God of Cooking

“You are very fast whatever you do, Min-joon,” said Havier.

“Why do you think so? Because I’m good at checking the condition of fish?”

“Yes. What is the secret?”

“Well, there’s nothing special about it.”

Min-joon scratched his head awkwardly. In fact, whenever he saw a good score on the system window, he always felt like he exaggerated his cooking skills with a lie.

As soon as they got back to the hotel kitchen, they cleaned, and he dissolved the king mackerel. They had to take care of so many things if they had to get the cheek part of the king mackerel, but the area of the mackerel they could take for the recipe several times was its toro, back, and loins.

Like almost all fish, the king mackerel also had its strongest flavor near toro attached to the intestines. At the same time, the softest meat was toro. As for the loins, its taste was not as good as toro, but it had a more chewy texture, and the back of the tuna was the lightest but the toughest.

Havier looked at the cleaned mackerel for a moment, then opened his mouth, looking askance at its head. “Let me boil it first to get some broth.”

“Oh, wait a minute. I have an idea.”

Min-joon stopped Havier and went to the refrigerator, and he soon picked up a handful of something in his fist.

Looking at that, Havier asked curiously, “Dry anchovy? Why did you bring that?”

“Let’s make a little broth with anchovies and then boil the head there. It’s hard to get the salty taste with its head alone.”

“You can sprinkle salt on it.”

“It’s more fun to get it with pure fish flavor, not salt.”

Fun, when he mentioned ‘fun,’ Havier could feel that he and Min-joon had a different view of cooking. For example, when Havier tried to choose the most intuitive recipe, Min-joon tried to take a slightly different approach, though the result would be the same.

‘Should I take note of this?’ Havier thought to himself.

Min-joon was different. While Rachel’s novel idea looked like a cloud hung on a distant mountain, Min-joon’s novel idea stimulated his body as vividly as a rainstorm blowing right next to him.

Min-joon boiled the broth then put the sashimi stored at room temperature in the broth.

The yellow broth was sloshing right next to the reddish skin. He then put in the coriander with caviar. After trying it, Havier said with a smile, “Wow, this tastes really good.”

“Yes, it’s delicious. But I’m still not touched.”

“Touched?”

“I mean you feel happy when you have something really delicious. It’s not just that it tastes okay, but you are touched by the taste. I just don’t know how I can express it. How should I do it? What’s the method? Do I need to put in some other ingredients?”

Havier briefly watched Min-joon pondering over it. He thought Min-joon was a genius.

He had a perfect palate and extraordinary cooking know-how for a young chef.

However, when he saw Min-joon now, Havier realized he was wrong. What made Min-joon so special was nothing like his natural talent.

Havier opened his mouth. “You never take a break, Min-joon.”

As if he could not hear Havier because he was absorbed into it, Min-joon did not answer.

It was not his genius that made him what he was today. It didn’t mean he didn’t have a genius. What really made him so brilliant was something else.

Min-joon’s gear didn’t stop. He didn’t stop exploring a new menu and dreaming of something more delicious. He had a really beautiful personality, so much so that it eclipsed his genius. Havier clenched his fist and thought to himself, ‘You’re the best.’

He wanted to be like him.

He kept looking at Min-joon until the latter was done with his idle thought. When Min-joon finally stopped thinking and got back to work with a bright expression, he momentarily flinched and said, looking at Havier, “Did you fall in love with me? Why are you casting such a glance at me?”

“Ugh? Oh, nothing. I was thinking about something for a moment.”

“Can I talk about my idea if it’s not that important?”

“Of course. What is it?”

“I thought about it because the anchovy broth was saltier than I thought. I think it would be okay to add more ingredients with a bland taste.”

“Bland taste?”

“I have something in mind, but can you think about it first? I’m afraid you are going to be biased if I tell you right now.”

“Hmm…”

Havier rested his chin on his fist and pondered over it.

A little later, he opened his mouth. “As you know, it has a chewy texture because of the loin, right? I think if I add a new ingredient, it should be tougher or crispier or even softer than that.”

“Hmm, what’s it?”

“I was thinking about making jelly like you, but it’s not tough or chewy in texture…”

“No, wait a minute. Did you say my specialty was jelly?”

Min-joon opened his eyes wide at his unexpected words.

Havier nodded as if to ask him a too obvious of a question.

“You have one specialty that you are so much better than all of us. That’s jelly. Of course, you are also excellent in molecular dishes.”

“… But the dish I am most confident about isn’t jelly.”

“What are you most confident about?”

At his asking, Min-joon replied without any hesitation, “Sauce.”

His specialty that he cultivated while being in Grand Chef was sauce. He thought it was his specialty, and it still was.

Havier nodded with a nod and said. “Come to think of it, you were extraordinary at doing things like mixing ingredients.”

At first, he did it because he could use the system window to know his expected cooking score, but these days he could guess it right even without the system window. It could be said that his skills improved to the point that he could win without using any trick.

Min-joon looked down at his hand for a moment then said calmly again, “Anyway, my main specialty is sauce, not jelly.”

“Okay. If you insist, what can I say anymore? Anyway, that’s why I can’t use jelly. Its savory texture is ambiguous. Besides, it makes sashimi taste bland.”

“So, what did you think of?”

“Suji, the fat part.”

“Suji?”

“I’m going to put on a fry coat and fry it again after broiling it.”

“What’s the coat you are going to use? No, no, I wonder if it’s a good match?”

Suji and cattle tendon, It was a combination Min-joon couldn’t even think of. Serving sashimi with fried suji? Even though it was sashimi, it was completely different from general sashimi as it would be served warm. Nonetheless, Min-joon was not persuaded well.

Havier said, a bit embarrassed, “Actually, fried dish has just come to my mind. What I’m going to focus on is suji. If you use the fat sticky part, it will blend well like the fat layer of fish, so you can taste the rich flavor.”

“Hmm. It was unfamiliar to me at first, but I now think it’s worth trying.”

“Min-joon, what did you think?”

“Soft tofu.”

“Oh, it definitely fits perfectly.”

Havier clapped his palms and expressed admiration.

Min-joon said, shrugging, “It works, but suji is more innovative. Let’s try both. You can choose one of them, or you can mix them appropriately.”

“Well, I don’t think you can’t mix them…”

“Let’s try it first and review it. Tasting it once is better than thinking about it a hundred times.”

“Oh, that comment is pretty cool.”

In fact, Min-joon didn’t need to tell him it was a quote from a proverb.

Smiling brightly, Min-joon brought suji and soft tofu from the refrigerator. And he was lost in thought briefly. Rather than doing something right now, he had to make a plan, for planning affected one’s cooking to a great extent.

“What I thought was to cut the soft tofu into thin slices like thread and add it to the soup. That way, they can naturally eat it with a spoon with sashimi.”

“That’s a luxurious idea. But what’s the problem?”

“Come to think of it, I think it’s not bad to fry it a little bit in agedashi tofu style.”

“It looks like you can’t move on because you think too deeply.”

“You bet. Whew! Okay, let’s go with the original plan. Let me cut the tofu. Boil the suji, okay? Oh, how are you going to boil it?”

“I’m going to add some water to the broth, so the taste can blend well.”

“Good. Don’t season it separately. Maybe the anchovy broth will be salty enough.”

“Okay.”

Havier was thrilled. Soaking suji in cold water to drain the blood, Havier smiled before he knew it. It had been a long time since he felt that cooking was this fun. It was all thanks to Min-joon of course. Min-joon himself enjoyed the moment of cooking more than anyone else, so the person next to him could not help but feel the same.

‘I wonder if Kaya was attracted to him because of that.’

Who was more blessed than the one who had a coworker who made one feel comfortable and happy?

While adding water to the broth made with anchovy, king mackerel, and vegetables such as onions and celery before boiling it, Havier muttered, “Justin is going to have a hard time.”

“Why?”

“Well, he has to pick out wastes from the anchovy.”

“Ah, that’s right.”

Anchovy waste, to be exact, if the intestines of anchovies were not removed, the fishy and bitter taste became stronger than its savory taste and as a result, would make it hard to eat. If it was a small anchovy, it didn’t matter. But it was necessary to remove the intestines if it was medium-sized or a large one. And Justin would be in charge of taking care of this work.

“When I was an apprentice, I also had a hard time,” said Min-joon.

“Huh? I remember you didn’t go through any apprentice time.”

Min-joon thought he might be in trouble when he asked.

He hurriedly evaded his question by beating around the bush.

“Well, what I mean is when I first learned cooking, it was really hard.”

“Well, since you were alone at that time, I think you are different from Justin now. I think it was still very hard for you in a different sense from Justin. I guess you needed to learn it on the website from start to finish. No matter how good the online coaching is, there are limitations.”

“Thank you for appreciating it,” said Min-joon, lifting a knife slightly.

He carefully hit the cutting board with the rose knife, Rachel’s gift.

As a matter of fact, a Chinese knife was the best for this kind of cutting, but it didn’t matter as long as he could concentrate well.

‘I’ve got to cut it at the right angle.’