Chapter 200 - 36 Head Chefs’ Courtship (3)

No one thought Rachel’s words were empty. She wasn’t always serious, but at least, when it came to cooking, she didn’t make her commitment to it lightly. If someone like Rachel didn’t have that much confidence, that was a big problem.

it was even more difficult.

Deborah asked, with an expression mixed with trust and concern.

“Can you really make it? You know you’re stuck at home for ten years.”

“A cat doesn’t change to a tiger even if the tiger becomes old. My toenails didn’t get blunt just because I took a break.”

“Oh no. Can I give you a toenail clipper?”

“… You don’t have any sense of humor at all. That’s why you still can’t get more than one star.”

“Ah, can you not remind me of that anymore?”

Deborah raised her eyes fiercely. Rachel giggled at her then looked back at everyone.

She said in a small voice, “Anyway, that’s what happened now. Let me ask you for a strict evaluation while you’re here. I would not care even if you cursed at me or my disciples here. Don’t hit them, please. I don’t think any of you who got out of this place are a bully chef. Right?”

“If I had become such a head chef, I would have been in jail, not here.”

“Okay, I hope they’re in great hands. Just give them lots of hard time while you’re staying here.”

A satisfied smile was on Dave’s face.

He said, “Well, that’s our specialty.”

**

“Confit is good. It should be because the machine makes it automatically. But the citron sauce wasn’t simmered properly. You know that it feels like grains of sand, Havier?”

“… Hummm, I’m not sure because I haven’t tasted it yet.”

“Didn’t you taste your dish before giving it to me? Rachel would have cursed at you if she had seen this. Oh, is she much more mellow than before? She used to be so strict. Is that why you are not alert when you cook?”

“No, that’s not what I mean…”

Havier stuttered with a tense expression. He struggled to smile, but it was an awkward smile at a glance.

As soon as Rachel made the request, the head chefs found out all kinds of excuses to point out and criticize them. They took issue with not only the condition of the dishes but also their working attitude and attire. Of course, they didn’t single out Havier alone. Deborah was frowning at Janet’s side with her arms folded.

“You know what? I was pretty glad to see you. As a female chef, I felt something like camaraderie.”

“It sounds like you don’t feel it now.”

“Well, I just feel regrettable. Look at this sea bream Ceviche Carpaccio. The thickness of the flesh isn’t perfectly uniform. Of course, it’s not that hard and lumpy, but that’s not enough. At which place do you think you are working?”

“Of course, Rose Island.”

“Do you know what that name means?”

She asked in a harsh but polite tone that made the other party confused.

But Janet wasn’t confused because, fortunately, she also had a personality similar to Deborah’s. There was no misunderstanding between them. Deborah was concerned in a pure sense.

“I know. It’s one of the best restaurants in the country.”

“It’s the best not only in this country, but in the world. And our head restaurant is the pride of all our chefs, especially. The pride that we are from this place, the best restaurant in the world, rests on you. Please don’t make us feel ashamed. That way you can raise your head proudly everywhere.”

Janet bit her lips and nodded.

Deborah spoke in a hard voice without comforting her.

“What do you think a female chef needs the most to survive in the kitchen?”

Janet stared at her quietly. Her dry eyes were sharp.

She blurted out, “… Grit.”

“It’s true in a way. But if you get exhausted because of your grit, it wouldn’t be bad for you to forget it. Your stamina is less than that of men, so you want to beat men with the delicate skills of women. But you know what? There are lots of male chefs who are sensitive like those with dyslexia. So, all you can do before them is not to compromise. In other words, you should not be content with your current skills. You should not be easily satisfied with what you have achieved. Are you satisfied with this carpaccio now?”

Janet silently looked at her carpaccio and poured it all into the trash.

She said in a slightly more determined voice, “Let me make it again.”

“Yes, please.”

Anderson, who was watching Janet, stuck out his tongue as if he was sick and tired.

Right at that moment, somebody said as if to tease him.

“Anderson, it looks like you are quite relaxed. You can afford to sit back and watch your fellow chefs cooking.”

“Why can’t I?”

Anderson responded briefly then filled the ravioli pasta with lamb and vegetable stuffing.

Watching him quietly, the head chef slowly opened his mouth.

“I hear you’re the son of the Rousseau couple, right? They say you learned to cook while helping them in the kitchen as a child.”

“I’m sorry, but don’t talk about it. I’m just myself before I’m a child of my parents. I don’t like being treated as my parents’ accessory like that.”

“Hmm… Of course. Children always want to be independent from their parents. Anderson, you’re good at making ravioli. No matter what you say, you learned it from your parents, right?”

Anderson didn’t answer. Obviously, he showed his intent that he would not respond to the chef if he kept talking about his parents. But the head chef did not give up because he didn’t bring up the topic just to tease Anderson.

“But even if you learned cooking from your parents, you didn’t learn how to manage people, right? Anderson, are you sure of the taste of the stuffing that your assistant made?”

“… Pardon?”

“I asked you right now. Do you think the stuffing that your assistant made is perfect?”

“I can’t taste it right now. I’ll find out if I steam and taste it.”

“So, if you don’t like it, are you going to throw away all these ravioli?”

Anderson’s face stiffened, but he didn’t reply. Him stopping to fill in the ravioli showed how embarrassed he was at that moment. Anderson slowly turned to his assistant Garrick.

But Garrick shook his head hastily and said, “I followed the recipe. I haven’t made any mistake.”

“Well, I’m not saying that Garrick was wrong. In this case, it’s entirely Anderson’s fault. Anderson, if he is your colleague, you can just trust him. That’s it. But Garrick is your assistant rather than your colleague. So, you should trust him only after you thoroughly monitor his cooking. But in my opinion, you didn’t check from time to time whether Garrick was doing his job properly.”

“… If I check him every step of the way, I think his work efficiency will go down.”

“Yes. I know what you mean. But at least for a dish that you can check only after you’re done, you should have checked it from time to time. A good demi chef doesn’t make his assistant’s work efficiency drop even while checking his job from time to time.”

Maybe, as Garrick said, there might be no problem with the stuffing he made. No, probably not. However, what the head chef pointed out was that Anderson should have checked Garrick’s work instead of just trusting him as a colleague. Anderson understood his point.

‘I wonder if all I have got now was what I learned from my parents.’

Actually, he had to think that way because he learned all of his delicate and seasoned cooking skills from Gluto.

When all the demi-chefs were criticized by each head chef, Min-joon was not free from their intense scrutiny. More accurately speaking, he got their most intense attention. That was natural because it was an obvious fact that Rachel was showing an unprecedented interest in him.

Someone looked at him with wariness, some with expectations, and others with hostility.

At first, Min-joon felt burdensome about their intense interest, but he quickly felt no tenser because he had lots of experiences cooking in front of many people.

Min-joon created all kinds of molecular gastronomy. He made Espuma with homemade fruit cream and made ice cream, sorbet, and jelly by mixing its own ingredients. Of course, he didn’t do all of that alone. His assistant, Maya, also helped him prepare and mix ingredients. “I hear that Min-joon became a demi chef only a few months ago. He has no real career as a chef.”

“That’s what I heard.”

“By the way, how come he is so skillfully managing his assistant?”

The head chefs mumbled as if they could not understand. A demi chef was a chef, but in fact, he was still a trainee, compared to a chef, in terms of cooking skills and using his assistant. And it was hard for the head chefs to find any special flaws in their cooking techniques, including Min-joon. Besides, most of what Min-joon made was molecular gastronomy dishes.

Of course, if they wanted, they could find fault with the process of him making sauce by boiling the basic ingredients. But that was the case when they applied the strict standards of the head chef, not the demi chefs. Min-joon was already far beyond a demi chef’s level as far as boiling sauce was concerned. He could be called a sauce specialist.

“I’m not in charge of the molecular cooking section for nothing.”

“I think there is a reason why he is specializing in molecular gastronomy dishes.”

“Yes, he’s the expert in this field.”

“Well, I can understand it if that is his real speciality, but I just can’t understand how he is managing his assistant so well. I thought he had never had any experience with it.”

It was natural they showed such a reaction. Min-joon seemed to have grasped how Maya was cooking. For example, whenever Maya made a mistake, which could be easily caught by the head chefs, or if she came up with something different from what he expected, Min-joon immediately raised his voice and pointed at her.

The cook’s assistant sometimes confused the demi chefs even more.

In fact, a beginner demi chef was even more confused when he got helped. Since he didn’t do it by himself, it was difficult for him to grasp the whole flow of cooking. Some demi-chefs who had to check if the other party made any mistake got into more trouble because of that.

“… I wish I had a demi-chef like that in my kitchen. He is no longer a demi-chef. I can assign him as a sous chef even now. I haven’t seen him making any mistake.”

It was impossible for Min-joon to make a mistake. In his eyes, he already saw his expected cooking scores. If Maya brought a sauce with the right ingredients without any mistake, he could predict what the outcome would be when he cooked with it.

In addition, he could check immediately when she made a mistake, so he got a feel of how to check and help Maya. It was like one solving a problem, knowing its answer already.

The dish made through such a process was naturally delicious, so much so that it was perfect without any flaws.

Min-joon did not have superior cooking skills compared to other demi chefs. When it came to experience and delicacy, Anderson or Janet was probably better. They were much better. However, Min-joon’s best talent was not in cooking but in supervising.

Dave muttered, making a groan, “To grade the dishes I have actually tested, I think his talent as a sous chef is the best in the world. Of course, it remains to be seen if he could continue to concentrate and control when he had to manage more assistants…”