Chapter 75: Unexpected collaboration (3)

Just like Kaya had said, when he didn’t simmer the chicken leg meat in the sauce, it became comparatively less soft. But just because of that, it didn’t mean that it became worse. Rather, he could feel that the texture ripping more clearly. On top of that, the flavor he couldn’t originally feel because of the sauce stimulated his tongue dimly.

[Soy sauce dak galbi]

Freshness : 93%

Origins : (Too many ingredients to show)

Quality : High

Cooking Score : 8/10

Jo Minjoon laughed helplessly and looked the system window. He had never thought that he would be able to make an 8-point dish like this. Of course, in cooking if you followed the recipe well, half of the job was already done…..

“It’s clearly more delicious than before.”

He put the new dak galbi in his mouth and nodded. The reactions of others weren’t that different. Joanne said amazedly.

“This is just my style. The flavor of the chicken and the suit really suit each other.”

“Thanks.”

“…….uhh. Now that I think about it, it’s not the time to feel amazed. What is it, Minjoon? Why are you cooking so well nowadays?”

Jo Minjoon just smiled awkwardly instead of replying. Honestly, he too had felt that his skills were rising more and more. He felt less stifled than before, but there was still some anxiousness. Because cooking level 7 was just in front of his eyes. In the first place he wouldn’t even have looked at it if it was far away, but he felt more greed now that it was right in front of his eyes.

“Tomorrow will be war.”

“I wonder. If you made a dish that isn’t popular, even if you want to be busy, you won’t be able to. The side who can get that war-like atmosphere will be the winner that day.”

At Anderson’s words, everyone nodded. And everyone wished inwardly that although it would be hard, that they would be the side to be in a war.

–

Caprese. Arancini. Bruschetta. Broccoli soup. Eggplant lasagna. Mapo tofu. Dak galbi. Frittata. Strawberry chiffon cake. Tiramisu.

These are the dishes that the 10 people chose. The one the participants envied the most was Hugo. Caprese. It was a dish that finished after you cooked tomato and mozzarella cheese moderately and put basil on it. Excluding that, you had to cook the tomato appropriately, it wasn’t a difficult dish at all.

However, Hugo was the only one that made salad. Because honestly speaking, salad was a difficult dish to get many votes. Perhaps, if two people chose salad, it was almost certain that the two of them would get the lowest score.

In Kaya’s case, it was rucula frittata, an italian omelette. Honestly speaking, frittata was a difficult dish to make it delicious. You bake the beaten eggs after putting meat and vegetables in it. If you said it like this, it was a really simple dish, but the more simple it was, the more difficult it was to give it flavor. However, it was with that meaning that she chose to do it.

Kaya’s frittata was 8 points. After you put prosciutto ham, mozzarella cheese, mashed potatoes, rucula, basil, tarragon, etc. in the beaten eggs; put it in the oven; and fry shallots, garlic, peperoncino, etc. to make tomato sauce and pour it in, it was the end. However, it was the best frittata he had ever tried.

The day after the mission got announced, it was three in the afternoon. Everybody was preparing in the kitchen to the coming customers. The judges walked along with the participants and checked the situation of the cooking. Alan approached Jo Minjoon and opened his mouth.

“Minjoon, are your preparations going well?”

“The fermentation of the sauce is well done, there’s no problem at all.”

“They told me that you said that your dak galbi was 8 points? It seems like I’m seeing more of it. Risotto and jelly, and the dak galbi right now.”

“I can only improve. Because there are a lot of good chefs surrounding me. Actually, Kaya’s advice was really helpful in this recipe.”

At Jo Minjoon’s words, Alan put a smile you couldn’t know the meaning of. And he wasn’t so dull as to not know the meaning of it, so Jo Minjoon let out a sigh.

“Now even you, chef, see us that way?”

“Actually, this is the privilege of those surrounding you. If you didn’t want this, in the first place you shouldn’t have told your secret.”

“……..Let’s cook.”

“Good. You seem like a pro.”

Alan smirked and this time he went to Kaya. She had already put a pot in the oven, and was beating the eggs she was going to use next for quite a while. Normally, you didn’t do this work because it was bothersome, but if you did this step, the texture would become incomparably soft. Alan nodded and asked.

“What’s the ratio of the eggs and milk?”

“I put twice the milk than the eggs. Of course, if the eggs are a bit watery, I put less milk.”

“You are prudent. Kaya, I know that you didn’t learn cooking separately. I just know that you learnt cooking by watching in the market and that it was all…… So how did you master that

small detail?

“Through my senses.”

Kaya replied shortly. Alan’s brows twitched. He opened his mouth again.

“But I think that you wouldn’t have done all of that through your senses alone. Don’t you have a case where someone taught you?”

“The market people. Of course, some had fine skills, but it was only for one or two things they knew. And there were mostly no aunties that cooked well, so I could only rely on my senses. In the first place, it isn’t that hard. If you make the dough, you put more water or milk, and if you pour hot water you feel the difference than when you pour cold water. And you would also feel how the inside was cooked when the exterior is being seared. Honestly, is there a need to separately learn? I don’t think so.”

“There aren’t cooking schools in vain.”

Kaya snorted instead of replying. Actually, she ignored the importance of learning, and with her environment, she could only do so more than normal because Kaya spent only 8 years as a student. And she didn’t have the leisure to properly learn something in those 8 years.

Perhaps, it isn’t that Kaya ignored the students, but mainly it was envy decorated as ignorance. At least, Alan saw it that way. Actually, those were words coming out from the viewers. Because they only saw her harsh attitude as a defense mechanism. Acting strong, acting as if she saw things through, admiring people her age that had a normal life, but couldn’t accept that for herself.

That sorry shape she showed could be one of the reasons she had fans, and not only anti’s. Because to hate her, she seemed too weak at times. Alan let out a sigh inwardly. He understood her reaction. He also, one time………

‘……..It’s not the time to be thinking like this.’

“I will be expecting for good food.”

Alan ended the conversation formally and looked at the clock. 4:50. It was the time the customers would slowly come. He went to the stage in front of the kitchen where the judges were exchanging glances. Joseph raised his voice.

“After approximately 10 minutes, the customers will come. You will have to serve the customers that are going to keep coming for 3 hours. Are you ready?”

It was when they were about to say something. Across the kitchen’s door, in the hall, footsteps and voices could be heard. Of course, there was no way that the staff would be making those noises in purpose. The customers have come. Jo Minjoon gulped and at the same time, Joseph yelled.

“Well, go and greet the customers!”

The 10 participants each carried their trays and went out to the hall. It was the time for victory and defeat.

–

Mila Quinn thought that she was an excellent epicurean. She ate all kinds of food, and could clearly feel the overall flavor of the food.

But the reason that it wasn’t the present, but something from the past was simple. She couldn’t feel the flavor like before. It wasn’t that she got ill. When she reached her forties, just like everyone else, her sense of taste reduced. Compared to when she was young, even if she ate the same food, the flavor she felt was clearly different. And because of that, having a meal became more of a regretful time rather than a happy one.

But even so, the reason she came all the way here from a place 30 minutes away was simple. She was Jo Minjoon’s and Kaya’s fan. Precisely speaking, she was a fan that was enthusiastic of the sloppy romance scene Kaya and Minjoon showed.

Actually most of those who came here wasn’t to eat their food, but to see the faces of both of them. It felt like an autograph session for the fans. As the door of the kitchen opened and saw the participants coming out to the hall, they felt so amazed and flustered.

Jo Minjoon felt more gentle than what you saw in TV. Could you say that he had the face of a school teacher? It was amazing that he could curse when he usually had that calm face. Because just looking at the face he had right now was enough to make the people that saw it to feel comfortable. Mila, too, had lived a long life. She knew how to read that side in people. He was a good person. She got that feeling instinctively.

In the other side, Kaya was different to Jo Minjoon. Although she didn’t put on the smokey make up today, her eyes were still sharp and the corner of her lips were raised confidently, but it was trembling a little. It made you think that she was forcing it.

‘I think that both of them would suit each other really well.’

After she aged, she got an interest in others relationships. She knew that it was immodest, but she couldn’t help but feel curious about it. Mila put a dense smile and looked at the both of them.

However, after the both of them explained their dishes, they returned back to the kitchen. Mila gulped down the regret and could only get the dishes they of them. Precisely speaking, she had to get the dish the staff had served.

Mila gulped down the regret and could only get the dishes they served.

The first thing she brought was Jo Minjoon’s dak galbi. Jo Minjoon said that he had made with with korean cuisine as the basis, but she could also feel some japanese cuisine in it. Was it because he made it with soy sauce? It was at that moment when she ate a bite while thinking like that.

‘Huh?’

The face she was putting right now wasn’t because she was satisfied or felt happy, rather, she was confused. She didn’t get surprised because it was delicious. It wasn’t that it was disgusting, but precisely speaking, it was because of the clearness of that flavor. Mila lifted the chicken again with a dumbfounded face. She slightly smelled it and the aroma of ginger and a slightly sweet soy sauce tickled her nose.

A not-excessive salty flavor and a sweet flavor. However, the flavor of the sauce that touched her tongue was only the start. Just as chicken leg meat was soft, it was also a difficult part to feel the texture of it. But this wasn’t it. The moment she ate a bite, the moist meat ripped like it was mozzarella. Originally, if you made it along with soy sauce the flavor of the chicken could only die, but that flavor was felt more clearly.

‘How long has it been? This flavor.’

In that moment, she got a chill down her spine. Mila shook her body. She thought that Jo Minjoon had a better sense of taste rather than being a good chef, but she had never imagined that he would be able to make this strong flavor. The flavor of ginger stimulated her tongue and made it sensitive, and she could also feel the balance which she originally couldn’t have.

Could she feel consideration at them because of her age? Perhaps, it could be more of an interpretation of the dream rather than the dream itself, but whatever it was, what Mila was feeling right now was satisfaction in a long time. Mila smiled brightly and moved her eyes to Kaya’s frittata.

Her chest beat. Like a girl that forgot her age.

–

“I ate well.”

An old woman that had blond hair smiled delicately. Her smile seemed so happy that Jo Minjoon smiled back.

“Thank you. Have a good day.”

“It’s a good time. Hold her tight.”

“……I will interpret it as holding the knife.”

At the unexpected blow, Jo Minjoon replied while smiling awkwardly. She laughed and then left the hall. She was the last customer.

Jo Minjoon had a relieved face. It was also because he wasn’t as comparatively nervous. He had refilled the buffet plate 4 times. And the one who had the most refilled dishes was Hugo, as expected. Because he had 5 refilled dishes. But even so, Jo Minjoon’s score wasn’t bad at all. Precisely speaking, he was in the excelling side.

Excluding Jo Minjoon and Hugo, the ones who had their dishes refilled 4 times were Chloe, Kaya and Sasha. And the cooking score were all 8. In the case of Anderson, he too made an 8-point eggplant lasagna, but it was a dish that didn’t make you want to eat it much. And it was the same for Marco. The chocolate tiramisu he made was a dessert that nothing else to say. And the cooking score was also 8. However, the people who ate that greasy thing chose the fresh strawberry chiffon cake instead of the tiramisu. So Sasha could only get better scores.

‘According to the votes, there would be some changes.’

If you refilled once, it was about serving 20 dishes. 1 point for 1 dish. And 10 points for 1 vote. It could be seen you got two votes in one refill. Every hour, new customers entered, and the total amount was 500 people. If you at least got a tenth of the votes, you were safe from getting eliminated because the amount of dishes the customers took was plenty. If there was an uneasy person, it would obviously be……

‘Marco.’

Even if his votes was high, he thought that he had only refilled it twice. And the amount of dishes would be 50. Honestly, it wasn’t that high of a score.

In the hall after the customer’s left, Alan opened his mouth. It was a calm voice.

“The aggregation of the score ended.”

< Unexpected collaboration (3) > End

Translator’s note: Regular chapter!

Thanks for reading and for your support!

Translator : Subak Proofreader : Saihikawa