Chapter 387 - Scene Stealer (5)
Chapter 387: Scene Stealer (5)
Soon the servers approached them and put the appetizer in front of them. A large plate was placed before each of them, on top of which was a cup and two small soy sauce-sized plates.
What was inside the cup was a soup made with oranges and pumpkins. The soup contained cream cheese with pepper and herbs. When its taste blended with the sweetness of the pumpkin and orange, Min-joon felt like his stomach was coated neatly.
The system showed a high cooking score for this appetizer.
‘9 out of 10.’
Min-joon now began to feel tense gradually. Of course, it wasn’t that difficult to get a good cooking score for ordinary soup. Soup was usually boiled for some time when it came to a normal soup. But it was not the case for orange and pumpkin soup. When making orange and pumpkin soup, a chef usually didn’t spend more than three hours on it.
“Min-joon, do you know what they put in there?”
“I know the ingredients. The recipe is a bit difficult.”
“I think I know the ingredients, but I have no idea what the recipe is.”
“Well, I think I know it.”
Min-joon looked back at Kaya as if he was a little surprised. She was all smiles as if she thought she beat him after a long time.
She said, “I think they sauted the onions in butter. Then they probably put the pumpkin, zest, and sugar. After that, they must have simmered it for about twenty or thirty minutes, then sifted it like when they made a puree. Then they put the sliced oranges there for about an hour. Then, get it cold before serving.”
At that moment, Min-joon saw the servers around him flinching a bit. Obviously, they must have been stunned to hear her explaining the recipe without making any mistake. Min-joon’s perfect palate was widely known, but there were few who really appreciated Kaya’s perfect palate. Come to think of it, it was natural they didn’t know it. Who would ever think the two lovers had a perfect palate?
Besides, they didn’t know he had a perfect palate. In fact, as a result, it was only natural that they were surprised at something totally unexpected. Min-joon checked the expressions of the servers then whispered to Kaya, “I think you’re right, given the servers’ expressions.”
“Well, how do these servers know the recipe of this dish?”
“They might have been surprised to know you have found out the recipe.”
“Did Kaya find out the recipe by guessing it right now?”
Janet next to him looked at them as if she couldn’t believe it. And naturally, Janet was surprised, given that she didn’t know Kaya very well unlike Anderson or Chloe. Kaya just nodded.
“It’s a bit unfair if only Min-joon can find out the recipe. So I practiced how to find out the recipe, too,” Kaya said.
“Let’s ask Theo if what Kaya has found out is correct.”
“Well, isn’t it rather rude? The recipe is a trade secret, as you know.”
“Well, we can just ask if her guess is right or not. As you know, it’s not difficult to figure out a similar recipe, but guessing the recipe correctly is a different story.”
“I heard you, guys. Don’t do that because I’m very embarrassed at the moment.”
Just a few minutes ago, Kaya proudly said she was the best chef in the universe, but she was clearly on the defensive right now. Janet couldn’t help but be surprised at the way she acted like that, but she didn’t complain.
Kaya looked at the next dishes, which was avocado cream with parsnip chips and dried cod covered with starch cloth then served with apple jelly sauce. Both had a cooking score of 7. And that meant that Min-joon could also read the recipe immediately.
Min-joon was checking out the recipe while feeling the fresh harmony of cod and apple jelly sauce. This time, Kaya opened her mouth and began to recite the recipe first. At the moment, Min-joon’s eyes trembled with shock. Actually, what she recited was almost the same as what he saw in the system.
“What you have just found out almost matches mine. The only difference is that I add a little bit of apple juice when I make apple jelly sauce.”
“Really? Oh, I didn’t think it could spread on gelatin. Considering that, I should have made it a bit thicker.”
That was how the two started to check out who was right on the recipes of the served dishes.
Could it be called a game of reading the recipe? The two kept figuring out the recipes for some time, And it was Min-joon who was stunned to find her so good at guessing the recipes.
‘Her talent is getting more and more sharpened.’
It would be no wonder if one’s sense of taste became duller as one got older, but Kaya’s tongue didn’t show any signs of that. Rather, it seemed that she knew how to rediscover and sharpen her sense of taste that she had not made good use of until now. In fact, she grew so rapidly in developing her sense of taste, so if she could completely control her sense of taste, it would be very difficult for him to catch up with her, Min-joon thought.
When he thought about it, he became nervous and excited at the same time because that was why he wanted to cook next to her. If she opened up her talent, he also had to do the same. If he didn’t have it, he had to create it, which he was very good at, though.
‘Alright. I also got used to it while I was practicing it…’
Min-joon had no perfect palate. All he could do was just imitate it. But that made him try hard to develop a perfect palate, and he finally made it. When he ate food, he always tried to feel what kind of ingredients they used to make the food so delicious. And his efforts like that clearly paid off because he could figure out the ingredients or recipes without the help of the system.
That was how he achieved a perfect palate. What about Kaya then? He sometimes wondered if she was really a human because of her terrific sense of taste. So, if she was more focused and tried harder than now, her efficiency in putting her talent to use would be incomparably higher than him.
While Min-joon was thinking about her like that, the servers watching the two became so nervous at the moment, so they headed back to the kitchen, after all. As soon as they stepped in the kitchen, they immediately explained to Teo and Enzo what happened in the hall.
“They are guessing all our recipes right!”
“Our recipes? Are you sure? How can they guess? How did they figure it out?”
Theo knew that Min-joon had a perfect palate, but he never expected Min-joon could figure out all his recipes correctly. He just guessed Min-joon might be able to guess his recipes as best as he could. But when the servers roughly summed up the recipes Min-joon and Kaya figured out,
Theo looked back at Enzo with a blank expression. Even Enzo, who was also confused a lot to hear that, said to Teo, “Just go and check it with your own eyes.”
“Yes, Daddy.”
Teo hurriedly headed to the table where Min-joon and Kaya were standing. And he heard them chatting with each other.
“Look at this one. They removed the bones with the skin on it and cooked it after putting rosemary, sage, lemon zest, and garlic between the flesh. The paste was made only of celery, carrots, and onions. Oh, they reduced onions here. It seemed like they sauted this paste with olive oil. It’s very complicated, isn’t it?”
Theo listened for each of what they said, and what they just said was correct. What was more interesting was that it was Kaya, not Min-joon, who was talking about it right now. As far as he could remember, it was Min-joon, not Kaya, who had a perfect palate.
He opened his mouth before he knew it and groaned helplessly, “Daddy…”
He instinctively felt this fight would be harder than he thought.
He had once thought about it just like a child dreaming of becoming Superman and flying in the sky. What if he also had the ability to analyze and reproduce all the food he ate at once? As if he was dreaming of such abilities as instant moving or an invisible man, he once thought of a perfect palate because he believed that was a surreal ability that couldn’t exist in reality.
But, as always, what was happening in the real world was always beyond his imagination.
He clearly realized how unrealistic reality was because he was witnessing it right before his eyes.
“Kaya, you are now…”
“Oh, Theo. This is delicious! I think the sauteed paste was the best move! Without it, a light taste would have been a bit strong, but that sauteed one makes the taste well balanced as a whole.”
“Have you already figured out our recipe?”
“Oh, was I not supposed to do it, Theo?”
Kaya looked back at Min-joon, rather embarrassed at the moment. Come to think of it, figuring out somebody’s recipe was like taking it away for free. It certainly wasn’t quite good in terms of business morality to take away somebody’s recipe that might have taken days or months for him to develop.
And Kaya was not sure how she could respond to Theo’s question like that. In fact, there were some who were trying to figure out his recipes while enjoying the dishes. But Theo didn’t care much about them because it was virtually impossible for them to figure out the recipe just by tasting the food. Of course, they could figure out the overall framework of cooking to some extent, but that was not something he worried about.
But it was a different story if Kaya and Min-joon tasted his dishes and figured out the recipes.
In fact, they easily figured out his recipes, which he thought would be possible in the real world. If that was the case, how should he respond to them? Should he tell them to stop eating the dishes because they could take away his recipe know-how?
‘No, I can’t do that!’
Soon, Teo gave a hollow smile. The moment he invited them in the first place, he had to face the music. Who in the world could tell the customers to stop eating in his or her restaurant?