God of Cooking

It was difficult to breath. Her clenched fists trembled, and a rough breath got out from between her lips. Behind her front hair, Kaya’s fierce eyes shone. Jessica naturally raised her camera to capture that expression. Martin quickly interfered and covered the lens. Jessica looked at Martin with a neutral face.

“Oh, it’s been a while. Martin?”

“………Why are you here? No, I will change the question. How did you know and come here?”

“Ey, a reporter shouldn’t reveal the source of the information.”

“I wonder. Aside from that, I think that taking pictures without permission is also not the proper method.”

“Ey, why are you acting like this. Between us…”

A shiny smile appeared just like her blond hair. If you were a man, you couldn’t help but get moved by that smile, but Martin didn’t. He knew a lot of people that were deceived by that smile. It was a fake smile anyways, just like her hair was dyed blonde.

“I don’t think that acting like this between us is weird. Fall back for now. We didn’t request for an interview, and aren’t planning to receive one. Or should I just leave a complaint to Daily Street?”

“Why are you acting that way? Don’t make me scared. Do mouses in a warehouse escape because they get frightened a bit? They just have to get slightly full.”

“After they get full they will consider that warehouse to be their house. They breed and carve a mouse hole. Do I have to give my warehouse to a mere mouse?”

Martin’s eyes shone coldly. Jessica opened her eyes big and rolled them, and then shrugged her shoulders as if she could do nothing about it.

“I think that it will be hard to expect some benevolence from you. Fine, I will return for now. But remember, that the mouse is still hungry. Even if the owner of the house is scary, if it’s scary, in the end it will bite down the wall and eat all of the grains.”

“Then, the owner will plant some mouse traps.”

Martin replied with an annoyed voice. Jessica smiled brightly, didn’t reply, and turned back. Her sight was directed at Kaya for a moment, but soon changed to Jo Minjoon.

“Jo! I’m a fan. I’m cheering for you. Go all the way until you win.”

“Go quickly. Don’t you know that you are bothering with work?”

“Ah, I understand. I will go. I’m going. Ah, and miss Lotus, I’m sorry to have given you the mic from the start. Next time, I will ask with a calmer attitude.

It was at that moment when Kaya was going to raise her middle finger instead of replying. Jo Minjoon firmly grabbed her hands. Kaya looked at him with reddened eyes. There was no need for special words. Jo Minjoon and Kaya. Both of them could guess with just the shake of the hand what the other was going to say.

“…….Let go. I calmed down.”

Kaya’s voice was a lot calmer. Thinking about the wind that passed by just now, not getting dispersed would be stranger. Jo Minjoon slowly let his hand go from her fist. She bit her lips and glared at Jessica’s back as she goes further away. Chloe patted Kaya’s shoulder.

“Don’t mind her. It’s not just a people or two that are like that.”

“I don’t.”

Even after talking like that, her eyes were really sharp. Kaya let out a sigh and just rubbed her hands. It seemed like when Jo Minjoon held her hand just before, the feeling still remained. A rough yet soft, strange hand. However, she didn’t hate that moment.

‘………Why didn’t I hate it?’

However she put it, he was still a man. Normally, even if he was trying to help, not feeling pleased was the normal thing. However, the moment Jo Minjoon grabbed her hands, that feeling was really profound. Was it because he felt like a real brother. Or………

Kaya’s sight was directed at Jo Minjoon. Many thoughts passed by about him, and in the end only one thought remained. Kaya looked at him with resolved eyes.

‘Right. The important thing is if he returns or not, because it’s a land that you don’t know when war will happen………’

Thinking about that situation, she felt the problem with Tess Gilly to be a minor thing. Jo Minjoon, who felt her gaze, turned his face and put on a strange face.

“What is it? What are those pitiful eyes?”

“Don’t interpret other’s eyes like you wish. Go quickly. I can’t go in because of you.”

“……….And why are you this hurried?”

Jo Minjoon moved his feet to go inside the restaurant, On the Lake. Inside the restaurant hall, the judges were seated at different tables. At each table, there were two chairs on the side opposite of the judges. Joseph, who was seated at the middle, raised his hand and said.

“Ah, you came. Take a seat since it’s more comfortable. You have to go with the person you are the most comfortable with.”

Even at those words that were heard to be ill tempered, Anderson didn’t even hesitate for a moment and sat in front of Joseph. Jo Minjoon hesitated for a moment. First, he didn’t want to seat in front of Emily. It wasn’t that he disliked her but, it was burdensome. On the other side, he was more comfortable with Alan and Joseph and he could depend on them.

In the end, the table Jo Minjoon chose was Alan’s. Chloe, that saw that and wanted to follow his back, Kaya got one step before her. She sat next to Jo Minjoon and crossed her arms, and while Chloe was hesitating, Sasha sat next to Anderson. And of course, Chloe and Ivanna went to Emily’s table. Each judge opened their mouth. It was a voice that only those who were seated with them could hear.

“Do you know what restaurant is this?”

At Alan’s question, Jo Minjoon and Kaya shook their heads. There was no way for Jo Minjoon to know of a restaurant in this far away land, and Kaya couldn’t possibly be interested about such a luxurious restaurant as this. Alan continued speaking with a calm voice.

“On the Lake. Although it doesn’t have a Michelin star, that’s not because it’s not delicious, but because evaluators don’t come here. It has that good of a reputation. Check your surroundings.”

The inside of the restaurant had a clean and white feeling. Unlike the places that wanted to make an atmosphere and made the place dark, sunlight shone through the big windows and the lamps that were hanging on the ceiling shone so strongly their eyes hurt.

The greatest spectacle was the scenery that could be seen beyond the lake. When you looked at the lake that was shining with a blue light, it made you feel calm just like you have come to travel. At that moment, many kinds of fishes or seafood were placed in front of them. They thought of it as normal, since the restaurant was on a lake. But the problem was the thing that was next to the dish.

‘……….Recipe?’

What Jo Minjoon saw with his eyes wasn’t the window. A piece of paper that had the recipe written was placed next to it. As he slightly glanced at the other tables, the situation was similar. Only, that the contents of the dish was different. In front of Joseph was pasta or risotto, and in front of Emily was dishes that was clearly an appetizer at first glance. The moment he saw that, Jo Minjoon could vaguely guess the contents for this mission. Joseph raised his voice.

“The dishes in front of you is the content of this mission. You will have to cook the dishes that are placed in front of you as a chef from this restaurant for tonight. From right now…… you have 4 hours. It also means that in that time, you have to memorize the recipe and master it.”

“…….The team is just like the table?”

“Yes. That’s right. The evaluation method will be through the opinions of the customers. In case you get a complaint that the flavor isn’t as usual, the person that made that dish will have to make up for the costs used. You can’t even make one customer not satisfied, understood?”

Those were some burdensome words. While Jo Minjoon was deep in his thoughts, Sasha raised her hand. Joseph looked at her.

“Speak.”

“…….Does the people that cooked the dish get revealed?”

“No. You don’t have to worry about that. Even if we do say that the participants of Grand Chef will be the ones cooking, we are planning to make it secret as to who cooked what.”

At his words, Sasha let out a sigh of relief. Maybe, if the owner of that dish was revealed, you wouldn’t know if it would turn out to be a popularity vote. If it became like that, the ones that had the advantage were Kaya and Jo Minjoon. For them, they could only worry about that.

Jo Minjoon sliced the well cooked salmon and put it in his mouth. He could slightly feel a fishy smell, but it seemed like it was done on purpose, rather than they couldn’t catch it. And because it was roasted with butter, that fishy smell was felt more deliciously.

It was the same for the codfish mousse. The characteristic smell of the codfish was felt densely, and because of the soft texture, the flavor was felt more clearly. But it was only that. Could it be that it was because it was still a growing restaurant? There were no dishes that were disgustingly delicious.

‘That’s the difficult part.’

It was easy to make a delicious dish. Even if you were an amateur, if you followed a recipe, you could make edible food. However, if you didn’t live a life that was interested in cooking, you wouldn’t be to cook food that would amaze others.

Even if it was a restaurant that was expected to receive a Michelin star, it wasn’t anything special. Actually, for the one stars, rather than being amazing it was only a fine restaurant.

“Now that I see, I heard that there was a fuss. Are you okay?”

In the middle of eating, Alan looked at Kaya and asked her. Kaya’s mouth twitched and then she replied.

“I’m fine.”

“……..Even so, you have indeed grown. If you were like before, you would still be angry.”

“Am I a monster that only gets angry?”

Kaya replied with a voice as if it was a given and ate a sea mussel that was dipped in cream sauce. Alan forced a laugh. Did she already forget that she acted like a frightened chicken? He looked at Jo Minjoon and opened his mouth.

“You really have a lot of hardships.”

At that moment when Jo Minjoon laughed awkwardly, Kaya was thinking of another thing at the word hardship which Alan said. It was about Jo Minjoon going to Korea. Thinking about the bullets and the bombs that exploded in Korea, she couldn’t even properly feel the flavor of the food.

In the end, Kaya took out her phone and checked the internet. The contents of the thing she searched was simple: Condition for refugees application. However, there were no applications for Korea. Alan looked at Kaya acting like that and frowned.

“Kaya. You aren’t going to eat?”

“Ah, wait a moment. I have something I have to urgently find out.”

At her blunt voice, he did get a bit angry for a moment, but honestly speaking it was difficult to expect some table manners from Kaya that shouldn’t even have gone to a restaurant. On top of that, she said that it was urgent, so he was uncertain to tell her something.

Q : What’s the fastest way for a korean to immigrate to the United States?

She posted a question on a questions site and turned the display of her phone off. For now, she wanted to at least think like this. To be a war… even if it was Kaya, who had lived a harsh life, the word war felt heavy and scary.

‘I thought that Minjoon had lived comfortably.’

Looking at the fact that he had even become a soldier, she thought that he may have lived a harsher life than she had thought. As she was feeling a sense of belonging to that truth, Jo Minjoon turned to look at her as if it was strange.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

“……I won’t grumble from now on.”

“No, why are you like this so suddenly? Did I do something wrong?”

“Did someone tell you that you did? I just…… Ah, wait. A reply came.”

Kaya took out the shaking handphone from her pocket. She squinted her eyes and started to read at the comments. There were so many comments that it filled her glee. And just like everyone that didn’t receive good education, she was weak with words.

“Job immigration……. Family immigration. For the job immigration, it takes quite a few years and the conditions are also picky…….. It seems like the family immigration is done quite quickly.”

However, as far as she knew, Jo Minjoon didn’t have a family that had citizenship in the US. When she was about to let out a sigh of regret, the last part of the comment suddenly grabbed her attention.

A : If you don’t have a family, marrying someone with an American citizenship is the fastest way. But of course, it’s only for when you have someone to marry.

< The weight of a restaurant (2) > End