Chapter 61 - Chapter 61: Customer and customer (2)

The nights in Chicago were a little slow compared to lunchtime. It was also less common for people to have dinner at food trucks, but the people who were considered Grand Chef fans still showed up. Despite their worries of being too busy, it took them over 3 hours to sell 500 lines of Kimbap.

It was 10 o’clock at night. Cho Min Joon was cleaning up the food truck while it was racing down the road. He wasn’t used to doing this, but it wasn’t hard if he considered it a simple math problem.

“We made 1422 dollars today. If we exclude gas and ingredient fees, we have about 800 dollars left.”

“I don’t know if that’s good or bad.” Joanne said with a confused look on her face. Cho Min Joon closed the books.

“That means each of us made 160 dollars today. For the entire day. Does that make more sense?”

“How much is that in a year? If we multiply that by 300…”

“58,400 dollars. Of course, that’s only if we don’t take a day off in a year. So if we consider all the days off, it’s around 50,000 dollars.”

“… You’re fast.”

Cho Min Joon glanced at the other members. They were all dozing off. It was a relief that they had a separate driver. If they had to drive into the night, they would have been extra tired.

The truck was headed north. Their destination was Wisconsin, Illinois. It was a port city that was about an hour away from Chicago. It was a city with a population of only 100,000, but they thought a food truck could still do well there.

“If it was summer, we could’ve gone around the beaches.”

“So cunning.”

Joanne flashed a strange smile. Cho Min Joon wondered what she was thinking before saying, “… I didn’t say that’s why I wanted to go to a beach.”

“What do you mean?”

“Shut up. Let’s just sleep.”

It was Anderson who shut her down. He leaned his head against the refrigerator while talking. Cho Min Joon responded with an awkward look on his face, “We’ve got to do what we’ve got to do.”

“If you talk to another woman, Kaya will beat you.”

“… You guys think this is funny, don’t you?”

Anderson didn’t respond and just smirked in silence. Cho Min Joon sighed in response. Ivanna rubbed her eyes as she woke up. The way her face was swollen made her look like a kid.

“Yawn… How far are we?”

“I’m not sure. John, how much further?”

“About 20 more minutes to go.”

In response to Joanne’s question, the driver responded in a sad voice. Ivanna grabbed her belly and said, “My stomach hurts because I’m so hungry.”

“Hold it in. That’s how you gain weight.”

“Tiramisu. Hot dog, Peperoni, risotto, spaghetti, kebab, barbe…”

“Stop! Why are you doing this to me?”

“We should share the pain.”

“Not for things like this…”

Anderson laughed with his eyes still closed. He coughed in laughter before opening his eyes. Joanne looked at him with a confused face.

“Why are you laughing?”

“Ask that to the viewers when the show goes out. This scene will be broadcasted for sure.”

“Are you awake? Since we’re going to sleep at the hotel anyway, let’s do some preparation.”

In response, Andreson woke up Peter. Peter flinched as he woke up and glanced around him.

“W-what? Are we here?”

“Not yet. But soon. Get ready.”

As soon as they got out of the bus, the window sills, roofs, and cars had snow piled on top of them. Anderson rubbed his eyes as he exclaimed.

“This place… is so charming.”

“Is this your first time seeing snow?”

“It doesn’t snow where I’m from.”

“… Oh, you’re from the west, right?”

Cho Min Joon nodded in understanding.

They were going to stay the night at a motel. They had to save on expenses. If they stayed at a hotel, they would be losing money. They also had to book rooms for 2 to 3 people instead of just 1. Of course, they would be separated by gender. Before heading to their own rooms, Cho Min Joon spoke in a serious voice, “Don’t forget the three of you are going to the market today. You’ll have to head out at 5 so sleep tight.”

But after saying that, it was Cho Min Joon who had a hard time falling asleep once he got into bed. It wasn’t because Anderson and Peter snored. They were quiet, and they didn’t grind their teeth either. It was just that Cho Min Joon had a lot to think about. It was about the numbers. He was thinking about how they could increase sales and cut down on costs.

He knew he had already thought everything through, but he was still anxious. That was how it was for leaders. People thought it was just honorable to be a leader, but there was quite a bit of pressure.

‘Did I lock the doors?’

Cho Min Joon headed to the front door. The lock was locked, but he felt like the door was open even though it was clearly not.

He went back into bed with a bad feeling, but he still couldn’t fall asleep.

He continued to make calculations in his head and planned things multiple times over, and that prevented him from being able to sleep. Cho Min Joon continued to think without even realizing he was doing it, and then his alarm went off.

His brain felt heavy as if a big rock was sitting on it. Cho Min Joon slowly opened his eyes. He couldn’t believe the time had passed so quickly. He didn’t actually sleep, but the time went by too quickly to say he was completely awake.

‘… I want to sleep more.’

Cho Min Joon blinked heavily and glanced beside him. Anderson and Peter were laying in the beds next to his. They were tossing and turning as if they were waking up, but they still seemed to be asleep. Cho Min Joon sighed. He had to wake them up. Cho Min Joon turned on the lights and approached Peter.

“Hey, get up.”

“… Wait. I have to think some more.”

“About what? You’re just tired. Get up. You need to go to the market.”

Cho Min Joon threw Peter’s blanket to the side. Peter tossed and turned and protested. Cho Min Joon sighed.

“I’d wake up and go quickly and come back so that I could rest if I were you.”

“… Okay, fine. I’ll go.”

Peter went to the washroom to wash up while Cho Min Joon went back to bed and closed his eyes. He had to rest some more. He had to regain more stamina in order to survive today.

‘What if I get sleep deprived?’

“Get up, Min Joon!”

His worry quickly vanished at the sound of a clear voice. Cho Min Joon looked beside him with blank eyes. The first thing he saw was Joanne’s blonde hair, and then he noticed the confident smile on her face.

“We bought lots of good quality salmon for cheap! It was almost as cheap as processed goods! I feel like we’ll make even better Norimakis today.”

“… Didn’t you just leave? How are you already…”

“What are you talking about? It’s 8. Get up. Anderson’s washing up, too.”

As she said, the sun was shining brightly into the room. It was already morning. He felt like it was unfair. Normally, he woke up without much memory, but this time, it didn’t feel like he slept at all. He felt like he was thinking just a minute before, so it was impossible that 3 hours had already passed.

But There was no time to waste. Cho Min Joon quickly washed up and headed to the truck. The ingredients were the same as yesterday, but the salmon was different. The frozen salmon showed off its pink color.

People thought freezing food made the quality suffer, but when it came to Tataki, frozen salmon worked best. Freezing them also killed off all the bacteria and parasites. Cho Min Joon read the pop-up window that showed up above the salmon.

[Salmon Belly]

Freshness: 93%

Origin: Michigan River

Quality: High

“… Not bad. How much was it?”

“6 dollars per pound.”

“That’s cheap.”

“The owner is a fan of Grand Chef. She’s cheering you and Kaya on…”

“Forget that. Let’s separate what we’ll use for lunch and dinner. How much were the other materials?”

“They were all the same except for the fish.”

Joanne shrugged her shoulders. Cho Min Joon thought for a while while looking at the salmon. Yesterday, they bought smoked salmon to use for the Tataki, but today was different. Cho Min Joon looked at the salmon with a serious face. Ivanna gulped and said, “I want to eat it as Tataki.”

“… That’s what I was just thinking.”

To be more exact, they didn’t want to eat it as Tataki, but they wanted to make Tataki. Tataki was better the higher the quality of the salmon. It definitely didn’t make a huge difference, but in the world of food critics, even the smallest differences mattered, but Joanne tilted her head.

“We’re adding Tataki to the Norimaki?”

“If we do Tataki, we’ll have to make sushi. Some people were sad that we weren’t selling any sushi. Maybe we should add one to the menu. You didn’t buy any sea urchin roe, right?”

“It was horrible yesterday. I’m actually surprised they sold out. Most people didn’t’ like it.”

They had no reason to obsess over an item that didn’t succeed. They might have been able to improve it, but they had yet to come up with a recipe for the sea urchin roe. Most importantly, people didn’t like sea urchin roe, so he didn’t know what kind of recipe would work.

Just like yesterday, the members worked on their individual parts. Their location was downtown. Wisconsin was a small city of fewer than 100,000 people, but they believed that a food truck could still make good sales there.

“Will it be as busy as yesterday?”

“I think we’ll get as much as last evening, but we won’t be crazy busy, so don’t be nervous.”

Cho Min Joon said that as he left through the back door. It was as expected. People were lined up, but it wasn’t as long as the one in Chicago.

Cho Min Joon opened the side door of the kitchen and headed to the register. This was after starting the rice for the day.

“What’s today’s Chef’s Choice menu?”

That was the first customer’s question. The way he smiled as he asked suggested that he just wanted to hear what he would suggest. Cho Min Joon smirked as he responded, “If you have an average taste, I recommend the pork barbecue. If not, it’s not a bad idea to try out the Korean Norimaki.”

“Great. I’ll try both.”

Most of the customers were friendly. Since most of them were Grand Chef fans, it wasn’t that surprising.

Some people really came just to eat Norimaki, but there were some that he didn’t understand why they were there. They were the kind of customers that they didn’t want.

“I want a refund.”

The person who said that was an Asian woman with a Chinese accent. Cho Min Joon looked at her in surprise. The Norkimaki in her hand was missing a bite.

“What?”

“Give me a refund.”

“… Did you find something weird in there?”

“It doesn’t taste good. It’s weird. The tuna is weak. In my country, you’d be out of business.”

That was when Cho Min Joon sensed something weird in the customer. What she was wearing looked like a designer, but the vibe she gave off was cheap. She had a hard time standing still, and her eyes looked like she was intoxicated. On top of that, what she was holding wasn’t the tuna avocado. It was the Tandoori chicken.

‘Is she drunk or…’

“Wh-what do we do?”

Joanne whispered from behind. Cho Min Joon hesitated. He worked at a restaurant before, and he knew just how to deal with horrible customers like this one. No matter how ridiculous they were, it was just best to surrender.

That was the reality. If she happened to go home and post a bad comment, their sales would plummet, and beyond the sales, it was just a waste of time to fight over a few dollars with a customer.

But the problem was what this could do to the following customers. If he gave her a refund for her eaten Norimaki, other customers could ask for the same. They would wonder why they couldn’t if she could. Of course, not many would do that, but still…

Cho Min Joon sighed inside his head. He said, “I’m sorry, Ma’am.”