God of Cooking

Chloe continued, “Anyway, I’ve no problem right now, so you don’t have to worry. Thanks for caring about me, Anderson.”

He didn’t respond, but he smiled at her a bit then turned her eyes away from her as if he was a bit embarrassed.

At that moment, Chloe noticed that an Asian woman in the kitchen was constantly watching them. Did she say she was Janet?

The moment she felt she made eye contact with Chloe, Janet turned her eyes. While Chloe was tilting her head, Janet said to Min-joon, who stood by her side, “Hey.”

“What’s up?”

“Does Anderson ever laugh when he is with you?”

“He’s not a robot anyway. Sometimes he laughs, of course. Why are you asking it suddenly?”

“Oh, I think I saw him laughing a moment ago. I feel he is a bit strange.”

“Well, let me ask you. Why are you laughing? I don’t think I’ve seen you laughing that much.”

“You said he’s not a robot. I’m not a robot either,” Janet replied calmly.

Since their voices were neither loud nor high-pitched, it sounded like they were narrating in a movie with a heavy atmosphere when they were mixed.

Min-joon asked Janet, “Then, why aren’t you laughing?”

“Because I don’t have anything to laugh about. I can’t afford to laugh. Our kitchen is a battlefield. If I slack off even for a moment, I’m done. I don’t want to die like this.”

Min-joon couldn’t argue with her whether her words were wrong or right because he didn’t know anything about her past. So, all he could say was just about himself.

“I’m happy. I can’t say I feel relaxed here, but I’m happy even when my mind is urgent.”

Min-joon was serious. He was so happy about the time when I could work in the kitchen. He was even grateful for his stiff shoulder and back pain. There was a time when he had to do dishes, not cooking all day long. There was a time when he stood in a classroom, telling his students to dream about something when even he couldn’t achieve his own dream.

‘It’s different now.’

Min-joon smiled lightly. He had a knife and a pen in his hand. The warm heat of the kitchen was with him, and what he wore was the chef’s uniform. It might seem like a normal routine to some chefs, but he was more grateful than any other chef in the world to the fact that he could live a chef’s life. And his sincerity was always reflected in his attitude. No matter how hard his job was, he had never given up being a cook. Maybe that was the basic quality of a professional cook, but even in Janet’s eyes, Min-joon looked happy every day.

She said in a low voice, “Yeah. That’s why I sometimes envy you. I envy your honesty, your mindset, and….”

She was going to mention his cooking talent too, but she couldn’t because it was always painful to recognize someone’s talent. Besides, it was more painful if she had to praise her colleague in the same workplace.

She said, raising her plate, “Sorry I took your time. Just do what you have been doing. I’m going to go and see how Master Rachel evaluates my dish.”

“I think you can pass. Cheer up!”

“How do you know just by looking at my dish? Can you even see the taste?”

Cracking a joke like that, she turned quickly. Min-joon watched her heading to Rachel’s office. He then turned his gaze back at the cooking table. Maya was shaking her arm to stir the newly-made pomegranate jam, which was slowly boiling down.

He hit upon four methods after hearing Chloe’s comment. The first one was just to reduce the amount of jam. If he made it small enough for just two mouths, the customer would not be that disappointed. But it was too simple and one-dimensional.

The second option was to add candied pomegranate. But that wasn’t good either. Once he put the whole pomegranate grain in it, they would have to spit the seeds out of their mouths every time, which was not good for an elegant dinner for Kaya’s family. However, it was no different from jam when he took out the seeds first before adding the candied pomegranate.

The third one was to only use pomegranate alone, but this was like giving up the harmony of the food. In this case, they might be easily tired of the taste of just pomegranate. So, he wanted to serve it with almond powder, soybean powder, red bean powder, etc. But when he tried it with jam, it didn’t taste as good as he thought. If he made it, his estimated cooking score on the system window would definitely drop.

So, he chose the fourth option, which was to give a new taste without giving up the fun of the unity of pomegranate. In his mind, there was only one way to fully satisfy it.

‘Man, I’m afraid they might misunderstand me as one obsessed with jelly.’

Pomegranate jelly. He wanted to make it with agar jelly instead of gelatin after adding more sweetness. There was one among the agar jellies that had a relatively chewy taste.

If he used the agar used to make jelly spaghetti, he could create a texture of food as if chewing the fruit flesh when chewing pomegranate jelly.

What he changed wasn’t just adding jelly. The jam that Maya was boiling down was also different from the jam before.

‘I think I had better make the jam in English and not the American style, so they can’t be tired of it.’

If there was any difference between American jam and English jam, the American style focuses on sweetness while the English style focuses on the natural taste of the ingredients. He could get sweetness in ice cream, jelly, and toffee. So, he thought that even if the jam was balanced with a relatively bland taste, it might be less stimulating, but they would remember its taste for long.

It was common for a jam to be matured for a day, but it wasn’t a bad choice to take it out immediately when it was eaten hot. Besides, Chloe and Martin would not come again tomorrow, so he had no time to have the jam matured even now.

Min-joon said to Maya, feeling sorry for her hard work, “You’re having a hard time because of me, Maya. You can’t even take a rest because of me.”

“That’s fine with me. I am learning anyway. I am glad I am with you like this and learn from you.”

“Really? You don’t have any regret when you have lost in the rock-paper-scissors game, right?”

“Can you please stop talking about it?”

“Oh, got it!” Said Min-joon, playfully waving his hand.

He watched the pomegranate juice mixed with agar jelly turning sticky. He then hung it on a plate and put it in the quick freezer. When he was about to make the pomegranate toffee again, Maya said after pouring the jam into a container and sealing it, “You’re so determined! How come you rush to the kitchen just because you hit upon a recipe when you are with the customers?”

“Then what should I do? I was so thrilled to find the solution.”

“Oh my God… My hands and feet…”

Although she frowned, saying so, he just laughed silently.

After cutting the hardened jelly into two pomegranate toffee and adding ice cream, he got back to serving it immediately. He headed to the table where Chloe and Martin were waiting.

“It’s different from the one you tasted a while ago. I know you may get tired of this one, but just have a bite of it. I want to treat you as my advisor.”

“Okay. What is that?”

“Oh, I’m going to have it reviewed by Master Rachel. Could you wait for 3 minutes? I’ll be back soon.”

“Who is going to stop you, Min-joon? Just go ahead.”

“Thank you, Martin.”

Min-joon smiled at them then headed to Rachel’s office. She opened her eyes wide as if she was a bit surprised to see him so quickly. She asked with some anticipation, “Have you found the answer?”

“Yes, I think so.”

The cooking score on the system window was still 9. However, it was in the cooking area where they could not judge everything with the cooking score alone, for even those with the same 9 differed in their cooking skills. But Min-joon was convinced that his dish this time was much better than the one he brought her last time.

“I had no time to make the pomegranate jam and jelly mature, so please take that into account when you taste it.”

“Oh, you are not devising a recipe instead of treating me? Time is everything for this kind of dish. You should know how to eat it while taking into account the gap of maturing. Don’t worry. If it’s a recipe that tastes good, let me recognize you.”

Smiling at her encouragement, he tapped the pomegranate toffee. Its skin broke, revealing the fruit flesh inside. At that moment, she was quite impressed. Although he made it quickly, she didn’t feel he made it roughly because the pomegranate jellies inside looked the same as the real pomegranate eggs. Now the dish really looked like a pomegranate.

The hot pomegranate jam that he poured melted the powdered ice cream. It then tangled into the jelly and toffee. She slowly lifted the spoon and put the toffee, ice cream, jelly, and jam in her mouth at once. She closed her eyes, relishing in the aftertaste on her tongue.

It was definitely different from the last one. The less sweetened jam had a rich flavor of the pomegranate, and the softness of the ice cream made the jam’s dryness lighter. And, unlike the previous one, every time she chewed the jelly, she could feel that the core of this dish was jelly, not anything else.

Compared to other ingredients, the toxic sweetness and pomegranate taste in the jelly was concentrated, so she found it fun to move her jaw the next time she chewed. If she had jelly, she could enjoy as many as ten spoons instead of one spoonful.

She smiled, looking at him as if he was adorable.

“You’ve realized what you have to add to the restaurant’s cuisine.”

“Yes. I wouldn’t have known it if I was alone. Like you said, I found myself growing when somebody was eating my dish.”

“It was a happy dish. You could make it probably because you were happy. Min-joon, are you happy?”

“Yes, I am very happy. I’m happy because I have a teacher who can advise me, and because I have customers who can enjoy my dish.”

There was a pure smile on his face. It was an innocent smile without an air of pretense.

She said with a nod, “I’m telling you this all the time. When it comes to cooking, the chef’s heart is reflected in it. I think your dish has your heart that makes the guests enjoy it.”

“If that’s the case…”

He looked at her with anticipation. When she saw his eyes twinkling like a child’s, she had no choice but to burst into laughter.

“Yes. I think I should buy more pomegranates this coming Christmas.”