God of Cooking Chapter 16:

7 points . That was also the best he could do right now . However Jo Minjoon didn’t relax .  Because making a 7 points dish was the utmost of his skills . He got that score because of the strength of the system . To check the recipe beforehand and it’s success probabilities .

If he didn’t have the systems strength, Jo Minjoon would be making a lot of 5 points dishes . Because you couldn’t be certain if a recipe was good or not before cooking . It was already god’s blessing and consideration for letting him free of worries for his recipes .

Of course, compared to Kaya he didn’t know if it was a blessing . However she was a real genius . She didn’t have a weird ability like Jo Minjoon, she had real skills . Saying that the both had the same abilities was something to be embarrassed about .

He thought that comparing himself with Kaya was a really childish thing . Jo Minjoon was a reasonable person . If he felt bitter but only hurt him, he believed that he didn’t have the need to think about it . Being jealous of an ability he didn’t have was a really childish thing to do .

“We’ll give you 1 hour . Finish your dish in that time . ”

At those words, the participants gathered towards the container . Watching those many competitors going to the container was really a sight . Marco and Amanda were running there . Jo Minjoon just stood still and looked at them . Anyways, he was given an hour . So he thought that it wasn’t necessary to immediately handle the catfish .

He thought like that and went towards the room where the basic ingredients were . It was at that moment, Kaya was walking right next to him . He slightly glanced at her . She looked back at Jo Minjoon with a scary face and then opened her mouth .

“What are you looking at?”
“I doesn’t look like you are going to catch a catfish . ”
“Even if I go now or later it’s the same . But it’s better to get other ingredients instead of being clustered over there . ”
“Clever . ”
“You are also doing that . Aren’t you self praising yourself by praising me?”

Jo Minjoon laughed and evaded the question . There were quite a few who were going to get fresh ingredients . Among them, was a tall and handsome blonde man . Anderson… . . Jo Minjoon thought for a moment . What was his last name? He didn’t remember . He remembered one thing . That he got the second place .

Jo Minjoon looked at Anderson’s status window . The window showed the last name he didn’t remember .

[Anderson Rousseau]
Cooking level: 7
Bakery level: 7
Tasting level: 8
Decoration level: 7

His cooking level was the same as Kaya’s . But unexpectedly, his bakery and decorations level were higher than Kaya’s . It could be expected . Anderson Rousseau was an elite of the elites who got a genius like education since small . It was kind of obvious for him to be at that level . However, he lost to Kaya . Why could that be? Because he didn’t have a dramatic background like her?

‘Probably, her dish was better than his . ’

Even if they were at the same level 7, Kaya’s skills were different . Because his cooking levels probably didn’t include reading fire like Kaya . However Jo Minjoon knew that, reading the path of the fire wasn’t all of Kaya . A genius like sense which surpassed all of that . He couldn’t precisely express it like that , but she had an ability to bring the flavor of an ingredient to it’s utmost .

Jo Minjoon hurriedly picked his ingredients . Those were all ingredients bought in the same place and at the same time, but there were differences among them . It was more efficient to be picking better ingredients than to be picking alive cat fishes of the same quality in that crowd .

The dish Jo Minjoon decided to make was catfish meatball stew(메기완자탕) . At first, he wanted to make some spicy stew(매운탕),  but it depended heavily on miso paste and pepper paste . Even if it tasted good, how good would it be in a foreign country? It was weak regarding to giving a deep flavor . On top of that, spicy stew was tasty only for koreans . The chances for a foreigner to claim that it tasted bad was high .

So Jo Minjoon took the characteristic of the spicy stew, and decided to make a slightly spicy catfish meatball stew . And the ingredients it contained were simple . Tofu, lemon, starch, eggs, pepper, coriander, radish, scallion, salt and soy sauce .

They were ingredients that were normally in people’s houses . And if you wanted to point something special, it was the coriander . There were many who sought top ingredients like saffron or salami, but Jo Minjoon didn’t pay them any heed . Making a dish with basic ingredients and give it flavor was rather well viewed .

Jo Minjoon put the ingredients on his countertop and went to where the catfish were . Almost all of the people were returning with a catfish on their hands . Saying the truth, it was his first time catching a live fish with his bare hands, but he was confident .

Jo Minjoon caught a catfish with a net and came back to his countertop with the fish on his hands . It was 40cm long . It was roughly an arm long . It was so strong that only preventing it from escaping was exhausting enough .

The way to knock out the catfish was simple . To beat it with the edge of the countertop, or simmer it in salt, or beating it with the knife’s back . Jo Minjoon chose the last option . When the catfish that was on top of the counter looked at Jo Minjoon, he beat it with the back of the knife .

With a loud sound, the catfish twitched a little and finally stopped moving . It was probably knocked . Jo Minjoon put the tip of his knife on the catfish . Blood flowed for a while, and that was the end .

Jo Minjoon cautiously cut the gills . And used the knife to slice it’s stomach,pulled out the guts and took out the fishbone . After that was the skin . He didn’t need to remove the scales, because catfishes didn’t have them . But because of that, it’s skin was really tough . If you cooked it well, the skin became gooey . But the problem was that cooking it well was difficult .

Jo Minjoon slowly peeled the skin off . The main point was to peel the skin as thinly as possible . Fortunately, it peeled off quite thinly .

It was at that moment . Alan passed by Jo Minjoon . It seemed as if he was just looking around, but he wasn’t . The table next to him . Alan said coldly in front of Amanda .

“The guts erupted . ”

It was a mistake she made while slicing the stomach . As the guts erupted, blood stained the meat . Amanda replied with an embarrassed face .

“Ah, I’m sorry . It’s my first time with catfish… . ”
“Enough . Give me your badge . ”
“Che, chef!”

Amanda was pale . Jo Minjoon didn’t want to pay attention to them, but he couldn’t block of their voices . Alan was talking with a conservative tone .

“You have done well . ”
It was a brief word, and it was also a brief declaration . Amanda put a face as if she was going to cry any moment and yelled .

“I… . . I bet everything in this competition!”

Even with that begging voice, Alan didn’t hesitate . He looked slowly at the participants . He opened his mouth .

“Is there someone who didn’t bet everything in this competition?”

No one replied at that question . Alan looked at Amanda and his gaze grew sharp .

“If you want me to give you my opinion, then show me your skills as much as your passion . What I can see right now from you is a broken catfish corpse . I wouldn’t like to put that thing in my mouth . Amanda . Are you a chef? If that’s so, give me that trashy badge! That’s only if you are a chef that puts trash in people’s mouths . ”

Amanda returned the badge trembling . Alan received that badge, and looked towards the participants that were looking at him . And said with a calm voice .

“Anyone who has a problem handling the catfish will be kicked out . This is not a school . People who can’t even handle a single ingredient doesn’t have the right to be here . Get ahold of yourselves . ”

They grew nervous . It wasn’t only Jo Minjoon . Knowing that they could get eliminated just preparing your dish, the participants continued with a clearer gaze . Jo Minjoon looked at the back of Amanda crying and getting out . He could never end like that . Ever . Even if he got disqualified because his dish tasted bad, at least he wanted to finish his dish .

He didn’t waste time . The first thing Jo Minjoon did was cutting the catfish head . Jo Minjoon boiled water on a pot and put the catfish head, radish, and scallions . And he also put the fishbone . He was thinking of making the gravy . He put some lemon in case it had a fishy smell, and started to handle the catfish meat .

Every time he hit it with the back of his knife, it transformed like fish cake . Originally, it’s meat was already soft . So it wasn’t that hard to mince it . The next step was simple . After squeezing the water out of the tofu, sliced the coriander . The next step was mixing it together, adding starch and slamming the dough .

This part was really important . If he didn’t slam enough to create enough stickiness, in the process the dough is getting cooked, the probabilities of it’s insides breaking were high . For the usual Jo Minjoon, it would be a really hard challenge . Because it wasn’t that it didn’t have chances for failure .

However he wasn’t right now . Jo Minjoon already knew that the theme of the mission would be catfish, and after qualifying, he got to prepare the next dish . For all the meals, he prepared catfish meatball stew, and each time he cooked it he felt a difference on the dishes . What he was making right now was the result of hard work . There was no place for mistakes .

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