almost too clearly on his face? Rachel looked very uncomfortable looking at him. There didn’t need to be another person collapsing in the kitchen from overwork. Deborah peeked her head out from the office to comment a little.

“Hey teach, that guy might actually fall over at this rate. Shouldn’t you give him a vacation or something?”

Rachel didn’t respond. Not because she was ignoring Deborah, but because she was thinking of so many things at the moment.

Deborah turned to look at Minjoon. The man had clearly lost weight from stress. It was a tiny bit better than him gaining weight from stress eating, but… It felt bad to look at nonetheless.

Rachel probably felt even worse than her. After all, the head chef had to send her own husband back into the kitchen. There were many articles of praise about Daniel spending his last moments in the kitchen, but… it left Rachel all by her lonesome.

‘Try not to hurt Rachel so much, Minjoon.’

Deborah turned to look at the hall. She noticed that every single table in the hall were colored with happiness. Looking at it just made her sigh in disappointment.

‘…I guess I’m not in a position to worry about others.’

€

Annie immediately noticed that the napkin on Jaina’s lap had fallen down on the ground. She was only in her twenties, but she wasn’t amateur enough to miss something like that. Especially not as the most talented server in the crew.

She took away the napkin and brought Jaina a new one on a plate.

“Your napkin, miss.”

“Ah, thank you.”

Jaina smiled back politely, which sparked a thought. Was she getting graded based on her service?

Annie did recall hearing something about the Michelin inspectors. Some stuff about how they graded service and whatnot. She didn’t know if it was a mere rumor, but perhaps these two were…

‘I guess I’ll let Rachel know for now.’

Not that Rachel would really care. The head chef wasn’t the type that gave tasters special treatment or anything. She treated every customer equally, with the best service and food that she could offer. That was Rachel’s motto.

“So this was made by the demi chef as well…?” Jaina asked just then.

“Yes, this was made by chef Javier. Would you like an explanation again?”

The two of them had finished the dish already, but originally there was an arancini on their plate. A fried ball of risotto, that is. It was decorated with a sauce made with asparagus and ricotta. It was creamy, cold, and almost like yogurt in texture.

“This was a very modernistic dish. Felt very… young? On the tongue.”

“Isn’t it surprising? Chef Rachel’s dishes are rooted in the past. At least, her past glory is. Despite that, she’s still bold enough to put modern dishes on the menu.”

“But these were made by her disciples.”

“That’s the amazing thing. Didn’t you often complain about dishes that weren’t made by the head chef in other restaurants?”

“Because they were bad. Almost incredibly so compared to the head chef’s dishes.”

“What about here, then?”

Rachel let out an exclamation of surprise. She realized what Paul was trying to get at.

“Right, the dishes here don’t drop in quality or anything. Is this because of chef Rachel? Or her disciples’ talent?”

“There are plenty of people who want to work at Rose Island. Finding talents out of these people isn’t that difficult. But that isn’t the problem. Do you think anyone with talent can make dishes like this? No, that’s a bad question. Do you think the dishes made by demi chefs in other restaurants were bad because they weren’t talented?”

“…That’s a hard question. I don’t grade chefs, I can only grade dishes.”

“This is what makes chef Rachel unique. She’s not necessarily the most talented when it comes to cooking. But in terms of leading the kitchen… Teaching them, and helping the chefs… She’s definitely the best in the world.”

He sounded almost certain of it. Jaina asked a question with a curious look.

“Do you happen to know chef Rachel?”

Paul closed his mouth. Not because he was fixated on the new dish in front of him. He just refused to answer the question, it looked like.

The next dish was something that was based on Rachel’s recipe. Oysters wrapped in lobster jelly with cauliflower cream, and a cannelloni made with smoked oysters. Cream of oyster soup topped with lemon extract, and a mini oyster waffle topped with various herbs. Paul looked at the dish with a nostalgic look after the server left them to eat.

“Daniel loved dishes like these. Dishes that expressed many aspects of one ingredient. Kind of like Minjoon’s Jo Reggiano. Rachel probably felt the same way as me as she reviewed the dish. It was almost exactly like something Daniel would come up with.”

It also served as an answer to Jaina’s previous question. She answered with a lowered voice.

“Sounds too weird to be a coincidence.”

“It’s almost as if it was fate, isn’t it?”

Paul raised his spoon with a smile. He dipped into the soup first. It was a cream soup, but it wasn’t too creamy or fatty at all. As a matter of fact, the fruit flavors came forward even more prominently than the flavor of the cream. The oyster tasted almost like a seafoody mushroom rather than something fishy as well.

“…Gosh, I want to cry. I’ve missed this quite a bit.”

He almost looked like he was eating his mother’s food after a decade. It was almost jarring. But Jaina couldn’t disagree with Paul’s statement.

“But we can’t come here for three years now.”

“It’s fine. It’s fine to let others come here. You seem to be regretting your decision already.”

“I’m going to eat with as much focus as possible. I don’t want to forget this flavor.”

Jaina said as she took a spoonful of soup herself. She closed her eyes. She was almost swept away by the flavor of the dish.

‘It’s like the other dishes, but… As expected of chef Rachel, it tastes more aged and whatnot.’

She savored each and every bite of it. Every dish was art, and she truly felt like she was at the height of her life eating.

They were pretty slow at eating because of that. Tasters had a reputation for eating slowly, but they stayed long enough to be the last customers in the entire hall.

“Here’s your Jo Reggiano. Chef Minjoon used five different cheeses to…”

After Annie finished her explanation, the two of them raised their forks with an expectant look. Their stomachs were close to exploding at this point. It was hard to finish all the food restaurants usually gave them. Even when the dishes weren’t their to fill them up, but to help them experience new flavors.

“…What’s this?”

In that sense, Jaina looked incredibly confused. Each bite of the dish made her look more and more confused.

“So you felt it,” Paul smiled.

“There’s no way. This tastes completely different compared to what I had at other restaurants. Did Minjoon hide something in his recipe?”

“Yes.”

“Really?”

“He knows exactly what the dish is supposed to taste like. He can’t describe that in just words.”

“But… that alone is enough to make it this different?”

It wasn’t just a ‘little bit better’. Minjoon’s Jo Reggiano was far more tasty than any other version she’s tried so far. Almost good enough for her to doubt if all the other versions she’s had were fakes. Paul continued in a calm voice.

“It’s just like bread. It can taste completely different just based on who bakes it.”

“…This is so sad. I can’t eat this for three years?”

Jaina looked almost depressed as she left the hall. Right as they stepped out of the door, though, a familiar voice stopped them from the back.

“It’s been a while. Did you enjoy the meal?”

“…Rachel.”

“You should’ve told me you were here. You can’t just leave like that.”

“Jaina, please wait for me in the car.”

“Ah, yes.”

Jaina stepped in the car with a perplexed look. This didn’t seem like something she could butt into. Rachel opened her mouth with a smile.

“I remember trying to stop you adamantly when you told me you were going to become a taster. At least you got a nice girlfriend out of it.”

“Stop it with the stupid jokes. That girl is just my… disciple.”

“Tasters have disciples too?”

“As you can see.”

Rachel shrugged. Paul continued as he looked down at the marble floor.

“The food was spectacular. Including your disciples’. Especially that Minjoon’s dish… it resembled his dishes a lot. Was that intentional?”

“I was surprised too. I didn’t think it’d be that similar. Maybe supertasters just all end up like that?”

“Who knows…”

Rachel looked at Paul directly, who just kept on evading his gaze.

“It’s good that you came back though. You stopped coming even before I retired, didn’t you?”

“…I didn’t have the heart to see you again.”

“Like I said before, you don’t need to feel so bad over it. Jerome’s incident… was my fault for not raising him harshly at all.”

Paul didn’t respond. The two eventually looked over at Paul’s car for a second. Jaina looked away hurriedly when her eyes met with theirs.

“My husband died in the kitchen. The customers quite literally killed him. But we don’t call the customers a murderer. It’s the same thing, Paul. You were just doing your job. Jerome just couldn’t take the pressure. That’s my fault.”

“…You’re still cool as always, Rachel.”

“I wouldn’t be Rachel Rose otherwise.”

Rachel smiled. Paul could see her old confidence in her eyes. She’s become quite a woman. Paul looked at his shoes with a bitter look. He’s waxed it just this morning, but it already looked pretty worn.

“Your disciples are quite a piece of work as well. I really enjoyed their dishes.”

“Please come again. You’re welcome anytime.”

Paul smiled. He couldn’t come back for three years, but he couldn’t dare say it.

“Sure. I will.”