Chapter 27
7 points. That was the best Jo Minjoon could get right now. He wouldn’t know if he was cooking together with Kaya but first, he had to share what he had in mind. Jo Minjoon said while looking at her.
“Let’s slice it roundly and thickly like a tenderloin and roast it. The method is using arroser while pouring cooking oil. There’s no need to put in olive oil. Because there’s abundant oil in the foie gras.”
Jo Minjoon quickly said all of that. Kaya nodded with her mind going blank and nodded. And then she asked.
“What about the sauce?”
Jo Minjoon slowly ordered things in his mind. The most basic virtue foie gras sauce needed to have was complementing it’s flavor full of fat. And to complement that, it was necessary to be both sweet and sour at the same time.
Jo Minjoon opened his mouth.
“I’m going to make white grape sauce. I’m going to boil down the grape in vermouth, and I’m also going to put a bit of demi-glace sauce…. And from this point there are two choices. Is it going to be better to make the demi-glace ourselves?”
It was a sensitive part. The demi-glace sauce was a sauce to be boiled down when put brown sauce and meat gravy. It could take 30 minutes to make it, but like all dishes that contained gravy, the more you boiled it, the deeper became the flavor. Basically, good quality demi-glace sauces in top restaurants took up to 2 hours, so it was unquestionable that time was essential and important.
Were you going to make a handmade demi-glace sauce in 1 hour, no, 50 minutes, or use a commercial sauce? That was the problem that presented in front of them. Because they couldn’t know if the handmade sauce was going to be better than the commercial one.
Kaya bit her lips as if she was submerged in her thoughts. However, Jo Minjoon could vaguely know what she was going to reply.
“Let’s make it.”
A smile could be seen in Jo Minjoon’s face. Right. This is what it means to be a chef. To make every little thing they could with their own hands. To want their hands to be a condiment of the food was what meant to be a chef.
“You can slowly handle the foie gras. I just saw that it had melted quite a bit. First, let’s melt it in the fridge. Because we won’t have to even touch it until we have made the sauce and about to do the plating.”
“Okay. I understand. What about the garnish? What about slicing the remaining white grapes and putting it on top?”
“Good for me.”
As he held a conversation with her, Jo Minjoon felt that it was rather miraculous that he was talking with her. Meeting someone famous from the TV would be like that, but they were similar at the time to cook. Even if it was a famous chef with reputation, while their skills and understanding towards cooking improved, there would be more differences than things in common with other chefs.
However Jo Minjoon and Kaya weren’t like that. Of course, they had just started the path to being a chef, but their styles were similar. Suddenly, Jo Minjoon thought of a thing. What if I start to work in the same kitchen as her….?
‘Now’s not the time to be thinking these things.’
Sloppy delusions were sufficient even after the mission ended. Jo Minjoon opened his mouth.
“If they say that tagging is difficult, then it should. Who will start? The second person is going to be in charge to make the foie gras. Not even making it, but also the plating. The changes are in intervals of 5 minutes, and there are only 60 minutes.”
To roast the foie gras and put it in a plate was better if it was done the latest they could. Because there was a need to squash the white grape that was going to be put in the demi-glace sauce the longest time possible. Kaya opened her mouth. She seemed like she wanted to take responsibility.
“I will do it. Wrapping up. Because in the end, it’s my problem.”
“…..Foie gras, you said you have never made it. Are you going to be okay?”
“You are the same. So I have to challenge myself. And this is something I have to do. As I said before, it’s my problem. It’s my mistake and my mission.”
“No. It’s a team mission.”
Jo Minjoon replied with a determined voice. Kaya looked at him a little surprised. He seemed like a teacher that was scolding his student, and actually, Jo Minjoon was thinking just like that. He wished that Kaya could understand the reason she entered the disqualifying candidates. He wanted to show her what was the meaning of team missions, and how to work in such circumstances.
Actually, Chloe should have been in his place. She could calm Kaya’s heart with just her soft and gentle smile. And she could even tell her the meaning of what a team was without even telling her directly. However, Jo Minjoon knew well that he couldn’t be like her.
What he could do instead of Chloe’s warmth was waking her up with words. And fortunately, it seemed like Kaya had understood what he had wanted to tell her. Kaya hesitated a little and in the end, nodded.
“Okay. I will remember.”
“Good.”
Jo Minjoon smiled and looked at the clock. Because he was thinking of the concept of the menu, 13 minutes have already passed from the 20 given minutes. 7 minutes. It was too short of a time for them to do something. Awkwardness flowed from both of them. The one who opened her mouth first was Kaya. She questioned him with things she had wanted to ask for some time.
“Why are you treating me well?”
“I don’t think I am, though.”
“No, why. You do. That time with the catfish mission, when you asked me to trade our dishes, and also that time when you said that I was going to win in the interview. Right. It couldn’t be said that you did treat me well. But I’m sure that you are favorable towards me. Why? Maybe….”
Kaya glanced slightly at the camera. She held the mic that was attached to her clothes with her left hand, and with her right hand, grabbed Jo Minjoon’s mic. Jo Minjoon was perplexed, so he couldn’t say anything in that instant. Kaya opened her mouth. It was a rather serious voice.
“Do you like me?”
The reason he couldn’t reply instantly wasn’t because she had hit the bullseye. It was because he had never thought that he would get that question from Kaya herself. He had also denied it like that in the interview. Jo Minjoon replied with a frozen face.
“Not at all.”
“Hmm…..Really?”
Kaya’s eyes became sharper. She looked at him for a while and then, talked while smiling.
“Then keep not liking me.”
“I know you are going to look at me funny when I ask this question. But why can’t I?”
“Because I’m like a shit girl. You don’t understand the meaning for a white person to grow in a poor house. And there’s nothing you would gain if you did know the meaning.”
“…..I’m sorry, but I already like you.”
At his words, Kaya frowned. Jo Minjoon felt like he had landed a blow, so he continued speaking while smiling.
“Not as a girl, but as a chef.”
“But why? Was there something special that I have showed you?”
“You showed me your potential. And also your talent. I was envious. And I also wanted to catch up to you as much as I was envious. It’s like that. When you are watching TV and start to cheer for a participant. It could be that I’m cheering for you as a viewer of Grand Chef.”
“…….But you are not part of the audience, but a participant.”
At Kaya’s words, Jo Minjoo shrugged his shoulders.
“Won’t Messi cheer for Ronaldo at times?”
Kaya didn’t reply. She was looking at Jo Minjoon while shaking. She could really not understand this man called Jo Minjoon. Why could that be? Why was this man more confident and believed in her more than she did in herself?
She couldn’t know. It was only because Jo Minjoon already knew the future where Kaya became the winner. And Kaya’s imagination wasn’t as big as to imagine something that was improbable. Jo Minjoon opened his mouth.
“Why don’t you let go of your hand? The camera is still recording. Do you want to be edited again?”
Jo Minjoon let out a sigh and pointed towards the cameraman. The cameraman was all smiles for a while as if he had captured a good scene. Kaya opened the hand that was holding Jo Minjoon’s mic. Then she held up her arms as if she was doing a surrendering gesture.
“I’m sorry, but I thought that it shouldn’t have been recorded.”
“That’s right…..”
Jo Minjoon looked at the cameraman. And then frowned. There was a microphone clearly attached in the camera. Jo Minjoon asked him.
“Can this thing record?”
The cameraman, instead of replying, put a smile. Jo Minjoon mumbled as if it was a pain in the ass. “We are ruined.” Kaya was looking at the cameraman rigidly. It seemed that she thought that if she blocked the participants mic, they would be able to be free from being broadcasted. Kaya asked Jo Minjoon.
“……It is going to be broadcasted, right?”
“If it doesn’t, then the PD would be an incapable person.”
And Martin wasn’t an incapable man however you looked at him. Kaya said with an annoyed face.
“I’m already telling you, but this…..”
“The time has ended for you to think of your menus! Now, the participants should bring the ingredients.”
“They say so. I’ll be going.”
Jo Minjoon left Kaya back and moved his feet. She seemed like she was about to say something, but he didn’t mind. Whatever it was, only he was going to get more complicated. It was good to not be thinking about anything while cooking. Jo Minjoon mumbled by himself.
‘It seems like she still hasn’t understood what being a team means.’
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