Chapter 203 - 36 Head Chefs’ Courtship (7)

Deborah smelled the fries and put it in her mouth. The oily taste of breadcrumbs, the aroma condensed in the powdered mustard sauce, and the savory taste filled with the unique chewiness of pork and prawns stimulated her appetite so much. After enjoying it, she made an angry but happy expression, which was rather weird.

“… Ah, it’s annoying. I feel like I’m going to release my anger if I eat this when I’m upset. I have to say it in an angry mood but I can’t.”

“I’m sure I got so hungry because of the tasty flavor of this shrimp. I don’t think I can hear you no matter what you say.”

“But hear me out, will you? Do you think a chef can use the sales gimmick of ripping off the customers by satisfying their vanity?”

“Well, it’s not desirable at all, but what can you do about it? If the chef serves the dish like that, and the customer wants it, nobody can do anything about it. Some people want a restaurant where they can show off their wealth rather than enjoy the taste of dishes. Of course, I want to enjoy the taste, of course…”

“I am not saying the food at my friend’s restaurant is bad. It’s delicious. That’s why I’m more upset. He’s got great cooking skills, but he’s blinded by such shabby sales gimmicks.”

“Isn’t it a difference in the point of view? There is a chef as an artist and a chef as a businessman. Your friend is the latter.”

Instead of responding, Deborah sucked up the remaining powder on the spoon.

Dave said, giggling, “It looks like it tastes really good, looking at the way you enjoy it.”

“Man, it’s too good to be thrown away. Think about the time and money you have spent to get here.”

“We didn’t spend any money. Master Rachel bought us tickets, right?”

“Anyway, why should we save this food when we have little chances to enjoy food at our HQ? Those restaurants that pretend to be classy really suck. If the food is really delicious, what’s the point of talking about being ‘classy’? Can you find such restaurants?”

Certainly, the food’s taste now was quite different from the time when the demi chefs alone made dishes. A little while ago, they mimicked the best as much as they could, but the food now, which they made with the help of Rachel, tasted the best.

Deborah muttered in a sullen voice, “This is too much. It’s been ten years, though. Our Master Rachel took a break during that period. But I didn’t stop working. So, I wondered if the gap between her skills and mine narrowed a little more…”

“You feel like the gap has even increased. I understand. I feel the same way.”

“It’s more depressing because a three-star chef like you are saying it. What a long journey it is to be a really great chef.”

“Do you wish the journey was short?”

“No, I don’t like that,” Dave said in a quiet voice.

If there was a mountain that one could climb in five minutes, no one would value ​​it. They would think it was an ordinary hill. The reason why those who climbed the Himalayas were recognized was because no one could climb it easily. Cooking was like the Himalayas to them, even though they didn’t climb it yet. The moment they could reach the top would surely come someday.

The next dish came out. This time, it was a potato soup with bacon foam sauce and bacon foam on top. It was the moment Deborah took a bite. She momentarily opened her eyes wide and stared at the soup. It was a dish that had a tremendous impact on her after a long time.

“Wow, this tastes heavenly! It’s a bacon foam. How does it taste strong like this? I thought it had a lump of bacon in it.”

“Me, too. I don’t know if it’s the product of Rafael Yoon or Master Rachel, but it perfectly expresses the most fundamental point of molecular cooking—extracting the taste itself. The fried food a moment ago was just delicious, but this soup is the best thing I’ve enjoyed this year, no doubt, the most delicious I’ve ever had in my life…”

At that moment, not only Deborah and Dave but everyone who ate the bacon foam on top of the potato soup felt the same way. According to the menu they saw, molecular cooking techniques were applied to every course a little bit. Some of the dishes were made entirely of molecular cooking.

In conclusion, molecular cooking was applied in every course in one way or another. And the demi-chef in charge of the molecular cooking was none other than Min-joon. The man who could only fully understand all the dishes that Rachel created was in charge of the molecular cooking section.

Was it really a coincidence?

***

‘… Well, there is no one who is as cunning as our master.’

Dave was astonished deep down.

He didn’t know how Min-joon took over the molecular cooking section, but there was one thing he could be sure of. The cooking section that Rachel wanted to have Min-joon take over was most likely molecular cooking. It was the best cooking section that could improve a chef’s skills.

“I feel heartburn.”

“How come you have heartburn when you eat something so delicious?”

“Have you ever seen Master Rachel caring about her disciple as much as him? I feel like I’m jealous. My mom said that my brother was very jealous when she got pregnant with me. I think I know my brother’s feelings.”

“What did you think of your brother back then?”

“I thought I was childish for my age. But….”

Dave blurred at the end, but he didn’t need to continue because Deborah seemed to know what Dave wanted to add after that. She felt the same way now. Maybe most of the head chefs there felt the same way because everyone wanted to receive star treatment from their loved ones.

The shock about the bacon foam on top of the potato soup wore off. This time, they were served sea bream ceviche carpaccio. Thin and round sea bream meat, radish, and jelly and salad in the same shape were placed on the plates. Thanks to the lime-based sauce penetrated deeply through aging, they didn’t smell anything fishy at all.

As the stickiness of the jelly and the crunchiness of the radish were added, the texture of the fish became so rich that there was nothing more to be desired, and the jelly had a subtle savory taste and aroma of the sea as if it contained sea bream broth. Besides, when the refreshing taste of the radish and the clean taste of the olive oil sprinkled on the salad were mixed, they felt like no better dish that this could be made with ceviche.

“… Well, even the one who doesn’t enjoy raw fish can try it for the first time. They’ve completely cut out the parts that might taste disgusting.”

“The ceviche sauce can really be made with the recipe, no matter who makes it. Of course, the quality of the ingredients will be an issue… But you don’t have to worry about that in Rachel’s kitchen.”

There was no way someone with the caliber of Rachel could obtain shabby ingredients. Finding the ingredients well was a chef’s basic virtue.

Deborah took radish, jelly, and sea bream at the same time. She put them in her mouth and smiled happily. Dave narrowed his eyes and watched her.

“Hey, aren’t you looking too informal to be seen as a chef?”

“It’s a dish that makes me hate to be formal. It’s so delicious. I just want to devour it.”

“You know that you might lose your taste.”

“Well, the taste doesn’t go away. If I devour it, I just can’t focus on the details of the taste. But it depends on the one who eats it whether to concentrate on the details or simply enjoy the meal with happiness, right?”

“I prefer to concentrate. I think Min-joon is the same.”

“Oh, are you associating the guy with a perfect palate with you now?”

Dave picked up a piece of jelly and put it in his mouth with a smile. Jelly was really a magic move. If the ceviche had a drawback, the flavor of the fish itself became blurry because the taste of the sauce permeated deep into the fish. However, the jellies served with it had the savory and light taste of the fish broth, so it complemented the lack of taste.

“Definitely, molecular cooking is worth researching because you could do things that you could never do with traditional recipes. It’s like olive oil appeared in a world where there was only salt and sugar.”

“I love that analogy. But the use of gelatin has been around for a long time. Jelly-making sauce has been around only recently. In fact, if you improve the current recipes, you may have a completely different way of cooking.”

“That’s molecular gastronomy after all. All dishes are actually molecular cuisines. Nowadays, many people think that it is molecular cuisine only when they use unique ingredients or utensils. In fact, bread is also an incredibly complex and scientific cuisine, but we’re just familiar with it.”

Instead of responding to Dave’s comment, Deborah put the last sea bream in her mouth.

She opened her mouth with a happy and regrettable expression.

“It’s been a while since I feel sorry for emptying a plate. It would be nice if the customers who come to my restaurant felt the same way.”

“One Star is also good enough. There are many people among other chefs who adore you, right?”

“Well, they weren’t the disciples of Rachel. As you know, I saw so many things right next to Rachel, but I couldn’t get more than one star for years… I feel embarrassed sometimes.”

While Deborah looked depressed, the next plate came out.

Plates were placed on the table at the same time without any mistake. It was the same at Dave’s restaurant, but it was rare for him to be served like this. Of course, it was not because he didn’t have money to go to a restaurant. Even if it were a regular restaurant, a chef’s salary was high, compared with the head chef of a restaurant like Rose Island, let alone a three-star chef like Dave.

The reason he didn’t go to other restaurants often was because he didn’t have time.

It was not because his restaurant was open all year round, for it was closed on Sundays.

For the head chef, however, a holiday wasn’t like a holiday. Time passed, and gourmets wished there would be a change in the menu at least once a month. To meet their demands, he had to struggle with developing a new menu all day long even on holidays.

So, him visiting other restaurants was not for a break, but for spying on their menu and analyzing it, such as how they served, how they used new methods in plating, what ingredients were cooked in what way, etc. This was possible because he basically loved cooking, but at the same time, he felt exhausted.

So, Dave liked this moment so much. He carefully put the steamed monkfish with caviar in his mouth. And only when he put it in his mouth, he realized that the caviar on the steamed monkfish wasn’t real caviar. Was it the source created through the concretization technique?

The scent of olive spread gently, and beyond that, he could feel the ingredients that he couldn’t even guess. Interestingly, it didn’t hurt the scent of the steamed monkfish in any way. It was easy to say that the scent went together, actually, it was really hard work. But it was there in this dish, and it was perfect at that. It was also very perfect. Dave smiled lightly.

“Well, when I try this dish, I feel like I’ve always thought of cooking as my homework. After all, our master is the best. She teaches us so critically, but at the same time, she makes us so happy when we are cooking, right?”

“… I know that, but can my customers feel the same way?”