God of Cooking – Chapter 51: Crossroad (2)

 

There was no need to hesitate . The moment he was given the two choices, Jo Minjoon had already decided .

Alan and Joseph were chefs with completely opposite nature . Joseph was basically a chef that took a serious importance in orthodox cooking, and Alan was a chef that favored originality .

But it wasn’t that one side was better or worse than the other . Only, he got the feeling that if he went to Joseph, he would consider more the skills than the recipe . So it was better to go to the side where he could save the recipe’s ability the most . Because Jo Minjoon’s best strength was the recipe designing of his system .

Jo Minjoon glanced at his sides . There were seven others that were leaving the kitchen along with him . Kaya, Anderson, Hugo, Carlos, etc . Chloe and Marco still remained in the kitchen .

The unexpected one was Anderson . Because Anderson’s cooking and character was uptight and tenacious . Orthodox cooking suited him more rather than a challenging one . Jo Minjoon thought like that .

When he looked at Anderson while thinking like that, he didn’t stop his feet and frowned .

“What? Why?”
“Nothing . ”
“…… . What is it? Don’t make me  curious and just spill it . ”
“It’s really nothing much . I just found it interesting for you to have chosen Alan instead of Joseph . ”
“And why is that interesting?”
“Just so . You usually cook orthodoxly . ”

Anderson smiled and replied .

“If you can make an orthodox dish, you can make any . ”
“Right . Good for you . ”

Jo Minjoon shook his head as if he was tired of him . Anderson frowned while looking at Jo Minjoon acting like that, but didn’t say anything . Kaya that was looking at them clicked her tongue and said .

“Are you kids?”
“…… . I feel really weird listening to that from you . ”

Because the most childish and spoiled one was her . She said with a blunt face .

“I’m still a teen . It’s an age I don’t need to act like a grown up . ”
“Now that you say it like that, I get convinced . ”

Jo Minjoon nodded and smiled .

Grand Chef’s garden was the size of a considerable stadium . Jo Minjoon moved his step with a more nervous face . Was his decision good? He didn’t know . Not until he had experienced it .

Alan was standing below a thick willow . In front of him was placed a table, and on top of it was a plate that was covered by a lid . Every time the wind blew and shook the branches, the sunlight made the shadow appear and disappear over Alan like a current of water . Rather than being romantic, it looked like a video that was playing in a screen with its pixels broken .

“There are seven of you? There are more than I had expected . I thought that you wouldn’t come for not liking me . ”

Alan said with a voice you couldn’t know if it was a joke or he was saying it seriously . Jo Minjoon and of course, the participants looked at him with an awkward face . This was the time you could say that a strange distance was felt . Could it be said that his own words was deep, or he was in a 4D? Alan opened his mouth .

“What did you think would be the mission for you to come to me? Hugo . Answer me . ”
“Uh…… . To copy the signature menu of the chef, or for the chef to treat us to a dish he likes . I think that it will be one of the two . ”
“Well, if I have to pick one side, it would be closer to the latter . ”

Alan talked like that and looked at them meaningfully . He slowly opened his mouth .

“I will ask you a question before announcing the theme of this mission . I will give you a last chance to go to Joseph . You aren’t going to change?”

The participants just looked between themselves absentmindedly, but there seemed to be no one to have changed their decision . Because, there was no meaning in changing even before you got to know what the mission was . Alan nodded .

“Good . Then, I will tell you the contents of the mission . ”

Alan talked like that and opened the lid of the plate . And at that moment, a laugh was heard . And it came from Jo Minjoon . He looked at the contents of the plate hopelessly . It seemed to be made with loyalty to the basics rather than being fancy . He could see the sleek white rice grains and the aroma that was felt was the smell of cheese along with the faint aroma of onion and leek .

Risotto . Koreans tend to think that it’s an italian bokkeumbap, but actually, it was closer porridge than rice . In Italy this dish was treated as primo piatto along with pasta or ravioli . In parties, it was common for it to replace pasta, but normally, it was a dish that was eaten in a normal family meal .

In Italy it was a dish that was as familiar and received as much love as pasta and pizza . Suddenly, Jo Minjoon became dubious . Was Alan italian? Honestly speaking, he didn’t care much about him, so he didn’t know his birthplace . But fortunately, his doubt got resolved immediately . Alan served a spoonful of risotto in the seven dishes and said .

“I was born in Italy . It’s obvious for pasta, and I also ate risotto as an everyday meal . That’s why I can evaluate the flavor more accurately . You have to make a risotto taking into account the normal cooking method, and at the same time, satisfy my mouth . You can use whatever ingredient you want . Just, don’t forget what a risotto is . ”

Alan said in a strict voice . Jo Minjoon looked slightly at the faces of the other participants . Three seemed really confident, and the other three did not . Anderson and Hugo were the ones who were confident . By the way, there was a time where Hugo made the italian dish ossobuco in a perfect way .

And when Jo Minjoon asked him the secret to it, there wasn’t anything particular . Experience . His italian grandmother made him many italian dishes since small, and he said that he had made it several times . And he had also said that ossobuco was one of his specialties, so it being 8 points convinced him .

‘If you group together cooking level and experience, a dish beyond your expectations comes…… . ’

Honestly saying, he was envious . Jo Minjoon couldn’t eat well made dishes since small because of his mother’s sloppy cooking skills . Lee Hyeseon’s food was always salty or needed seasoning, and there were many times where the cooking wasn’t done properly .

The problem Jo Minjoon had was right that . That his cooking didn’t have a foundation . He looked in the internet or broadcast and copied the recipe of the dishes that seemed delicious . He wasn’t limited by boundaries, and the result of that was that he became able to cook all kinds of dishes . However it couldn’t be said that those dishes were his own . Because the food didn’t have a color of Jo Minjoon, but was transparent and faint .

He was troubled by it but he couldn’t do anything about it . The experience he had accumulated through his life, no, it was a problem of identity rather than experience .

It was at that moment . Alan looked at Jo Minjoon and said .

“Minjoon . You have showed us your absolute taste before . Can you guess all of the ingredients for this risotto?”

He didn’t expect that . But he understood . Because to just let that ability go to waste in a broadcast was really not a good thing to do . Jo Minjoon ate a bite of the risotto and slowly opened his mouth .

“The shallots and the onions are mixed on a 1-1 ratio . There is chopped garlic and the rice is arborio . Because it is an italian dish, it would be good to use italian rice . It’s obvious but there is salt, and also dry white wine . ”

Jo Minjoon took the breath he was holding in . The participants were looking at him with an unknowable face . Jo Minjoon continued saying .

“There’s parmegiano and reggiano cheese in it . There’s a little bit of pepper for seasoning, it’s obvious for olive oil, and the gravy is a clam gravy . This seems to be everything?”
“…… . . Correct . ”

Alan looked at him with a face he couldn’t get accustomed to . At times, there were outstanding epicureans that got all of the ingredients like Jo Minjoon . However, even they couldn’t say those ingredients with absolute confidence . He differentiated the shallot and the onions? Those were ingredients you wouldn’t know how to distinguish between them if you didn’t know that they were included in the dish . Although if you ate knowing about it, it would be different . Weren’t normal people not able to discern between coke and soda?

So he could only be expectant to Jo Minjoon’s dish . A picture drawn by a colorblind and a normal person, and one drawn by someone who can see beyond colour could only be different . Basically, it was because the world they saw was different . And he thought that Jo Minjoon’s tasting world was different . He believed it to be like that . That if Jo Minjoon completed a flavor by his own, that flavor would be so luxurious and delicate as to not be able to compare it with anyone .

The participant’s sights became shameful . They knew that Jo Minjoon had a genius like sense of taste, but that sight was one which they just couldn’t get accustomed to . Anderson frowned and tried to feel all of the ingredients Jo Minjoon had named . But it was difficult . The flavor that was mixed time and time lost almost all of its original shape .

‘How can he read all of those flavors like that?’

Aside from talent, he was envious . He got the feeling that Jo Minjoon’s tasting world was more beautiful and happy world than theirs . But of course, in reality it was a bit different .

“Okay . Now that the little event has ended we will go again with the main point . If you look at the ingredients Minjoon had named, there are no special ingredients in it . They are basic and normal ingredients . But that flavor is…… it’s a bit embarrassing to say it by myself, but I believe that you were satisfied by it . ”

The participants nodded . Alan’s risotto was so delicious it made them forget that they were in the middle of a mission . Alan continued speaking .

“The only I want to give is this . That a risotto must be like one . Don’t put in your excessive greed . And if you keep all of that, I believe that an excellent risotto would appear . ”
“……Risotto . ”

Kaya mumbled in a low voice . Her voice that seemed like she was angry was telling that she was nervous right now . Because it was her character to erect her spikes when she got nervous .

Even at first glance, Kaya was putting on a face that told that she didn’t have much experience . And it was the same for Carlos . Their faces were so pale to the point that he felt bad for them .

‘Am I making the same face right now?’

Jo Minjoon extended his hands and groped his face . But of course, there was no way he could know what kind of face he was putting right now . Alan opened his mouth .

“One of you, and one of the participants that followed Joseph will disqualify . But of course, if your dishes are so perfect to the point I can’t disqualify you, today could become a day with no disqualifiers . I would also like for that day to come . Now, let’s move . ”

Taking into account that they had moved all the way to the garden, it was a really sloppy announcement of the mission . But of course, they would be shown through the screen like they were really nervous……

“Can you make risotto well?”

At the unexpected voice, Jo Minjoon turned his head . It was Kaya . Jo Minjoon shook his head and said .

“Honestly, it’s not my specialty . But I will have to work hard . ”
“It seems like you don’t have any specialties . ”
“…… . Now that I think like that, it does seem like that . ”

At her words, he let out a laugh as if he was a little relieved from the nervousness . But he seemed to be embarrassed to have laughed like that and forced himself to not laugh and said .

“Even so, your food is delicious . ”
“…… . Was it?”
“Yes . It is . ”
“Oh, wait . Let’s stop . They will edit us once again . ”

After she said that, she glared at the cameraman that was following from behind .  As the cameraman laughed without noise and with a flustered face, she said while grumbling .

“You only get these things, right?”

The cameraman didn’t reply . She wasn’t expecting an answer, so she turned back with a cold face to look at Jo Minjoon . The cameraman grinned . Can that little lady know that her attitude is more charming in the screen?

< Crossroad (2) > End