God of Cooking - Chapter 253 - Weirdo (1)
“You guys really didn’t know this?”
Deborah asked with an incredulous look, earning her an equally confused look from the chefs. Deborah sighed deeply before continuing.
“Michelin inspectors don’t just come once. They have rules, you know. It makes sense that Minjoon wouldn’t know, but what excuse do the three of you have? You’ve all worked in a restaurant before.”
“I don’t think Michelin inspectors ever came to my restaurant. At least not while I worked there.” Javier answered.
“Alright, fine. But what about you, Anderson, Janet? You two should’ve known better.”
“…Don’t really know. I’ve never really thought about them coming to visit.”
“I feel the same way as Janet does.”
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Deborah sighed again in frustration. She was shocked, to say the least. The three of them just thought that this one time thing was it for them.
‘Rachel’s pretty mean, too.’
Rachel must’ve known that the three here had this misunderstanding. She probably wanted to tease the chefs a little bit by not telling them. After all, they’d be a lot more desperate if they thought the inspectors would only come once.
‘…Maybe I shouldn’t have told them?’
But the dice had already been thrown. Deborah found herself sighing yet again.
“When visiting a new restaurant, inspectors come around three times. That’s how they can get an accurate assessment of a restaurant. Trying to review a restaurant with just one visit is just plain rude.”
“It’s weird thinking about how these people like food so much, but don’t actually cook.”
“Just a personality difference. Some people like cooking, some people like tasting. What about you guys? Do you like eating more than cooking?”
The chefs just rolled their eyes in response. Deborah smiled inwardly. She could somewhat guess why they were responding like that. Minjoon stepped forward to speak for the others.
“If you’re just talking about fun, of course eating’s more fun. I get jealous of tasters sometimes.”
“Oh… you do? You must regret turning down that offer to be a taster, then.”
“I don’t regret it though. Cooking’s just a bit more difficult is all. The biggest reason I like tasting to begin with is because I can think about how I can cook a dish after I taste it.”
“That’s right, that’s what a chef is. That’s what makes us chefs, and them tasters.”
“So is there anything else we need to worry about? For Michelin?” Janet asked.
“Well…”
Deborah thought for a second. Rose Island. The main store, of all things as well. If you were a taster, you’d inevitably want to come here. After all, this was known to be the best restaurant in all of the United States. Deborah shrugged.
“Michelin inspectors actually hate reviewing popular restaurants. They’re probably all trying to delay it.”
“Is it because they’d get a lot of threats thrown at them if they reviewed one badly?”
“That too, but the real reason is something else.”
Deborah put up three fingers to the chefs.
“Michelin inspectors can’t visit the same restaurant twice in three years.”
“…Ah, I see.”
They all understood. Rose Island was a restaurant loved by tasters. Almost half of their customers were tasters as a matter of fact. It wasn’t like normal customers didn’t like their restaurant. The restaurant was just that popular.
One of the tasters once said Rose Island reminds them of a dish that they had before becoming a taster. That the food here let them enjoy food for what it really was.
The chefs didn’t like staying too traditional, but they weren’t going for anything too modern or complicated either. They were looking for balance. If one were to tell a taster that they couldn’t eat at Rose Island for three years after tasting it… No taster would find that news to be a good one.
“How many of you put your own recipes on the menu again?”
The demi chefs all looked away nervously, earning a laugh from Deborah.
“If you want to make good memories about the menu, you’ll have to hurry. These people literally come out of nowhere.”
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“So only a few days left until the filming ends, huh.”
The cameraman spoke with a calm voice. Minjoon turned to the man with a smile.
“Thank you for everything. I hope I don’t look like a weirdo on the big screen. I heard that word a lot when we filmed hunger trip.”
“I mean, what can you do? You really are a weirdo.”
“If you’re saying that too… Doesn’t look like things will change for me any time soon.”
Minjoon smiled awkwardly. The cameraman spoke as he looked at Minjoon through the camera lens.
“Do you have anything you want to say to the audience?”
“To the audience? Well… Just don’t hate me, I guess? Not just me, but Kaya as well. All we care about is food. Nothing else. We’re just normal people other than that.”
“I don’t know if many people would necessarily find you normal.”
The cameraman answered seriously. At least, Minjoon was very abnormal to him. Not just talent, no. Minjoon’s inborn personality by itself made the man quite strange. What with him looking at strange things for minutes at a time…
“You’ll find the interviews very entertaining when you get to watch it later. A lot of people here talked about you.”
“…Man, now you’re making me nervous. Should I watch it?”
“I need those views to stay afloat, you know. Please watch it.”
The cameraman playfully said from behind the camera. Minjoon just shrugged in response.
“Sure. But I wish you could’ve stayed long enough to get to see the Michelin inspectors.”
“Well, it’s whatever. Plus, we wouldn’t even know who the inspectors are anyway. But I do hope the rest of the demi chefs manage to get their recipes on the menu.”
“That’d be good, but if they can’t… It is what it is.”
“You’re calm about it, Minjoon.”
“Is there any reason not to be?”
Minjoon answered calmly. He turned to look at the kitchen. His eyes towards the other demi chefs seemed very complicated. Right then, Janet walked up to him with a dish. Minjoon looked at Janet with a slightly afraid face.
“…Again?”
“This’ll pass, I promise.”
“I feel like I’m eating seven or eight meals a day because of you…”
“You didn’t get fat, though.”
“That’s because I work so much.”
“Perfect. You’ll just become malnourished without more food. Here, have some of this. It’s lobster bisque. I used cloves and champagne in it. I cooked the claw, and the ceviche underneath was made with the body of the lobster, bell peppers, onions, and sauteed zucchini.”
“Sounds sweet.”
Minjoon tried a bite of it with a mumble. The taste of raw lobster with vegetables was quite a bit different from what he expected. It tasted very… modern. The bisque melded well with the champagne, and the balance formed by it and the lobster ceviche was rather nice. But…
“This won’t work.”
“…Why?”
“The texture’s good. The balance of flavors is alright as well. But that’s it. It’s too obvious.”
“Hah… Then what should I do?”
“That’s up to you.”
“No suggestions?”
“Eh…. Maybe change the bisque itself, or add something new on it? You might even want to just give up on the bisque entirely. Maybe a bell pepper puree would be nice on it. By the way, since when did you start paying attention to my words?”
Minjoon looked at Janet curiously. Sure, the others thought he was a supertaster. But none of them asked him this directly for advice many times. Janet chewed her lips for a second before answering.
“You always manage to get your recipes ok’d by Rachel. You know what she wants.”
“I don’t know what she wants.”
“Then what is it?”
“Eh… A blessing of the pig, I guess?”
“…The hell is that?”
“Go to the gallery if you’re curious.”
Janet closed her mouth. She didn’t want to admit that she’d gone to all the art galleries in LA after hearing how Minjoon got inspiration from one of them. Anderson turned to ask her a question as she returned to the kitchen.
“What, Minjoon said it wouldn’t work?”
“Yeah. Too average.”
“It did look pretty plain. I mean, you don’t really like complicated things to begin with. You could still go to Rachel. Get her opinion.”
“It’s fine. He’s better than an average taster anyway.”
“Better at cooking, too.”
“…You really want to put it that way?”
Janet glared at Anderson with a lowered voice. She continued with an icy tone.
“You really have to make yourself lower than him like that? Is that why you asked to go to the galleries with me?”
“Two things. I’m not intentionally making myself lower than him, it’s just reality. He’s good at cooking, admit it. Second, you asked to go to the galleries, not me.”
“You were talking as if you needed a partner to go with from the start to begin with. Fine, let’s say I face reality. I’m not going to just take it with my head down. I’m going to get through it. I’m going to improve.”
“If you want to argue, go do it with Javier. I have a lot of work to do.”
“Same here.”
Janet and Anderson turned away from each other angrily. Right then, the office door opened. Javier was walking out. The man’s eyes met with the couple’s, and he raised an empty dish with a grin. Janet and Anderston slowly turned to each other.
“We shouldn’t be fighting.” Anderson said.
“…You want to start discussing things?”
The two of them spent the rest of the night trying to surpass the wall that was Rachel. Unfortunately, they couldn’t come up with anything.
And the next day, they came. Without the chefs knowing.
<Weirdo (1)> End.
